🎬 Presenter Stage

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🎬 How Presenter Stage works

You stand in front of whatever you share — a video, a slide deck, a web page. Two floating panels live on the stage: the shared screen and you, with your background removed.

Get going in three steps

1. Click 🖥 Share screen / window and pick the tab, window or screen you want behind you — a YouTube tab, PowerPoint, anything. It appears in the Shared screen panel.
   If the show has sound, choose the Chrome Tab pane in the box Chrome opens, and switch on Also share tab audio at the bottom of it. That switch starts off, and with it off your friends watch in silence. The Window and Entire Screen panes have their own switch, Also share system audio — it works, but it sends everything your computer plays, including notifications, so a tab is cleaner. Presenter Stage draws that box for you the first few times, and tells you straight away if a share came through silent.
2. Click 🎥 Start camera. Your background is removed automatically, so only you appear. The first run takes a second or two while the cut-out model loads.
3. Drag the You panel onto the video and size it how you like. That's the whole idea.

🎬 Running a show, step by step

The full run: you, up to four panelists, the thing you are all watching, and an audience anywhere in the world. Do it in this order and nothing gets missed.

1. Share what everyone will watch. 🖥 Share screen / window → pick the Chrome Tab pane → switch on Also share tab audio. Without that switch your panelists and your audience watch in silence.
2. Turn your camera on with 🎥 Camera on, then drag yourself where you want to stand.
3. Invite your panelists. 👥 Party → type a friend's email → Send invitation. Each person gets their own private link. Up to four, and they pay nothing and sign up for nothing. One at a time — each link belongs to one person.
4. Wait for them to appear, then arrange them: drag each panel by its title bar, resize with the corner triangle. Where you put them is where your audience will see them.
5. Set the look once, for everybody. Cut out background and Frameless apply to every camera in the show, not only yours — your panelists' backgrounds are removed on your machine, so they need do nothing. Edge softens the outline.
6. Choose who may watch, above the Go Live button:
   • Open link — your cameras only. Anyone with the link can watch. What you are sharing is never included, so nothing you are watching is re-broadcast.
   • With the shared show — the screen you are sharing is included, so viewers must type a password you set here.
   Choose before you start: it is fixed for that broadcast, and changing it means stopping and going live again.
7. Press 📡 Go Live. A red ON AIR badge appears at the top of your screen and a watch link appears in the panel — Copy watch link and send it to your audience, with the password if you set one.
8. Your panelists are asked to consent. Nobody is broadcast until they agree, and they are asked afresh every time you go live. The line under the button names anyone who has not answered yet.
9. Talk. Hold 🎤 Hold to talk (or hold the space bar) while you speak, and let go when you are done.
10. When you are finished, press ⏹ Stop the broadcast. The party stays open, so you can keep talking with your panelists after the audience has gone.

👥 If you were invited as a panelist

You need no account, no subscription and nothing installed. Open the link on a computer, in Chrome or Edge.

• Your link is yours alone — do not forward it. Opening it in a second browser makes you a second guest.
• Allow the camera when your browser asks. You will see everyone else in the party and whatever the producer is sharing.
• To speak, hold 🎤 Hold to talk or the space bar. Your microphone is off at every other moment — nothing is picked up until you hold it down.
• If the producer goes live, a red bar appears at the top of your screen: "This party is being broadcast · you are not in it." You are not in the broadcast until you press Include me. Say nothing and you stay out of it.
• You can leave at any moment. Once included, that same bar reads "You are being broadcast" with Leave the broadcast — one click and you are out of the picture straight away. You are asked again for every new broadcast.
• You can hide your own camera whenever you like, with Hide on your own panel. The producer cannot undo that; only you can show yourself again.
• The producer arranges the stage — where cameras sit, who is on screen, how the cut-out looks. That is the show's layout. Your camera, your microphone and your consent remain yours.
• No sound? Look for the click to hear prompt: browsers keep a page silent until you click on it once.

📺 If you were sent a watch link

• Open it on anything — phone, tablet or computer, any browser. Nothing to install, no account, no sign-in.
• If it asks for a password, type the one the host gave you. Without it nothing plays at all.
• Tap 🔊 Tap for sound. It starts muted because browsers only let silent video start by itself.
• You are about 6 seconds behind the live conversation. That is normal for this kind of broadcast, and it is the trade for working everywhere without an app.
• Your camera and microphone are never used. Watching is one-way, and the page says so at the bottom.
• If it says the broadcast has not started, leave the page open — it begins playing by itself when the host goes live.

📊 While you are live — what to keep an eye on

• The line under the Go Live button is your instrument panel: "Live WITH the shared show · 3 cameras in the picture · 1 still deciding (Eh Hot) · 7 watching · 23.8 Mbps out · 214 segments sent". It names anyone who has not consented and anyone you have hidden, so a missing face is always explained.
• The roster tells you who can see whom. Each panelist reads sees everyone in green, or cannot see … in red. If two panelists cannot see each other, press reconnect on that row — it rebuilds both ends of the connection.
• watching is how many people are receiving right now; Mbps out is what is leaving the server. Your audience does not use your upload — your connection carries the party, the server carries the audience.
• Hide anyone from the stage with hide on their tile or in the roster; a hidden camera leaves the broadcast too. Bring them back with show in the roster.
• ▸ Connection details in the party panel is the honest readout when something looks wrong: every connection, whether video is arriving, and whether background removal is running. Copy report puts it all on your clipboard.

Moving things around

• Move a panel — drag it by its title bar. Both panels move independently.

Resizing your camera — three ways

Your camera picture can be resized in whichever direction you need. All three handles are on the You panel (and on the shared screen panel too).

• Both directions at once — drag the small purple triangle at the bottom-right corner. Your camera grows or shrinks horizontally and vertically together, keeping its proportions.
• Horizontally only — drag the right edge. Your camera gets wider or narrower while its height stays exactly where it is, so you can slim yourself down or stretch out sideways.
• Vertically only — drag the bottom edge. Your camera gets taller or shorter while its width stays exactly where it is.
• Back to true proportions — double-click the corner triangle. Use this any time horizontal or vertical stretching has left you out of shape and you want the honest picture back.
• The edge handles are faint until you move your mouse over the panel, then the one under your pointer brightens. Your mouse cursor also changes to show which way it will move: ↔ on the right edge, ↕ on the bottom edge, and a diagonal arrow on the corner.

Size slider, stacking and your name

• Size — sets how wide you appear, from 160 to 900 pixels. Dragging the corner grip moves this slider too, so the two never disagree.
• Bring me to front — if the shared screen ever covers you, this puts you back on top.
• Rename your label — click the ✏️ on the You bar to call it your name, your title, anything. It's remembered on this computer for next time.

Making the cut-out look right

• Cut out background — on by default. Turn it off to show your normal camera rectangle instead of a cut-out.
• Edge — softens the outline where you meet the video. Nudge it up if the edge looks harsh, down if you look blurry.
• Mirror me — on by default, so you move the way you do in a mirror. Turn it off if you're holding up text.
• Frameless — hides the dashed outline and the title bar for a clean look. Your bar comes back whenever you hover over it, so you can still grab and move yourself.

If the camera doesn't look right

• Use the camera dropdown beside the camera button to pick a different camera. Switching restarts the feed immediately.
• Preview — shows a small raw camera picture at the bottom-left. This is the honest feed straight from your camera, and it's the fastest way to tell what's wrong.
• A solid green or black picture means the wrong camera. Software cameras that come with webcams and meeting tools (names like "Meeting Studio" or "Virtual Camera") only work while their own app is running — pick your real webcam by name instead.
• A black picture can also mean another app is holding the camera. Zoom, Teams and Discord keep their grip even when minimised. Close them and click 🎥 Start camera again.
• The status text beside the controls tells you where things stand: whether the camera is on, whether the cut-out model is ready, and how many frames have been processed. If frames are climbing, it's working.

Presenting to a meeting or an audience

• Set your stage up here first — share the content, start your camera, position yourself.
• Click ⛶ Fullscreen so nothing but the stage is visible.
• Then, in Zoom, Teams, Meet or whatever you're presenting in, share this Presenter Stage window. Your audience sees the content with you standing in front of it.
• One thing to avoid: don't point Presenter Stage's own screen share at Presenter Stage itself — that's a mirror pointed at a mirror. Share the content window here, and share this window there.

Your account

• Your email sits at the top right. Billing opens your subscription, where you can update your card or cancel. Log out ends the session on this computer.
• Presenter Stage is $4.99 a month for your first 6 months, then $9.99 a month. Cancel anytime. Your order number was emailed to you when you subscribed — keep it, as it's another way to reach your billing page.