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Live interactive sessions

Create your first room

Start a room immediately or schedule one, and set what happens inside it.

Before you start

  • You are signed in to DCAST.
  • You know whether the session starts right now or on a set date.

Steps

  1. 1
    Open the dashboard and go to the Rooms tab.
  2. 2
    Click Create Room. A menu headed Create New opens with three entries.
  3. 3
    Quick Meeting (Start instantly) creates a room named Quick Meeting at once and opens it in a new browser tab — no form and no date. Use it when the session is starting now.
  4. 4
    Scheduled Meeting (Plan ahead with settings) opens the Schedule Meeting page. Translation Event is a different thing and has its own guide.
  5. 5
    On the Schedule Meeting page the three buttons at the top are Start Now, Schedule and Recurring. Schedule is selected when the page opens.
  6. 6
    Fill in Meeting Title. It is the only required field — the button at the bottom stays greyed out until it has text. Description (optional) is free text.
  7. 7
    For Schedule and Recurring the Schedule block asks for Date, Time, Duration (15 minutes to 3 hours) and Timezone. Recurring adds Repeat — Daily, Weekly, Every 2 Weeks or Monthly — and End Date (optional).
  8. 8
    In Security, Waiting Room is on by default and Allow Guest Access is on by default. Raise hand unlocks microphone is off. Password (optional) is empty; Generate fills it with six characters.
  9. 9
    Advanced Settings is collapsed. Open it to change Max Participants and the switches Chat, Screen Share, Participant Video, Participant Audio, Recording and Public. Email Reminders is labelled Coming Soon and cannot be switched on.
  10. 10
    Press the button at the bottom of the page. It reads Start Meeting Now when Start Now is selected, and Schedule Meeting otherwise. This page has no Save button.
  11. 11
    Start Now takes you into the room straight away. Schedule and Recurring show a Meeting Created! screen with the Meeting Link, a copy icon, and the buttons Join Meeting Now and Back to Dashboard.

Expected result

The room is in your Rooms list and its link is ready to hand out.

Common problems

The button at the bottom of the page does nothing.

It is disabled while Meeting Title is empty. Type a title and it becomes active.

I am looking for Save and there is none.

This page submits with Start Meeting Now or Schedule Meeting, depending on which of the three buttons at the top is selected.

Recording cannot be ticked and Max Participants offers only small numbers.

Both are limited by your plan. The form shows an Upgrade link beside Recording and states the seat limit under Max Participants.

I picked Start Now and the date fields disappeared.

Start Now has no schedule. Switch the button at the top back to Schedule and Date and Time come back.

Create your first room | DCAST Docs