Question regarding Webinars and if the host suddenly disconnects

[staceya1987]

Hi there,

I run Webinars as a part of my job, and have done for the last year or so. I've never had an issue where I've lost internet or power during a Webinar, until today when I was part way through another meeting (on another platform) and our internet went down.

My question is, if I lose internet while hosting a Webinar, what happens to that Webinar? Does it end for everyone, or will the "hosting" go to one of the people on the panel? Do I need to make someone a co-host when they join the Webinar, so that if this happens it automatically swaps the hosting abilities over to them, and the Webinar continues?

I also record the Webinars (to the cloud, not my computer) as a part of my role in hosting them, will the recording continue automatically?

I've tried Googling this and couldn't get a great answer, so thought it would be easier to ask on here!

Thanks

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @staceya1987.

Yeah, this is a tough question.  I've never seen a definitive answer in the Zoom documents, and frankly there are probably way more ways to "disconnect" than any of us wants to know, and each way might have it's own behavior.

I can say that I have seen cases where, if there is only one Host and no Co-Hosts, all attendees and panelists get tossed into a Waiting Room-like space, and when the Host re-appears, everyone gets brought back in.

The best practice, as you seem to have figured out, is to always assign some trusted soul as a Co-Host.  My experience there is that if the Host "departs unexpectedly", the Co-Host is made the Host, and when the other person returns if they are the meeting owner, they are given the option to "Reclaim Host".

There is a 4-year old answer (the answer is 4 years old... not the person who answered 😂) on Reddit that claims that a Panelist will also get picked if there is no Co-Host assigned when the Host loses connection, but I don't know if that's still true.

And sorry, I don't know what happens to the Cloud Recording in this case.  Maybe someday I'll put together a test to see what happens in the various cases.

[staceya1987]

Thank you!! I've started adding co-hosts after our internet outage yesterday, as a just-in-case. It never even crossed my radar as a potential issue until the net crashed yesterday and I was kicked out of my meeting.

I guess I wait and see what happens if it goes down again, and hope for the best! Might do some testing myself if I can find some willing participants among my workmates.

Thanks for your help 😀

[SteveLindell]

This happened to us today.  All hosts and co-hosts except one were broadcasting a webinar from an offsite event.  The venue lost internet for 3 minutes. The user name of the "lone ranger" alternative host (who was watching from our building) was a lifeline.  Our company is small enough that attendees knew he was a host, so I don't think anyone dropped off.

If anyone would like to be "loaded for bear" you might follow our lead (lucky as it was!), and embed an alternative host at a different location.  You may even have have them re-name themselves "Please Stand By" or something like that.