Town Halls FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Town Halls.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Town Halls Overview.
Setup
Do I need to configure a streaming provider before anyone can go live?
Most tenants use the managed provider and need no provider setup — streams work out of the box once the app is enabled. A company admin who wants your own account can connect one under Admin → Organization → Integrations (category: Livestreaming Infrastructure (Town Halls)). The Settings page shows a Provider card so you can confirm what is connected.
Who can schedule and host sessions?
The Who can schedule and host sessions setting in Apps → Town Halls → Settings controls this. The default is Admins, app admins and contributors. Changing it to Any user lets every employee schedule and host sessions. Business admins, Town Halls app admins and Town Halls contributors can always schedule regardless of this setting — make one person a contributor under Admin → Apps → Town Halls → Admins & Contributors to let them run sessions without giving them the settings. Switching back from Any user doesn’t take back sessions already scheduled: their host and Session team can still edit them and go live. A Town Halls admin takes someone off a session’s team, or changes its host, with Edit on the session.
What are the default settings when I first enable the app?
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Who can schedule and host sessions | Admins, app admins and contributors |
| Record streams by default | On |
| Auto-caption recordings (AI transcription) | On |
| Add scheduled sessions to the company Calendar | On |
| Draft a “We’re live” Broadcast on go-live | On |
| Auto-post recordings to the Communications feed | Off |
| Allow anonymous questions | On |
| Remind everyone 15 minutes before a session that has no audience set | Off |
Permissions and access
Who can manage or moderate a specific session?
Running a session — the host console and stream key, going live, ending, editing and canceling — is tied to the session: its host, its Session team, any business admin, and any Town Halls app admin. Whoever schedules a session starts on its team; a Town Halls admin adds or removes people with Edit on the session, and someone taken off loses the console at once — unless they are also its host, which Edit changes too. A live session can’t be edited: end it first. Moderating — removing chat messages, marking questions answered or dismissed, launching polls, running the stage wall, the AI features, and seeing the session’s Reach by location — is open to all of those plus every Town Halls contributor, on every session. A contributor moderates from the watch page, which has its own Stage wall card; they don’t get the console of a session they neither host nor are on the team of. Someone who can schedule only because Who can schedule and host sessions is set to Any user cannot moderate someone else’s session.
Why can’t I open the host console for a session?
Only the session’s host, its Session team, or an admin can open the console. If you need it, ask a Town Halls admin to add you to the session’s team. A host can hand the session to someone else with Edit only if they’re on its session team; otherwise a Town Halls admin or someone on the team does. If you scheduled the session and can no longer open it, an admin has most likely taken you off its team. To moderate chat and Q&A without the console, ask an admin to make you a Town Halls contributor.
Can I limit who can watch a session?
Yes. In the session’s form, Who can watch has two choices. Everyone with Town Halls (the default) lets anyone who can open the app find the session and watch it; the Audience field then only decides who is notified. Only this session’s audience limits the session to the people in its audience: nobody else sees it in the Sessions list, the Town Halls home, search or the home-page widget, and a link to it tells them it isn’t available. Its host, its session team, Town Halls admins and business admins can always watch it. Choosing it needs an audience, and a session limited this way can’t be opened for registration under Company Events or shown on break-room screens.
Day-to-day
What RTMPS ingest URL do I point my encoder at?
The host console shows the server URL and stream key once you click Go live — the key is created then, not when the session is scheduled. The ingest endpoint is rtmps://global-live.mux.com:443/app. Use any RTMPS-capable encoder — OBS, Wirecast, vMix, Zoom, or Teams.
Can I edit or cancel a session while it is live?
No. A live session must be ended before it can be edited or canceled. End it first from the host console (End stream), then make changes.
What happens when I click “Go live”?
The stream starts for real — there is no test or rehearsal mode. The platform creates the stream with the provider, shows the server URL and stream key on the console, and flips the status to Live. Straight away, everyone who can open the app (or the session’s audience, when one is set) gets an in-app and push “Live now” notification, and — when that setting is on — a draft “We’re live” Broadcast is created for someone who may publish broadcasts to send (it is removed if the session ends before anyone sends it). Viewers can join before your encoder connects, so have it ready and paste the key in as soon as it appears. Ending the session is final; it can’t be restarted.
What notifications do viewers and hosts receive?
These notifications are sent automatically:
- Pre-session reminder — sent 15 minutes before the scheduled start to the host (with a link to the console) — or, when the host is no longer an active member or can’t open Town Halls, to its session team — and, when the session targets a specific audience, to those audience members (with a link to the watch page). For a session with no audience set, everyone who can open the app gets it only when Remind everyone 15 minutes before a session that has no audience set is on (off by default). The session’s Calendar entry reminds only its host and the people who registered for it under Company Events, an hour before.
-
Go-live notification — sent to everyone who can open the app (or the targeted audience) when the host clicks Go live (or Open the room, for a session without video streamed here), with a link to join the session. The host is excluded.
- New time and Canceled — when a scheduled session is moved or canceled, everyone already told about it (by a reminder or the go-live notification) hears about the change.
- Session ended automatically / Room closed automatically — sent when the platform ends a session whose encoder stopped sending video, or closes a room still open hours after its start. It goes to the host — or, when the host is no longer an active member or can’t open Town Halls, to its session team.
- You’re hosting / No longer hosting — sent when someone else makes you a session’s host, or hands a session you hosted to someone else.
- You’re on the session team / Taken off the session team — sent when someone else adds you to a session’s team or takes you off it.
- Deleted — sent to a session’s host and team when someone else deletes it after it aired, saying what was deleted with it. Its audience is not told.
- Question dismissed — in the app (and as a push where it’s on), to the person who asked, when a moderator dismisses their question (not when they withdraw it themselves, and not for an anonymous question).
Reminders and go-live notifications are one-shot per session per user, so overlapping schedules or retries never double-send; a session moved to a new time reminds its audience again. Employees can mute Town Halls notifications in their own notification settings (the Town Halls category).
When something looks wrong
I clicked “Go live” and the session shows “Failed” — what happened?
The stream couldn’t be started. Usually the provider refused to create it — an expired access token, a provider rate limit, or a network issue — or the streaming account isn’t set up yet, in which case nothing was sent to the provider at all. The host console says which, and who can fix it. Click Try going live again on the console (or Try again on the session’s page). The session stays editable — it is not locked into a failed state. If retries keep failing, a company admin checks Admin → Organization → Integrations (for your own Mux account) or contacts support (for the managed account) — if you aren’t an admin, ask one. On the managed account, a go-live can also be held back before it reaches the provider when the company is short of platform credits (a stream on your own Mux account draws none, so it is never held back for credits); the message says so, and only a billing admin can top up.
The live viewer count on the host console seems frozen or too high
The viewer count is driven by a heartbeat from each watch page. If a viewer’s tab crashes or their laptop sleeps without sending a leave signal, they drop out of the active count within 2 minutes. A background sweep runs every minute to clear viewers who have gone quiet. If the count still looks wrong after a couple of minutes, the sweep may have been delayed — ask the viewer to reload the watch page. The count is people only: break-room screens showing the session aren’t in it, however many people stand in front of them.
“Catch me up” says there’s nothing to summarize, but the session has been going for a while
“Catch me up” summarizes the room’s audience activity — chat messages, questions, and poll results — and, for a stream broadcast here, its live captions of what was said. A session on another platform, or with no video, has only the room: if no one has chatted, asked questions, or launched a poll yet, it has nothing to work with and says there are no chat messages, questions or polls yet. Encourage audience participation.
My recording is missing — the session ended but there is no playback
Check whether Record this stream was checked when the session was scheduled. If recording was turned off for that session, the provider still auto-records but the recording is discarded at the provider level, so nothing is stored and playback is not available. The session’s status stays Ended rather than moving to Recorded.
The “Auto-post recordings to the Communications feed” setting is on, but no post appeared
Two switches must be on. In Town Halls Settings the Auto-post recordings to the Communications feed toggle must be enabled, AND in the Communications app’s contributor settings the Town Halls — allow posting to the feed switch must also be on. If the contributor switch is off, the auto-post is skipped silently.
A viewer says they can watch the stream without logging in — is playback public?
Playback is signed (access-controlled) only when a signing key is configured. The Settings page shows a badge: Secure playback means new streams use signed tokens (valid for 6 hours), and a leaked URL cannot be watched from outside. Secure playback pending means a signing key will be created the first time a stream goes live. Playback security unconfirmed means the platform couldn’t tell how playback is set up, so assume it is public. Public playback means no signing key is present and anyone with the URL can watch. On the managed account, contact MangoApps support to enable signed playback. On your company’s own Mux account (Admin → Organization → Integrations), a signing key is created automatically the first time a stream goes live, as long as the access token is allowed to create signing keys.
Q&A, names on questions and polls
Can moderators check questions before the whole company sees them?
Yes. Each session has a Questions setting on its schedule form: Open shows a question as soon as it is asked; Filtered holds a question that contains language your company’s content filter catches; Reviewed holds every question until a moderator approves it — except a moderator’s own, which goes straight in unless the session’s questions are anonymous. A session for everyone starts as Reviewed, and one aimed at a set audience as Open — the host can change either, and switch it from the host console while the session runs. Waiting questions are listed under Waiting for a moderator on the watch page and the host console: approve one, correct it first (a typo, a name to take out), or dismiss it. The person who asked sees theirs marked “Waiting for a moderator — only you and the moderators can see it”, and is told if it is dismissed. When your company has AI moderation turned on, a question the AI flags is moved to the front of the queue (Reviewed) or held after it was shown (Filtered).
Can we use Town Halls for a meeting we stream somewhere else, or one with no video?
Yes. On the schedule form, Video offers Stream it here (your encoder streams to Town Halls), Another platform (paste the https:// link viewers open — Teams, Meet, or your vendor’s player; viewers get a button to it beside the Q&A, polls and chat), or No video (a session people are in the room for). For the last two the host console offers Open the room and Close the room instead of Go live and End stream. A room left open is closed automatically 12 hours after its start.
Are there live captions?
Yes, for every stream broadcast here unless its host turns them off: captions are generated live on the stream in the language the host speaks — English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish, chosen under Spoken language on the schedule form. Captions are not translated. Live captions put the video about 20–30 seconds behind the host, because the video service makes none on a low-latency stream; a host who wants the room closer to real time (about 5 seconds) unchecks Live captions while on air before going live. The choice is fixed once the stream is on air. Recordings also get captions when Auto-caption recordings is on. A session on another platform carries whatever captions that platform provides.
Can I export the questions after a session?
Yes. Moderators can choose Download all questions (CSV) on the watch page or the host console, during or after the session. The file lists every question — waiting, in the room, answered or dismissed — with who asked it and their department and location, the votes, its status, when it was asked and answered, and who answered or edited it. Who asked follows the session’s Names on questions: a session shown to everyone or to moderators only names the asker; an anonymous session says “Anonymous”, leaves out the department and location, and gives only the day an anonymous question was asked, not the time. Where a works council hides people’s names, the row says “A participant” and leaves out the department and location, whatever the setting.
Who can see who asked a question?
It depends on the session’s Names on questions, chosen on its schedule form:
| Setting | The room (watch page, phone, stage wall) | The session’s moderators (waiting queue, stage card, export) |
|---|---|---|
| Shown to everyone (default) | The asker’s name | The asker’s name |
| Moderators only | “Name hidden from the room” (“A participant” on the stage wall) | The asker’s name |
| Anonymous | “Anonymous” (“A participant” on the stage wall) | Nobody — the question is saved with no asker |
The Ask box tells each person which applies before they ask, on the web and on the phone. In an anonymous session not even an admin can find out who asked: the question carries no name anywhere. Wherever a works council hides names, the stage wall and the export say “A participant” whatever the setting.
Why can’t I change Names on questions?
It is fixed once the first question arrives — the form says “Questions have arrived, so this can’t change — people asked under it.” Until then the host can change it. If someone had the Ask box open when the host changed it, their question is not posted: they are told who now sees the names and asked to send it again if they’re happy with that.
“Anonymous” isn’t offered on the schedule form
An admin has turned off Allow anonymous questions in Apps → Town Halls → Settings (under Questions). Turning it on brings the choice back. A session that was already anonymous stays anonymous either way, and Moderators only is always available.
How does someone see or withdraw their own anonymous question?
The server keeps no record of who asked, so the asker’s own browser remembers it: their anonymous questions are listed under Your questions on the watch page, on the device and browser they asked from, for whoever is signed in there — a second person on a shared device doesn’t see the first one’s questions as theirs. From there they can withdraw one until it is answered, and they see “A moderator dismissed your question, so the room doesn’t see it.” if a moderator dismisses it. On another device, or after clearing the browser’s data, the question is still in the room, just no longer listed as theirs — nothing on the server links it back to them.
Can a viewer vote more than once in a poll or upvote a question twice?
No. Each viewer gets exactly one vote per poll and one upvote per question. A poll vote is final — the first answer stands and can’t be changed, so a second click is refused with a message saying so. A second upvote on the same question simply leaves the first in place.
Can viewers still ask questions after the session ends?
New questions are blocked once the session ends. Upvoting existing questions remains open, so a viewer who watches the recording can still push a question up the host’s follow-up list.
Stage wall and join QR
How do I put the stage wall on the screen behind the speaker?
Open the session’s Host console (or, for a moderator who doesn’t run the console, its watch page) and find the Stage wall card. Open the wall opens it in a new tab for you, signed in. For a stage machine or a vMix or OBS browser source that never signs in, click Copy under Display link and open that link there — it needs no sign-in. The wall has a Full screen button. It shows “Starting soon” before the session starts, “Live” with how many have joined while it runs, and “This session has ended” afterwards.
Who can run the stage wall?
Everyone who can moderate the session: its host, its session team, business admins, Town Halls app admins and Town Halls contributors. Anyone else who opens the wall’s address in the app is sent back to the session with “Only this session’s host, a moderator, or an admin can run its wall.” The display link is different: anyone with it sees the wall, but can’t change it.
What does the wall show when nothing is on stage?
The top questions in the room by votes. With none yet, it shows “Questions will appear here”. It never shows a question still waiting for a moderator.
Why did a question leave the wall?
A question on stage leaves the wall when a moderator takes it off stage, when it is dismissed or held for review, when its asker withdraws it, and when it is marked answered — unless it is pinned. A pinned question stays up after it’s answered until someone clicks Take off stage, or Unpin (which then takes it down).
Why can’t I put a question on stage?
Only an approved, unanswered question can go on stage. A question still waiting for a moderator is refused with “That question isn’t in the room — approve it first.” An answered one is refused with “That question has been answered — reopen it to put it on stage.”
What does “Pause wall” do?
The wall keeps showing exactly what it showed when you paused it, so you can work the queue without the room watching. A question you dismiss during the pause still leaves the wall. Anything you put on stage while paused goes up when you click Resume wall, which brings the wall back to live.
The display link says “This display link isn’t working”
Someone made a new link (New link on the Stage wall card), the session was deleted, or Town Halls was turned off for your company. Making a new link stops the old one at once — that’s what it’s for if a link was shared too widely. Copy the current link from the Stage wall card and open it on the stage machine. Digital Signage screens showing the wall switch to the new link on their own.
Where does the join QR take people?
A scan opens a sign-in page — the person signs in the usual way — and then the session’s watch page on their phone, where they can ask a question, vote and — when chat is on — chat. Someone already signed in goes straight there. The QR is in the wall’s corner (until the session is over), on the Stage wall card, and on a printable sheet: Print the QR opens a page with the session’s title, start time and the QR, plus a link to type in for anyone who can’t scan.
Does the wall show who asked?
Only in a session whose Names on questions is Shown to everyone: then it shows the asker’s name and their site in your company. In a Moderators only or Anonymous session — and wherever a works council hides names — it says “A participant”.
Break-room screens
Why isn’t “Show on screens” on the schedule form?
It appears only when your company has Digital Signage with at least one active screen, only while Who can watch is Everyone with Town Halls (a break-room screen is seen by anyone in the room), and not once the session has ended.
Which screens switch to a session, and when?
When the session goes live (or its room opens, for a session whose video is elsewhere or has none), the screens at the sites ticked under Only some sites switch to it — or every site’s screens when none are ticked. A screen with no site set shows only sessions sent to every site. The screen goes back to its playlist when the session ends. If two sessions are live on screens at once, a screen shows the one that went live most recently. The host can switch screens off and on during the session with the console’s Break-room screens switch.
A screen didn’t switch to the live session
Check three things. The screen’s own rule: on the screen’s page in Digital Signage, Live sessions set to hide means it never switches. An alert: while an alert is in a screen’s feed it plays its rotation with the alert first, and the session takes the screen only once no alert is up. The screen’s site: it must be one the session was sent to, or the session must be sent to every site. While a session has a screen, the screen’s page in Digital Signage says “Live now”.
A screen shows the stage wall instead of the video
That is expected for a session whose video is on another platform or that has no video. For a stream broadcast here, a screen shows the wall while the stream can’t play yet, and falls back to the wall within about 20 seconds if its player can’t load at all (some smart-TV browsers, or a blocked video service).
Do break-room screens cost viewer minutes?
A screen playing a stream broadcast here counts as one viewer for viewer minutes, like a person watching, for as long as it plays. A screen that can’t play the stream (an older smart-TV browser, a blocked video service) shows the stage wall instead and adds nothing. A session whose video is on another platform, or that has none, has no viewer minutes, so screens showing its stage wall add nothing to its flat charge. Screens are never counted as people: they are left out of the live viewer count and unique viewers, and listed separately in Reach by location with the minutes each one played.
Reach by location
Who can see Reach by location?
A session’s host, its moderators (including Town Halls contributors) and admins see it on the session’s page once it has gone live. Admins also see it in Apps → Town Halls → Analytics, for one session at a time from the latest 20. Other employees don’t see it.
How is reach counted?
Of the people the session was for — its audience when it has one, otherwise every active member — it counts how many joined, by site and by region (the districts and regions above the sites). Each person counts at their own site in your company (their primary location, else their first); people with no location are counted under No site set. Someone who joined from outside the audience is counted separately (“Plus N people from outside the session’s audience”), so no row reads over 100%. Department isn’t shown: it isn’t held per company, so it can’t be counted reliably for yours.
Why are some sites counted in “Other”, or a region left out?
To keep anyone from being identified. Sites with fewer people than your company’s smallest report group (5 by default, set under Admin → Compliance → Retention & Legal Holds) are counted together in Other. A region is left out when a smaller group’s figures could be worked out from it, and an Other row that is itself below that size shows no figures. When the whole audience is smaller than that, the card says there were too few people to show reach without identifying anyone.
Reach says the session’s audience no longer exists
The audience the session was limited to has been deleted, so there is nothing to measure against. The card still says how many joined.
Licensing and limits
Does Town Halls require a licence?
No. Town Halls is a pay-as-you-go app billed in platform credits (see How is billing calculated?). It is available to every tenant without a separate license purchase. An admin enables it from Admin → Apps → All Apps.
How is billing calculated?
Town Halls is pay-as-you-go, drawn in platform credits from your company’s credit balance. What a session costs depends on where its video comes from:
| Session | What is charged | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Streamed here (your encoder to Town Halls) | Broadcast minutes — the stream’s wall-clock length, rounded up to the next whole minute when it ends | 20 credits per broadcast minute |
| Streamed here | Viewer minutes — the minutes each person actually watched, added up across everyone | 5 credits per 10 viewer minutes |
| Video on another platform, or no video | One flat charge per session, when its room closes | 500 credits per session |
Viewer minutes come from the session’s own attendance: each viewer’s time runs from when they opened the watch page to when they left, or to their last sign of watching plus 30 seconds if their tab closed without saying goodbye — and a page left open while a laptop slept stops counting two minutes after its last sign of watching. Only the time while the stream was actually broadcasting counts: waiting on the page before your encoder connects, or after it stops, is never billed. A Digital Signage break-room screen playing the stream counts as one viewer too. A 90-minute all-hands watched throughout by 1,700 people is 90 broadcast minutes (1,800 credits) and 153,000 viewer minutes (76,500 credits). Before you go live, the host console shows the likely cost for the session’s audience, and the schedule form shows it before you save.
There is no monthly minimum. Sample sessions are never charged. When you stream through your own Mux account, Town Halls draws no platform credits for those streams — Mux bills your Mux account directly.
Are there limits I should know about?
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Chat message length | 500 characters |
| Question length | 1,000 characters |
| Question rate limit | 3 questions a minute per person per session |
| Chat rate limit | 5 messages per 10 seconds per viewer per session |
| Stage wall | The question on stage plus the next 4 by votes; 6 top questions when nothing is on stage |
| Stage wall display link | No expiry — works until a moderator makes a new link |
| Your anonymous questions on a device | The newest 20 per session, for the 3 people most recently signed in there, in their 3 latest anonymous sessions |
| Reach by location — smallest group shown | Your company’s smallest report group: 5 by default, never lower |
| Catch me up refresh | One summary shared by everyone who asks, refreshed at most once a minute |
| Signed playback token lifetime | 6 hours |
| Live-viewer heartbeat window | 2 minutes (a viewer without a heartbeat within this window drops out of the active count) |
| Sync log retention | 90 days |
| Poll minimum options | 2 (one per line) |
More help
- Town Halls Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers Town Halls questions from these articles.