Overview
Rooms is a research workspace for planning projects, running live sessions, capturing outputs, and downloading the final materials from one place.
The platform is role-based, so each person sees only the controls and information needed for their part of the session. Hosts, external moderators, observers, translators, and respondents can all have different views.
The main areas of the app are:
Projects for the overall research setup and feature rules.
Sessions for the individual interview setup, invitations, and session-specific changes.
Live rooms for the conversation itself, including recording, transcripts, translation, whiteboard use, live polls, and tagging.
Assets and exports for downloading recordings, transcripts, reels, whiteboard images, poll results, and related files after the session.
Projects and Sessions
A project is the main workspace for a study. It holds the sessions, feature settings, and the outputs that belong to the overall piece of work.
A session is one scheduled interview or live conversation inside that project. Sessions inherit the overall project setup and also support session-specific changes when a particular interview needs something different.
Project-level setup is where you decide the broad rules for things like room visibility, transcript availability, reflections, whiteboard availability, polls, public display language, reminder email wording, and the prepared whiteboard, stimulus, or poll materials that later sessions can inherit.
Session-level setup is where you refine those rules for one interview, such as changing who can see a feature, which interview and display languages are in use, which hosts or observers are assigned, whether breakout rooms are active, or whether the session should override the inherited whiteboard, stimulus, or poll configuration.
This structure keeps the experience consistent across a study while still allowing individual sessions to be tailored when needed.
Setting Up A Project
Project setup usually starts with the project name, client company, public display language, and the overall feature choices for the study.
From there, external moderators can define In Room Menu Settings, decide which live-room tools are available, set default transcript and language behaviour for new sessions, turn reflections on or off, prepare project poll questions, manage reusable media, and prepare invitation and reminder email content.
Projects can also hold a default respondent room-entry password. When enabled, new sessions can start with that extra respondent password layer already in place, ready to be kept or changed per session.
The project Media Library is where reusable images, PDFs, and PowerPoint files are uploaded and named before any session takes place. Images can also be marked as room logos so they appear in the project logo chooser alongside the always-available default sc-logo. The project whiteboard area is where the full whiteboard defaults and prepared stimulus tabs are built from that shared library, and the project polls area is where the default question library for the study is created.
In Room Menu Settings
The In Room Menu Settings tab controls which in-room menu items and live controls each role can see and use during the conversation.
These permissions are set per project and then carry into the sessions in that project, so the team can keep a consistent live-room experience across a study.
The available controls can include internal chat, client chat, screen share, camera toggle, microphone toggle, respondents list, settings button, fullscreen, raise hand, background selection, video quality, shortcuts help, video feed, and transcript access.
Respondents are the respondent-facing users. Their permissions decide which self-service controls they can use in the interview, such as camera, microphone, transcript access, or seeing the respondents list.
Translators usually get a more limited set focused on delivery support. Their permissions determine whether they can access video, internal team chat, transcript tools, and any room controls needed for translation work.
Hosts use these permissions for the live conversation controls they need in session, such as screen share, chat, camera and microphone control, transcript access, and any exposed Jitsi toolbar items.
External Moderators use the same permissions model for their live-room view and have the same in-meeting rights as hosts.
Observers use these permissions to define what observers can do while watching, such as client chat, transcript access, respondents list access, or viewing video without being able to speak or share.
If a permission is turned off for a role, the related menu item or control does not appear for that role in the live room.
Setting Up A Session
Session setup is where you schedule the interview, assign the room language and transcript behaviour, and add Hosts, External Moderators, Observers, Translators, and Respondents in role tables.
Quick Session Setup is the primary creation flow, with full role and feature editing available immediately afterwards in the tabbed Edit Session screen.
Sessions include a lobby control. With lobby enabled, only respondents and observers wait for admission. Hosts, external moderators, and translators join directly into their assigned room path.
Sessions can override the project display language, whiteboard visibility, whiteboard type, whiteboard background, page count, individual stimulus choices, and poll questions when one interview needs a different setup.
Sessions can also keep, replace, or remove the copied respondent room-entry password so one interview can have its own respondent password without changing the wider project default.
Sessions also control invitation and access workflows, including respondent creation, email invitations, reminder timing, and session-only changes to the inherited whiteboard and poll surfaces.
Scheduled duration is used for planning and calendar timing, but live rooms do not auto-close when the scheduled finish time passes.
When cloning a session, setup is copied but respondents are not copied, so each cloned session starts with a clean respondent list.
Calendar View
The calendar view gives teams a scheduling-first way to work across the project timeline.
From the calendar, you can see scheduled interviews, open the linked session setup, move quickly into a live room at the right time, and start a new project or session from a chosen date so that the schedule fields are already prefilled.
The calendar area supports Calendar View and List View tabs. List View stacks upcoming and completed session tables and includes direct links to open each session.
When a day has multiple sessions, the calendar card shows Multiple Appointments; selecting it opens a modal listing all sessions and their links.
This is especially useful when delivery teams need to spot gaps, check the day’s running order, or create a new interview directly against a specific date.
Invites, Reminders, Impromptu Access, And Uploads
Projects hold the email wording used for invitations and reminders, including sender details and the message templates that sessions use when access links are sent out.
Invitation emails can present the room link as a button labelled Open the Room so recipients do not have to work with a long raw URL.
Sessions then use those templates to send respondent invitations, observer invites, translator invites, external moderator invites, and reminder emails before the interview.
Rooms also supports impromptu access. Session managers can add respondents with email, add respondents without email and copy their access links, or import batches of respondents from a file when access needs to be created quickly.
Uploads appear in several places across the app. Teams can upload whiteboard files for project use, import or upload respondent lists, and later download the files that the live session produces.
User Levels and Visibility
Rooms uses role-based access so each person sees the session differently. What a user can do, what they can see, and who can see them depends on their assigned role and the project or session settings.
Respondents
Respondents are the interview participants or interviewees. They see the live interview itself and any respondent-facing features that are enabled for the session, such as transcripts or the whiteboard.
They do not see observers, and they do not see translators unless the session design makes them visible. In the current default live-room visibility policy they are shown only the assigned external moderator presence and themselves.
Respondents are normally visible to hosts, external moderators, and observers according to each viewer role's visibility policy.
Observers
Observers watch the session and, where enabled, use room switching, language switching, live tagging, transcripts, and reflections.
They do not control the room itself, and they do not appear to respondents.
Observers can generally see respondents and the visible delivery team members needed for observation.
Platform user accounts are treated as hosts in live delivery workflows unless they are Admin or Operations Admin.
Translators
Translators work from the live session feed and, where configured, support translated audio or transcript workflows.
Their room controls are more limited and focused on translation tasks rather than general moderation.
Translators are hidden from respondents and can also be hidden from observers, depending on the session setup.
Hosts
Hosts run the conversation. They manage recording, control room tools, use tagging, open the whiteboard, and work with session features that are not available to observers or respondents when those controls are assigned to them.
Hosts can see respondents and other delivery roles needed to run the session.
They are generally visible where the interview design expects them to be seen.
External Moderators
External Moderators have broader access to project and session setup. They can configure features, control more of the live room, and work with outputs across the project.
An external moderator can also use the session visibility option that hides them from respondents. This is the invisible or hidden switch used when someone needs to work in the room without appearing to respondents.
When that hidden setting is used, the external moderator can still do their work, but respondents do not see them in the room.
Observer Access
Observers can have broad operational access when granted host or external moderator responsibilities. They can see the full room setup, manage recordings, work with transcripts, supervise delivery, and support the live session where those controls are part of the session setup.
Observer visibility depends on the session rules, but their permissions can become broader when they are assigned as hosts or external moderators.
What Changes by Role
The following can all vary by role: transcript access, reflections access, whiteboard access, whiteboard editing rights, auto-open features, tagging, room switching, language switching, recording controls, and which people are visible in the live room.
If you expected to see a role, person, or control and it is missing, that is because the project or session visibility rules have limited it for your role.
Live Rooms
The live room is the working session space where the interview takes place. What you see there depends on your role.
Respondents normally see the interview space and any session features that have been made visible to them, such as transcripts, the whiteboard, or live poll questions.
Where respondent password protection is enabled, respondents must enter that extra room-entry password before the invitation link opens the live room.
When lobby is enabled, respondents and observers first enter the Rooms waiting room and are admitted individually by a host or external moderator.
Hosts and external moderators can use the Waiting room button above the chat control to open a modal list and admit respondents or observers one by one (or admit all).
Hosts, external moderators, and translators are not held in waiting room admission and should join directly into their live room context.
Observers observe the session and use live tagging, room switching, and language switching where those features are enabled.
Hosts and external moderators supervise the room, open session tools, manage whiteboard activity, push poll questions live, and control the live features assigned to them.
Observers can have a broad operational view when assigned host or external moderator responsibilities.
Rooms also supports visibility rules so certain roles can be hidden from others when that is required by the project or session setup.
Observers join muted with camera off and cannot turn microphone or camera on unless their role permissions are changed.
Respondents join with microphone and camera available and can see their own local video tile in the live room.
Simultaneous Translators
Rooms supports simultaneous translation delivery using a separate translation room path while keeping the main interview video flow.
How to set it up:
1. In session setup, add users in the Translator role.
2. Keep simultaneous translation enabled for the session and confirm the translation room is available.
3. Open the session room as normal. Translators join directly (they do not wait in the lobby).
4. Confirm translator-role permissions include the controls they need (for example transcript or internal chat, where applicable).
How to listen to the translator feed:
Use the live-room language/audio switching controls (for roles that have permission) to switch from floor audio to the translation feed.
This lets the team monitor the translated audio while still viewing the main room video context.
Join and leave pop-up notifications are suppressed in live rooms to reduce interview distraction.
Respondents do not have chat access and do not see transient chat message pop-ups when messages are sent by delivery roles.
The respondents list is used as a presence list only and does not show speaking-time statistics.
When a respondent leaves, Rooms shows a simple thank-you screen rather than a Jitsi promotional close page.
Simultaneous Translators
Rooms supports simultaneous translation delivery using a separate translation room path while keeping the main interview video flow.
How to set it up:
1. In session setup, add users in the Translator role.
2. Keep simultaneous translation enabled for the session and confirm the translation room is available.
3. Open the session room as normal. Translators join directly (they do not wait in the lobby).
4. Confirm translator-role permissions include the controls they need (for example transcript or internal chat, where applicable).
How to listen to the translator feed:
Use the live-room language/audio switching controls (for roles that have permission) to switch from floor audio to the translation feed.
This lets the team monitor the translated audio while still viewing the main room video context.
Recording and Transcripts
If recording is enabled and your role manages it, Rooms shows controls to start, pause, resume, or monitor the session recording.
Transcript features show a live transcript panel during the session. Depending on the setup, users see source-language text, translated text, or both.
Transcript availability is controlled by the project and session settings, so some roles have transcript access while others do not.
If translated audio or translated transcript feeds are enabled for the session, the room also supports language switching for roles that have permission to use it.
Once the session is complete, transcript files can be saved as downloadable assets alongside the recording outputs.
Transcript and language behaviour is usually set at project level first and then adjusted at session level where needed. This makes it easy to keep a study consistent while still handling sessions that need a different interview language or delivery setup.
Media Library
The Media Library is the shared project upload area for reusable images, PDFs, and PowerPoint files.
Each upload has a friendly name so teams can recognise it easily later in project setup, session setup, and live tools.
Image uploads can be marked as Room Logo. When they are, they appear in the project header logo chooser alongside the always-available default sc-logo.
The same project media can then be reused as whiteboard backgrounds, stimulus sources, quadrant backgrounds, and image-choice poll answers without uploading the file again.
The library includes separate Images and Documents views so teams can quickly work with whiteboard-ready PDFs and PowerPoint files as well as standard images.
Media can currently be selected and used in these places:
Project Overall for the live-room header logo.
Project Whiteboard for the default full-whiteboard background and each prepared stimulus source, including PDFs and PowerPoint files used for stimulus highlighting.
Session Whiteboard for session-specific whiteboard background overrides and stimulus overrides, including PDFs and PowerPoint files used for stimulus highlighting.
Project Polls for image-choice answer options and quadrant-map background images in the default question library.
Session Polls for image-choice answer options and quadrant-map background images in session-specific question overrides.
Sessions do not create a separate media library. They inherit the project Media Library and can choose from those files when overriding whiteboard or poll setup for a single interview.
If a media file is already being used as a logo, whiteboard background, stimulus source, or poll image, Rooms prevents it from being deleted until those links are changed.
Whiteboard
The whiteboard is a built-in Rooms feature rather than a separate app. It can be prepared before a session and then opened inside the live room when needed.
Rooms supports two whiteboard types: Full whiteboard and Stimulus markup.
At project level, authorised users prepare the whiteboard using the project Media Library, whiteboard defaults, and named stimulus tabs. Sessions then use that project setup directly or apply session-specific adjustments where one interview needs something different.
The full whiteboard gives teams the complete collaborative whiteboard surface. Stimulus markup uses the same live and recorded surface, but limits the live tools to pen and highlighter so people can mark up a supplied stimulus during the interview.
The project Whiteboard tab sets the default number of pages and the default background file for the full whiteboard.
Each prepared Stimulus tab lets the project team choose the source file, give it a friendly name, and decide whether users can use the pen, the highlighter, or both.
Stimulus source files can be images, PDFs, or PowerPoint files from the Media Library, so highlighting and markup can be prepared against document-based materials as well as standard images.
Sessions can then inherit that setup, override the whiteboard background or page count, replace a single stimulus for that session, use the project version again, or remove a stimulus from one session without changing the project default.
Hosts and external moderators can then select the correct whiteboard surface during the session from the live controls.
When a host or external moderator opens the whiteboard or switches to a prepared stimulus, the respondent whiteboard iframe is shown automatically. Respondents do not need a separate whiteboard button in their own live-room view.
When opened in a live room, the whiteboard appears as a large working area so hosts, respondents, and other authorised roles can collaborate without leaving the session.
Rooms includes both the full whiteboard and stimulus markup in the recorded session view when they are being used live.
Hosts and external moderators have whiteboard session controls such as Take Snapshot, Close Whiteboard, reopening the board in a locked state, and Unlock All Items when they want to continue work after a controlled close.
Snapshots and final closed-board images are saved into the session assets for download later.
Polls and Live Questions
Polls are now a built-in Rooms feature rather than a separate standalone app. They are configured in the project or session editor and then pushed live inside the room when a host or external moderator wants to ask them.
The project Polls tab is where you create the default question library for a study. When a new session is created, those project questions carry into the session by default so the session starts with a ready-made poll set.
The session Polls tab lets the team keep those inherited questions as they are, edit them for one interview, remove questions, or add new ones that apply only to that session.
Image-based poll answers and quadrant backgrounds come from the project Media Library, so teams can choose uploaded files by friendly name instead of pasting raw image links.
Each question includes a Question ID such as Q1, Q2, or Q3. This is what hosts and external moderators use in the live room when they want exact control over the order and timing of what is asked.
How Live Polling Works
When polls are enabled for a session, hosts and external moderators see a poll control area in the live room. They can choose a prepared question from the dropdown, which shows the Question ID and a shortened version of the question text, and then press Ask.
Pressing Ask pushes that question into the respondent poll iframe immediately. The respondent sees only the live question that has been opened for them, while the host or external moderator sees the manager view and the incoming answers in their own iframe.
This gives the delivery team direct flow control, much like choosing the right whiteboard stimulus at the right moment in the conversation.
Polls are not part of the recording workflow. The respondent poll is a live session tool only, and the answer data is saved separately for review and export.
Question Types Available
Rooms currently supports the following poll question types:
Single Choice for choosing one answer from a list.
Multiple Choice for choosing more than one answer from a list.
Open Text for typed free-text responses.
Image Choice for choosing from labelled options that can also include images.
Ranking for ordering options into first, second, third, and so on.
Rating for scoring on a fixed numeric or star-style scale.
Slider for selecting a value across a numeric range.
Quadrant Map for placing an answer on an image using a four-quadrant layout.
Poll Results and Exports
Poll responses are saved with the session and can be reviewed from the host or external moderator manager view while the interview is still in progress.
After the session, poll results become exportable assets alongside the other session outputs, making it easy to download the captured answer data as part of the normal Rooms workflow.
Tagging and Reels
Live tagging lets authorised users mark important moments while the session is in progress.
When you use Tag this moment, Rooms stores a clip window around that point in time so it can be used later without needing to search the full recording manually.
Tags can be created against the relevant room or language feed, which is helpful when sessions use translated audio or multiple room views.
After the session, those saved tags automatically generate a client interest reel and also help teams review the most important moments more quickly.
Reflections
Reflections helps teams review session material inside Rooms by surfacing useful transcript-grounded observations and supporting evidence.
At project level, reflections can be enabled so later work draws on the transcripts and outputs from the current project or earlier related projects where that has been configured.
In live and post-session workflows, reflections can help users move from raw transcript material toward insight review more quickly, while still staying tied to the source evidence.
This feature is especially useful when a project spans several sessions and the team wants continuity between what has already been heard and what is emerging in the current work.
Assets and Exports
Assets are the files saved against a session or project. These can include recordings, transcript files, translated outputs, interest reels, whiteboard snapshots, final whiteboard captures, poll result exports, and other generated materials.
Exports are the download tools for those saved assets. Depending on the session, users download individual files or grouped export packages.
Project pages can be used to review outputs across the wider study, while session pages focus on the files produced by one interview.
If a file is not visible yet, it is still processing, waiting for a background step to finish, or it was not created for that session.
What Can Be Exported
Exports can include the main session recording, translated video outputs where they exist, transcript files, breakout-room outputs, client interest reels, poll result files, and whiteboard images such as snapshots and final closed-board captures from both full whiteboards and stimulus-markup sessions.
Some sessions have only a few export types, while others have a much wider export set depending on which features were enabled and used during the session.
Exports are shown alongside the saved assets so users can download the materials that were actually produced for that project or session.
Uploads prepared before the interview are separate from exports created after the interview. Uploads are the files teams add to support the session, while exports are the files Rooms produces or saves after the live work has taken place.
Supported Languages
Public-facing Rooms screens for Respondents, Translators, Observers, Hosts, and External Moderators can use a project or session display language, and the language selector can always switch the shared interface back to English.
Supported languages are English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Greek, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian.
Data Privacy
Rooms is designed to keep project, session, transcript, recording, whiteboard, poll, and uploaded media data inside the organisation's own internal network environment rather than sending that session content out to third-party collaboration platforms as part of the normal workflow.
Keeping data inside the internal network helps teams maintain tighter control over access, storage, retention, and operational security, and supports GDPR-aligned handling of research and participant information.
Data protection compliance also depends on each organisation's own legal basis, retention rules, access controls, privacy notices, contracts, and internal governance, so Rooms should be used as part of that wider compliance process.
FAQ
Q: Respondents can be seen by others, but they cannot see themselves. Is that expected?
A: No. From the completed tracking log, this was treated as an issue and fixed. Respondents should now see their own local camera tile while in session.
Q: Who should be admitted through waiting room/lobby?
A: Respondents and observers are queued for admission when waiting room/lobby is enabled. Hosts, external moderators, and translators should join directly.
Q: A respondent left and rejoined, then went straight in without being re-admitted. Is that correct?
A: Yes, for the same session invitation. Re-entry after admission is allowed to support reconnects. A new interview/session invitation will require admission again.
Q: Why do respondents no longer see chat popups?
A: This was a completed fix from the tracking log. Respondents are not meant to see delivery-team chat content, including temporary chat popups.
Q: Why does the participants list no longer show speaking-time stats?
A: The tracking log confirmed the list should be a simple live-presence view only, so teams can quickly see who is currently in the interview.
Q: Why are join/leave notifications reduced in live sessions?
A: Completed delivery updates removed distracting join/leave popups so interviewers can focus on the conversation flow.
Q: Why do observers join with camera and microphone disabled?
A: This is intentional and was confirmed in completed tracking-log changes: observer/client-view roles join muted with camera off and cannot self-enable unless permissions are changed.
Recent Updates
Last updated: 27 April 2026
The following changes were made in the latest Rooms update cycle:
Session Time And Timezone Accuracy
Session scheduling now keeps local times consistent across BST and GMT handling. If you set a session for a specific local time, the saved value and the edit view now align with that intended session time instead of stepping back by an hour.
Session times continue to be stored in UTC for reliability, while display and editing use the configured session timezone.
Create And Edit Session Behaviour
The edit workflow now clearly uses Update Session behaviour and saves all updated session information correctly, including notification-related actions when applicable.
Schedule-change and cancellation paths now trigger the correct update or cancellation notification flows.
Default Status On New Sessions
Creating a new session now defaults status to Draft. It no longer inherits a previous session status such as Cancelled.
Translator Visibility In Session Setup
When a translator is added during session editing, the session setup/edit experience now reflects that assignment correctly so the role appears in setup views as expected.
Rooms Mailbox Calendar Sync (Exchange Room Mailbox)
Rooms now sends session mirror events to rooms@simpcar.co.uk using an Exchange-friendly meeting request format for room mailbox processing.
Mirror calendar requests are now sent from a dedicated sender (not from the same mailbox address), and use attendee settings that support auto-accept without response messages when the mailbox policy allows it.
This supports creating multiple meetings in the same timeslot where the room mailbox calendar is configured to allow conflicts.
Troubleshooting
If a room or control is missing, first check whether the session has been opened and whether your role is meant to see that feature.
If you expected to see a transcript, whiteboard, poll panel, reflections panel, or recording control and it is not there, the project or session settings have not enabled it for your role.
If an invitation link does not open the session, confirm that you are using the correct invitation and that the session has not already closed.
If someone appears stuck in the waiting room, check that lobby is enabled for the session and that a host or external moderator has admitted them. Only respondents and observers should require admission; hosts, external moderators, and translators should join directly.
If an export is missing, it is still processing in the background or it was not generated in that session.
If the issue continues, check with the project owner, host, or session lead so they can confirm the session setup.
For admin setup, teams can create companies and observer records, but non-admin users can only assign those records to their own managed groups.