Broadcast vs. Community vs. Silent: Choosing Your Show Mode
Broadcast vs. Community vs. Silent: Choosing Your Show Mode
The three ways to run a live show on Stagefront — and when to use each one.
One of the most underrated decisions you’ll make before any live performance is how you configure the relationship between you, your fans, and the audio in your space. Get it wrong and you end up with a chaotic open-mic situation when you meant to headline, or a sterile broadcast when you wanted an intimate hang.
Stagefront has three Show Modes, each designed for a different performance context. Here’s how to think about them.
📡 Broadcast Mode
Voice: You speak. Fans are muted.
Chat: Global feed on + private fan DMs on.
In Portals Space Options: Enable Mute All Guests + disable Global Speaking.
When to use it
Broadcast is your headlining mode. It’s for when the performance needs to be the only thing fans are hearing — your album release show, a ticketed performance, a full set with no interruptions.
Fans are present and active — they can type in the global chat feed and send you private messages — but their voices don’t bleed into the audio. You’re not running a panel discussion. You’re performing.
The fan experience
Fans enter your 3D space as avatars, walk toward the stage, and hear your audio get louder as they approach. They can react in the global chat, DM each other privately, and feel the energy of a live crowd — they just can’t interrupt the performance with their microphone.
Best for
- Album release shows
- Ticketed headline performances
- Sets where audio mix matters
- Any show where you need clean audio from start to finish
🗣️ Community Mode
Voice: Everyone can talk. Spatial audio is fully on.
Chat: Global feed on + private fan DMs on.
In Portals Space Options: Enable Global Speaking. Leave Mute All Guests off.
When to use it
Community is your intimate mode. It’s best for listening parties, small-scale shows where you want to feel the crowd, Q&As after a performance, or creative hangs where conversation is part of the experience.
Because spatial audio is active across the whole space, fans can talk to each other as they move through the venue. Groups will naturally form — someone standing near the stage bar might strike up a conversation with a fan who wandered over. This is the show mode that makes the 3D venue feel like a room.
The tradeoff
Open mics in a space with more than ~30 people can get noisy. If you’re running a Community show and things get chaotic, you can temporarily mute specific fans from your dashboard Fan Chat Controls panel — you don’t have to switch the whole show to Broadcast to regain control.
Best for
- Listening parties (new album playthrough + discussion)
- Intimate shows under 50 people
- Q&A sessions after a performance
- Creative workshops and collaborative events
- Fan meet-and-greets inside your 3D space
🤫 Silent Mode
Voice: All audio muted. No one speaks.
Chat: Private DMs only. Global feed is off.
In Portals Space Options: Enable Mute All Guests + disable Global Speaking + disable Text Chat (Portals’ built-in chat, not Stagefront’s).
When to use it
Silent Mode is for experiences that don’t need voice or public chat at all — but still want presence. Think ambient music installations, visual art shows, meditation or sound bath sessions, or experimental performances where the interruption of any speech (even in text) would break the experience.
Fans can still communicate with each other through private DMs via Stagefront’s sidebar — but those conversations don’t appear anywhere public. The global space is clean.
The experience
It’s the closest thing to watching someone perform in a gallery. You’re there. Others are there. The space has energy. But nobody’s talking over the work.
Best for
- Ambient music or drone performances
- Sound bath / meditation sessions
- Visual art installations with accompanying audio
- Experimental or immersive experiences
- Any performance where silence is part of the aesthetic
Switching Modes Mid-Show
You can switch Show Mode from your dashboard at any time during a live show — the change takes effect immediately. Some artists start in Community for pre-show, switch to Broadcast when they start performing, and switch back to Community for the post-show hang. That’s a perfectly valid setup.
The Quick Reference
| Mode | Voice | Fan-to-fan chat | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📡 Broadcast | You only | Global + DMs | Headline sets, releases |
| 🗣️ Community | Everyone | Global + DMs | Listening parties, Q&As |
| 🤫 Silent | Muted | DMs only | Installations, ambient |
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