Voice zones, zone types, and conference permissions

Understanding the relationship between voice zones, zone types, and conference system permissions is critical for customizing your Breakroom workspace.

Overview

Collaboration is the soul of Breakroom—and that collaboration happens inside different types of voice zones. Voice zones are virtual objects that encompass the areas where audio and video sharing will take place. These objects are normally invisible to you and your users.

Pictured: A voice zone set up around an info desk, currently visible through the Region Editor (the green cube).

Each voice zone type behaves differently, giving you the ability to structure online work, conferences, and presentations in a number of ways. By adding breakout areas, creating custom voice zones, and editing the RoomFurniture component attached to Breakout Area and Voice Zone objects, you can streamline communication and remove potential pain points.

This page will serve as a brief introduction to the different voice zone types and how they can be used. It is strongly recommended that you read and understand this information prior to customizing your first Breakroom Region.

The instructions provided in this section presume an advanced working knowledge of Breakroom. Please consult our documentation if you need help installing and positioning virtual objects, or editing the RoomFurniture component.

Voice zone types

Currently, Breakroom offers five different voice zone types.

Presenter

Voice chat: Available to all users.

Webcam and screen share: Restricted to only those users in the designated presenter seats. Moderators can choose to enable media sharing permissions for the audience if they wish.

Audience

Voice chat, webcam and screen share: Restricted to only those users in the designated presenter seats. Moderators can choose to enable media sharing permissions for the audience if they wish.

Meeting

Voice chat, webcam and screen share: Available to all users. Everyone can chat and share media.

Voice

Voice chat: Available to all users.

Webcam and screen share: Disabled. No one can share media.

Silent

Voice chat, webcam and screen share: Disabled. No one can voice chat or share media.

Voice is the standard setting for the Global voice zone, which is an invisible voice zone that encompasses the whole of your Region. It may help to visualize this voice zone as the general environment of your Region, or as "anywhere another, specific voice zone is not." This topic will be explained in more detail below. Voice zones can also be nested within one another.

Voice zone type information is stored in the Zone Type property, under the voice zone object's RoomFurniture component.

The media streaming system cannot accommodate more than 17 simultaneous webcam or screen share users at this time.

Voice zones in action

To visually illustrate how multiple voice zones could be set up in a Region, let's take a closer look at one of the Breakroom Region templates.

The image above is a flyover shot of the Breakroom Campus Large Region. You can see that it consists of several lobbies, meeting rooms, and an amphitheater, as well as trees and gardens. Everything you see here is contained inside the Global voice zone.

Here's a top-down view of the same Region. Each of the highlighted areas above is a separate voice zone. Depending on each zone's type, these spaces offer different communication options.

• The circular amphitheater is a Presenter zone. Someone can give a video presentation here, and audience members will not be able to interrupt by sharing their own video streams. In order to present, users will have to sit on a presenter seat (normally located at the front of the auditorium). The audience can interact via voice chat to ask questions or participate in activities.

• The red, yellow, blue, and green offices are Meeting zones. Everyone can share video and speak on voice chat, just as they might expect to do in a physical conference room.

• Everywhere else falls within the Global voice zone, which is a Voice zone. This means that users can voice chat with one another as they move between the offices, but they cannot share their webcams or screens.

Only users with avatars currently located inside a particular voice zone can hear, share, and communicate with other users in that zone. This design makes it possible for different meetings or events to be held concurrently in the same Region without technical interference or audio competition. Likewise, when you are inside an isolated voice zone (such as an office), you will no longer hear voice chat taking place in the Global voice zone.

When you approach the edge of a voice zone, a transparent blue boundary indicator will appear. This serves as a reminder that you are about to enter or leave a voice zone, or that you need to enter a voice zone in order to speak with users located on the other side.

Pictured: An example of a voice zone boundary indicator. This user will need to move inside the boundary indicator if she wants to be heard by others in the breakout room.

Conference permissions

Among the voice zone types, Presenter and Audience zones are unique, as both make use of special presenter seats. By positioning their avatars in these seats, presenters can gain access to voice chat and media sharing functions within a particular voice zone, even if these functions are otherwise restricted. Users with access to the Breakroom moderator tools can also grant access to voice chat or media sharing functions as needed.

For help setting up or customizing Presenter and Audience zones, as well as detailed information on using the moderator tools to control audience access to media sharing functions, please see our Running Your Event section.