With Observer Rooms, you can invite team members and stakeholders to livestream user interviews without intimidating or distracting the participant. Observer Room links are automatically generated and included in a separate calendar invite to observers.
Witness live user interactions and get unfiltered user insights straight from the source without interrupting the flow. It's like having a front-row seat to the action without accidentally stealing the spotlight.
Set Up Observer Rooms
Observer Rooms can be enabled for any Interview Study that uses Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams. Enable Observer Rooms by following the steps below from the Studies page.
Navigate to the 'Scheduling' section while editing a new or existing Interview Study.
From the sidebar, select 'Event Setup'. You must select either Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams as the interview Location to enable Observer Rooms.
From the sidebar, select 'Observer Room'.
Enable Observer Rooms
Toggle on the Observer Room to continue with setup.
Observer Room Guests
Select '+ Add Teammate' and type or select their name from the dropdown.
This method is preferred, as if a Rally user added as an Observer Room guest has connected their calendar to Rally, the event invitation will be added directly to their calendar, as well as receiving an email invitation.
Select '+ Add Email Address' to input any email address of teammates or stakeholders that do not have a Rally account in your workspace.
Observer Room guests added by email will receive an email invitation.
Note for Observers
Add a custom message for the Study that only Observers will see during the livestream.
This is a great place to add context on the specific research you'll be conducting during this interview, or to let Observers know where they can best share their thoughts and feedback on the session.
Once interviews are scheduled, if you are the interviewer, you will see both your scheduled interview event and your Observer Room event on your calendar.
Once you publish the Study and interviews get booked, Observers will receive a separate email with the Observer Room link to watch the session live. Participant PII is protected, meaning that Participant names and emails will not be shown.
💡If a Rally user added as an Observer Room guest has connected their calendar to Rally, the event invitation will be added directly to their calendar!
👁️ If a Rally user added as an Observer Room guest is logged in to Rally and has permission to view PII, they'll see the Participant's name in the Observer Room.
🚨 Please note that when using Zoom for interviews, if your Participant has their camera disabled, Zoom will show their name (PII) in it's place by default.
During The Interview
Admit the Notetaker
As the interview host, you'll ensure your Observer Room is available for live-streaming by admitting the recording bot. We suggest joining your interview meeting before the start time to confirm you are all set. 5 minutes before each interview starts, a recording bot (automatically set to "Notetaker") will request to join the interview. It must be admitted by the host of the interview. The Notetaker automatically records the interview once admitted - no need to record the interview manually.
Note: Observer Room recordings do not currently include transcription.
If you want to record & livestream with an Observer Room and also record with Zoom simultaneously for any reason, you can enable recording permissions for both!
Delay Observer Room Livestreaming and Recording
Some customers need to begin a participant interview without starting recording in order to confirm their consent to being recorded, or may wish to conduct certain elements of the interview before allowing the Observer Room's "Notetaker" bot to begin livestreaming and recording the call.
Zoom: Delay Observer Room livestreaming and recording for Zoom meeting interviews by enabling the "Waiting Room" setting in Zoom. This setting will apply for all Zoom meetings created from your account by default, not just for Rally meetings.
From your web browser, login to your Zoom account.
Navigate to your Personal Settings and select the "Meetings" tab or go to https://zoom.us/profile/setting?tab=meeting
Enable the Waiting Room setting so that when any participants (including the Observer Room "Notetaker" bot) join a meeting, they are placed in a waiting room and require the host to admit them individually.
Now, as the host joining any Rally interviews with Observer Rooms enabled, the "Notetaker" bot will sit in the waiting room until you are ready to admit it.
When you're ready to record, "Admit" the Notetaker. You will then receive a prompt to "Allow Recording" to begin recording the session and livestreaming to the Observer Room.
🚨 Note that enabling Waiting Rooms for Zoom will require you as the host to manually admit interview participants to the meeting as well!
Google Meet: Briefly delay Observer Room livestreaming and recording for Google Meet interviews by waiting to admit the "Notetaker" bot for less 5 minutes after the interview's scheduled start time. While Google Meet guests from your organization will be admitted automatically, external accounts will have to be manually admitted, including the Observer Room bot and any Participants.
Important note: The "Notetaker" bot will join the interview 5 minutes before the scheduled start time and will timeout after 10 minutes in the waiting room due to a Google limitation. If you have not allowed the bot to join within 5 minutes of the interview start time, manually send the bot to the meeting again.
Join the Observer Room
Observers will join the Observer Room for each interview by clicking on the link provided to them in the email or calendar invite that they receive at the time of interview booking.
Add Observers After Scheduling Interviews
Additional Observers added to Studies after Participants have scheduled interviews will not automatically get email or calendar invites to existing Observer sessions, but they will automatically get email or calendar invites for all future sessions scheduled after they have been added as Observers. Late-addition Observers can also join the Observer Room from the Study Overview page in Rally even if they have not been added. You can also manually add them to the calendar invites of already-created sessions since they should have been created with your calendar.
Join or Share the Observer Room Link
There are multiple ways to find, view, or share an Observer Room. Navigate to the Studies page, select the relevant Study to open the Study Overview page, and select 'Observer Rooms' from the sidebar.
On the right, next to the relevant Interview, select 'Watch' to view the live stream or recording.
Select 'Share' and then 'Copy Link' to share this Observer Room with your teammates. Make sure to also copy and share the auto-generated unique password.
If you need or want to manually create a missing or additional Observer Room calendar event invite, use this share link and password to create an Observer event on your calendar to invite teammates and stakeholders.
If an interview booking does not have an Observer Room created for it, such as if it was booked before you enabled Observer Rooms for the study, you can manually add an Observer Room to an existing interview booking or manually send the Observer Room bot to an interview.
You can also share the link yourself by navigating to the Observer Room and clicking the 'Copy link' button. To reach the Observer Room for any interview, go to your Study’s Interviews page, select the three dots for the interview you want to view, and select 'View Observer Room'. Switch between Upcoming and Completed interviews by selecting the tabs at the top.
After The Interview
A recording of the interview will be available after the call is complete. Team members will be able to view and share a link to the recording page at any time. Your workspace admin can configure who can download recordings in Observer Rooms Settings (admins only, or admins and study teammates).
From the Study, select 'Observer Rooms' from the sidebar.
Select the 'Past' tab at the top to view completed interviews.
On the right, next to the relevant Interview:
Watch: Select 'Watch' to view the recording.
Share: Select 'Share' and then 'Copy Link' to share this Observer Room Recording with your teammates. Make sure to also copy and share the auto-generated unique password.
Download: Select the 3 dots ... and 'Download' to download the recording.
Alternatively, select 'Watch' on a completed Observer Room to open the recording and then select the 'Download' button in the bottom right corner.
If your Observer Room included multiple recordings, you can switch between them here by selecting the 'Recording 1' or 'Recording 2' tabs above the Observer Room video to choose which to download.
Download Observer Room from Study
Download Observer Room recording from Watch link
Past Observer Room with multiple recordings
View Observer Rooms Settings to see how Admins can configure security settings, including who can access Observer Rooms or download recordings, and how long recordings are stored.
Manually Add Observer Room or Observer Bot
Add Observer Room to a Scheduled Interview
If you have upcoming interviews for a Study that were booked before Observer Rooms were enabled for the Study, you can add an Observer Room to a meeting after scheduling. First, you must edit the Study to enable Observer Rooms and save the changes. After enabling Observer Rooms for the Study, you can add an Observer Room to any upcoming interview from the Study Overview or Interviews page.
Navigate to the relevant Study. You can stay on the Study Overview or select 'Interviews' from the sidepanel to complete this action.
Select the three dots ... to the right of any upcoming interview and select 'Add Observer Room' from the dropdown.
In the popup, select 'Confirm'.
Repeat these steps for any interviews booked before Observer Rooms were turned on for this Study.
Send Observer Bot to an Interview
If you're not seeing the "Notetaker" Observer bot show up in your interview to record it, you can manually send the Observer bot to a meeting from your Study Overview in Rally.
Navigate to the relevant Study. You can stay on the Study Overview or select 'Interviews' from the sidepanel to complete this action.
Select the three dots ... to the right of any upcoming interview and select 'Send Observer Bot To Meeting' from the dropdown.
In the popup, select 'Confirm'.
While the "Notetaker" Observer bot usually joins immediately, it may take a few minutes to join the meeting. When Notetaker joins, admit it and select 'Allow Recording' if prompted.
Zoom Settings Recording Permissions
Confirm you have the following settings enabled in Zoom to allow for Observer Rooms.
Local recording setting is enabled: Make sure to enable your global user-level local recording setting in Zoom user settings.
Enabled permitting participants to record locally: Make sure you enable these settings by checking the boxes labelled:
Internal meeting participants
External meeting participants
