How to Create a VDO.Ninja Room and Manage Guests as a Director

Updated

Create a room on VDO.Ninja by opening the site and using the Create a Room panel, where you set a room name, an optional password, guest access rules, and director options. Once inside, you join as the director, and the room's Control Center lets you mute guests, disable their cameras, approve join requests, and control what guests see. This works for group calls and multi-guest productions where you want one person managing the feed rather than everyone controlling their own.

Create the room

  1. Go to the VDO.Ninja site and open the Create a Room section.
  2. Enter a Room Name. This is the identifier guests use to find the room.
  3. Optionally set a Password. Note that if you use SSO for the room, the manual room password is disabled — SSO rooms use a managed room secret instead.
  4. Choose guest access:
    • Public — no sign-in required for guests.
    • Require SSO — guests must sign in.
    • Allowlist only — restrict to specific users or emails. The allowed list is comma-separated and accepts entries like @handle or email:*@domain.com.
  5. Set director options as needed:
    • Require director approval before guests can join — you approve each guest manually.
    • The guests can see the director, but not other guests' videos — hides guest feeds from each other.
    • The director will be performing as well, appearing in group scenes — include yourself in the output.
    • Preferred Video Codec — Default, VP9, H264, VP8, or AV1.
  6. Enter the room in the director's role when prompted. You can change these settings later in Room Settings.

Manage guests from the Control Center

The Control Center is where the director runs the room. From there you can:

  • Mute a guest — the room shows "The director has muted you" on the guest's side.
  • Disable a guest's camera temporarily — the guest sees a notice that their camera was disabled.
  • Approve or reject join requests — pending requests appear for the director to close or accept.
  • Invite others using the room's Control Center invite tools.

A few practical notes from the room setup:

  • Disabling video sharing between guests improves performance. If guests don't need to see each other, turn this on.
  • Only invite guests you trust. The room warns that a director or authenticated remote controller can remotely change a guest's camera, microphone, URL, and digital video effects while the page is open.
  • Recording is considered experimental — treat it as a test feature, not a guaranteed capture.

What guests experience

When a guest joins, they grant camera/microphone access and wait for the camera to load. Their page shows the room name and status messages such as "Only the director can hear you currently" or "The director has muted you." Guests can also use Data-only mode, where no local camera or mic is published.

For the best experience, the setup page recommends: keep the device powered, use a wired connection instead of Wi-Fi, use headphones/earphones, close other video or calling apps, use a quiet room, and face a light source.

Common questions

Can I just chat instead of directing? Yes — join the room as a Participant rather than a director if you only want to chat and not manage the room.

Can I customize the room further? Yes — advanced URL parameters are available to customize rooms.

What if I lose the room? If a previous session is found, you can load it from the prompt.

What about the "WHEP share active" status? This means the room is advertising a WHEP source to room peers via the data channel — relevant if you're routing the stream into another player or studio rather than just the browser view.