What you need, and what this guide covers
This guide is specifically about the venue's fullscreen display — the projector or lobby screen your event might already use for slides or a lucky draw. Video isn't a module on its own: it comes with Live bidding (a camera per auction) or with Live Stream (a camera per session, each with its own dedicated chat). Turn on whichever fits your event — see pricing for current rates. Either way it's self-hosted: no third-party streaming account to create, and nothing extra to send attendees.
Mirroring a camera to this shared physical screen is entirely optional. Remote attendees watching an auction's own page, or a live-stream session, see that video regardless of whether anything is mirrored to the venue at all — this guide is about the room, not about whether remote viewers can watch.
Camera and mic permission
Your browser will ask for camera and microphone access the first time you go live. If you accidentally block it, look for the camera icon in your browser's address bar to grant it and try again — there's nothing to reset on the Joinlah side.
Going live from your phone or laptop
- 1
Open the specific auction or session you want to stream
Every auction and every live-stream session has its own camera section, right there alongside that item's other settings — an event running several auctions or sessions at once has that many independent cameras to choose from.
- 2
Start the camera
Tap Start camera and allow the permission prompt. A small preview appears right there in the dashboard so you can check your framing and lighting before anyone else sees it. This alone already makes the stream watchable on that auction's or session's own page — no display step required.
- 3
Optional: put it on the venue's display
Flip Show on display to mirror this specific camera onto the venue's fullscreen screen too. Only one thing can be on that shared screen at a time — putting a camera on it takes over from whatever bidding item or other camera was showing there before, the same way showing a bidding item there takes the screen back from video. It has no effect on what remote attendees already see on their own devices.
- 4
Stop camera when you're done
This ends the stream and releases your camera and mic, for everyone watching it — on the venue display and on attendees' own devices alike.
What the venue display actually shows
The shared screen mirrors exactly one thing at a time: one camera, or one bidding item — never both together, and never two cameras at once, since it's one physical screen. If the camera on it belongs to a live-stream session, that session's own chat takes over the display's chat panel too, in place of the event's general chat.
Tip
This is separate from what remote attendees see. An auction's own page always shows that auction's camera and current lot together if both are on, and a live-stream session's own page always shows its camera and its chat together — regardless of which single thing (if any) happens to be mirrored to the venue at that moment.
Works for hybrid or fully online events
- Attendees watch from the same public event page they'd already use to check their ticket or bid — nothing extra to send them.
- For a fully online event with no physical venue, the venue display isn't needed at all — attendees watch straight from the auction's or session's own page.
- For a hybrid event, mirror whichever camera should be on the room's projector while every remote attendee keeps watching their own auction or session independently either way.
Before your event
Camera and mic access require a secure connection, which Joinlah already runs over — but a laptop's built-in webcam and mic are usually good enough for a talk or an auctioneer; for anything longer or where audio quality matters, plug in an external mic if you have one. A wired internet connection is also worth using over venue Wi-Fi if the room is going to be crowded with phones.