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Main-Session Host Controls

The room won't settle, someone's screen-sharing who shouldn't be, and a stranger just walked in. The host needs the room — not a help desk.

This is the in-call control surface — admit from the waiting room, lock the meeting, mute all, and remove a participant. The controls a host uses to run the main room, on any meeting, for any audience.

For any host · waiting room · lock meeting · mute all · remove participant · share permission · main-session controls, in the browser.

See the control surface →
In plain English

Moderation owns the main-session host controls — what a host uses to run the live room: the waiting room (admit participants, one at a time or all at once), lock meeting (seal the room once everyone's in), mute all (silence everyone in one action, let people unmute), and remove participant (take a disruptive attendee out). These are controls over the main session everyone shares, and they're audience-neutral — same controls for a class, a lecture or a team call. It does not own the join — that's instant-join; nor large-audience Q&A, polls and bring-to-stage — that's webinars; nor the controls inside a breakout room — those are breakout-room controls. The host can grant or restrict who shares, but the share mechanism itself is screen-sharing. Moderation is the host's control over the main room.

Waiting room
admit one,
or admit all
Lock meeting
seal the room
once everyone's in
Mute all
silence in one tap,
allow unmute
Remove
take a disruptive
attendee out
The host's control surface · main session

Four controls for the main room — and the line where they hand off.

A host shouldn't have to think about how to keep order — the controls should be right there. Here's the main-session control surface, what each does and when a host reaches for it — and the last row marks what belongs to other features, not here.

Main-session controls · what / when / scope Moderation owns this
ControlWhat it doesWhen the host uses itScope
Waiting roomHold & admit arrivalsbefore / during — vet who entersmain session
Lock meetingSeal the roomonce everyone expected is inmain session
Mute allSilence everyone, allow unmuteto cut background noisemain session
RemoveTake a participant outwhen someone is disruptivemain session
elsewhereQ&A · breakout · share · joina different control modelwebinars · breakout · share
The last row is the boundary: these four are the main-session controls. A moderated Q&A queue, polls and bring-to-stage for a large audience is broadcast moderation, owned by webinars; the controls inside a breakout room are breakout-room controls, distinct from these; the act of sharing a screen is screen-sharing (moderation owns the permission, not the mechanism); and getting into the room is instant-join. (Controls shown are the standard host set; exact labels may vary.)
Where a host loses control of the room

Four ways a live meeting gets away from the host.

The room that won't quiet down

A dozen unmuted participants in noisy rooms turn a meeting into a wall of feedback, and without a one-action mute-all the host spends minutes asking people individually to mute.

The uninvited arrival

Someone with the link — or who guessed it — walks straight into the room mid-session, and with no waiting room and no lock there's nothing standing between the meeting and a stranger.

The screen-share free-for-all

When anyone can share at any time, a participant takes over the screen uninvited — and the host needs to have set who's allowed to share before it happens, not scramble after.

The disruptor with no off-switch

One person is derailing the room and the host has no clean way to remove them — so the disruption continues in front of everyone while the host looks for an option that isn't there.

How a host runs the main room

Admit, lock, mute, set sharing, remove.

1

Admit from the waiting room

As participants arrive, they wait until the host admits them — one at a time, or all at once. No one walks straight into a meeting that hasn't started, and the host sees who's asking to enter before they do.

2

Lock the meeting once everyone's in

When everyone expected has joined, the host locks the meeting, sealing the room so no further participants can enter — for the moment a session is meant to be closed to latecomers or uninvited guests.

3

Mute all to settle the room

The host mutes all participants in a single action to cut background noise, then lets people unmute to speak. This is the everyday control that keeps a live room workable when more than a few people are connected.

4

Set who may share their screen

The host grants or restricts the permission to share, so sharing isn't open to everyone by default. The act of sharing — the screen, window or tab — is the screen-sharing feature; moderation owns who's allowed to do it.

5

Remove a participant if needed

If someone is disruptive, the host removes them. With the waiting room and lock, this gives the host control over who's in the main room from start to finish. For a large broadcast audience, the Q&A and bring-to-stage model is webinars.

The four main-session controls

Waiting room, lock, mute-all, remove — the host's authority over the room.

Entry control — waiting room + lock

The host approves who enters and seals the room when everyone's in. Together these govern the boundary of the meeting: who gets in, and when the door closes — so an uninvited person simply isn't admitted.

Floor control — mute all

Silencing every participant in one action, with the host able to let people unmute, is what keeps a live room workable. It's the control a host reaches for most, and the difference between a meeting and a noise.

Participant control — remove

Taking a disruptive attendee out of the meeting is the host's last-resort authority. With entry and floor control, it means the host decides who is in the main room and who can speak, start to finish.

These are main-session host controls — the controls over the room everyone shares. Large-audience broadcast moderation (a moderated Q&A queue with upvoting, audience polls, bring-to-stage) is the webinars feature; controls inside a breakout room are the breakout-rooms feature; the screen-sharing mechanism is screen-sharing (moderation owns the share permission only); and the join experience is instant-join. The underlying media encryption and broader meeting-security posture sit with the platform's security layer; this page owns the host's in-room controls. Runs in the browser — no host app.

Main-session controls vs broadcast Q&A vs breakout controls vs the share vs the join · what this page owns

The main-session controls ≠ the webinar Q&A ≠ the breakout-room controls ≠ the share mechanism ≠ the join.
This page owns the host's control of the main room; the others own the broadcast, the breakout, the share and the entry.

LiveLoop keeps the main-session host controls distinct from large-audience broadcast moderation and from breakout-room controls on purpose — they're genuinely different control models. Keeping them apart means this page ranks for "meeting host controls" and never blurs into "webinar software" or "online class platform."

This page owns

  • Waiting room — admit participants, individually or all at once.
  • Lock meeting — seal the room once everyone's in.
  • Mute all — silence everyone in one action, allow unmute.
  • Remove participant — take a disruptive attendee out.
  • The permission to share a screen (not the share mechanism).

This page defers to

  • Large-audience Q&A, polls & bring-to-stage — broadcast moderation for town halls and events — is the Webinars feature. A different control model for a broadcast, not an interactive meeting.
  • The controls inside a breakout room are Breakout-room controls, distinct from these main-session controls.
  • The act of sharing a screen — full screen, window or tab — is Screen-sharing. Moderation owns who may share; screen-sharing owns the share.
  • Getting into the room — the one-click, no-app join — is Instant Join. This page is what the host does once the room is live.
One control surface, every host

The same four controls, any meeting.

The host controls are audience-neutral; what's in the room differs.

Teacher / lecturer

A class that stays a class

A teacher mutes a noisy room in one tap, locks it once the register is in, and removes a disruptor without stopping the lesson — the controls are right there in the browser.

Coaching tutor

No gate-crashers in the batch

A tutor admits each student from the waiting room and locks the room, so a shared link can't pull in someone who shouldn't be in the paid batch.

Business host

A controlled client call

A host vets arrivals at the waiting room, sets who can share before the call, and keeps the floor orderly — so a client meeting stays professional from the first minute.

From the field

A host who finally runs the room instead of refereeing it.

"What I needed was simple to describe and hard to find: when the room gets noisy, mute everyone in one tap; when an outsider tries to walk in, hold them at the door; when everyone's in, lock it; and if someone's being a problem, remove them. That's it — and that's exactly what this is. The controls are right there in the browser, so I'm running the meeting instead of hunting through menus while thirty people watch. The part I respect is how clearly it knows its edges. It doesn't pretend to be a webinar tool — when I genuinely need a moderated Q&A queue and polls for a big audience, that's a different feature, and the page says so. And the breakout rooms have their own controls. It owns the main room, does that one job completely, and points me to the right place for the rest. That honesty is why I trust it for the room that matters."
A LiveLoop host Runs live meetings in the browser · admits, locks, mutes and removes from the main session
Main-session host controls · waiting room · lock meeting · mute all · remove participant · share permission · distinct from webinar broadcast moderation and breakout-room controls
Quick answers

Meeting host controls, asked and answered.

What every host asks before trusting a tool to keep the room in order.

What does the Moderation feature do?
It owns the main-session host controls — the controls a host uses to run the live room: the waiting room (admit participants, individually or all at once), lock meeting (seal the room once everyone is in), mute all (silence everyone in one action, with the option to let people unmute), and remove participant (take a disruptive attendee out). These are controls over the main session everyone shares. It does not own the join experience (that is instant-join), the controls inside a breakout room (those are distinct breakout-room controls), or large-audience Q&A and polls (that is webinars).
How is this different from the webinars feature?
By the model of control. Moderation owns the controls for an interactive meeting — waiting room, lock, mute all, remove — where everyone is a participant in the same room. The webinars feature owns large-audience broadcast moderation: a moderated Q&A queue with upvoting, audience polls, and bring-to-stage to give a specific attendee live audio during a broadcast. So a small interactive class or team meeting is moderated here; a town hall, alumni event or admissions open day broadcast to a large audience is moderated in webinars. They are deliberately separate because the two control models are genuinely different.
Does it handle hand-raise and Q&A?
The structured Q&A queue — with upvoting, where an audience submits questions and a moderator works through them — belongs to the webinars feature, because that is a large-audience broadcast pattern. Moderation owns the main-session controls for an interactive meeting, where participants can simply unmute to speak once the host allows it. So if what you need is a moderated question queue for a big audience, that is webinars; if you need to control who can speak and keep order in an interactive room, that is here. We keep the Q&A queue with webinars rather than duplicating it.
How does it relate to breakout-room controls?
Moderation owns the main-session controls — the room everyone is in together. The controls that apply inside a breakout room are breakout-room controls, which are distinct and belong to the breakout-rooms feature. So when the host is in the main session, these waiting-room, lock, mute-all and remove controls apply; once participants are split into breakout rooms, the controls for those smaller rooms are the breakout-rooms feature's. The line is the room: main session here, breakout rooms there.
Can the host control who shares their screen?
Yes — the host grants or restricts the permission to share a screen, so it is not open to everyone by default. That permission is part of moderation. The screen-sharing mechanism itself — sharing a full screen, a window or a single tab, and how it is optimised for slides or demos — is owned by the screen-sharing feature. So moderation owns who is allowed to share, and screen-sharing owns the act of sharing. The two work together but stay on separate pages so each is clear about its job.
What is the waiting room for?
The waiting room holds arriving participants until the host admits them — one at a time or all together. It means no one walks straight into a meeting before it starts, the host can see who is asking to enter, and an uninvited person can simply not be admitted. Combined with lock meeting, it gives the host control over the boundary of the room: who gets in, and when the door closes. It is one of the four main-session controls this feature is built around.
Is it only for online classes?
No — the host controls are audience-neutral. The same waiting room, lock, mute-all and remove serve a school class, a college lecture, a coaching batch and a business team meeting equally, because the need to control a live room is universal, not specific to one use. The buyer story for a particular use — for example running disciplined large online classes — would live on a solution page; this feature page owns the control mechanism that every kind of meeting relies on, regardless of who is hosting it.
Does locking the meeting stop gate-crashers?
Lock meeting seals the room so no further participants can join once it is locked — so after everyone expected is in, an uninvited person cannot enter even with the link. Combined with the waiting room, where the host approves each entry, it gives strong control over who is in the room. The underlying media encryption and the broader security posture of a meeting are covered by the security side of the platform; moderation provides the host's in-room controls over entry and participation.
Does the host need an app for these controls?
No — like the rest of LiveLoop, moderation runs in the browser, so a host uses these controls from the same browser window the meeting is in, with no app to download. This keeps the host's experience consistent with the participant's one-click, no-app join: the whole meeting, including running it as host, happens in the browser. The join itself is owned by instant-join; this feature is what the host does once the room is live.

Run the room — don't referee it.
Waiting room, lock, mute-all, remove — right there in the browser.

We'll show you the main-session host controls on your own meeting — admitting from the waiting room, locking the room, muting all, setting who can share, and removing a disruptive participant — with no host app to download.

See Host Controls →