Run your event in real time â highlight the current item, send announcements, and keep all guests in sync.
Live Control is available on the Event, Grand Event, Multi-Day Event, Pro, and Business plans. The Free plan does not include live control.
Confirm the following before your event starts:
| Plan | Max simultaneous guests | Concurrent live sessions |
|---|---|---|
| Free | â | Not available |
| Event | 250 | 1 |
| Grand Event | 2,000 | 1 |
| Multi-Day Event | 1,000 | 3 |
| Pro | 500 | 1 |
| Business | 2,500 | 5 |
There are two ways to open Live Control:
Keep the Live Control tab open for the duration of your event. Closing it does not automatically end the live session, but you will lose your control interface.
Share your program link before going live so guests have time to open it on their devices. Once you go live, the "LIVE" banner appears on their screen immediately.
programleaf uses your program's start and end time to define the event window â the period during which full guest capacity is available. Outside that window the session runs in Test mode, which caps viewers at 5 regardless of your plan.
| Mode | When | Viewer cap |
|---|---|---|
| Test mode | More than 6 h before start, or after end + 4 h, or no event time set | 5 viewers |
| Full Live | Within 6 h of start through end + 4 h | Full plan limit |
Use Test mode to rehearse your setup, check highlights, send test announcements, and verify your connection â all without affecting your event-day capacity. All Live Control features work normally; only the simultaneous viewer count is restricted to 5.
Run a dry-run the day before your event using Test mode. Invite 2â3 colleagues to join as viewers and confirm everything looks right from their screens.
Once you are within 6 hours of your event's start time, the session automatically upgrades to Full Live mode and your plan's full viewer capacity becomes available. No action needed â the transition happens in the background.
If your event time is not set, or is set inaccurately, you will remain in Test mode during your actual event and guests beyond the 5-viewer cap will be rejected. Set your start and end time correctly in the program editor, and add a buffer of at least 30 minutes on each end to account for guests arriving early or the event running long.
Highlighting tells guests which item is currently happening. The highlighted item appears with a distinct background color (set in your design settings) on all guest screens simultaneously.
If a guest joins while a session is live, they immediately see the current highlighted item â no refresh needed.
Announcements are broadcast messages that appear as a banner across all guest screens. Use them for: delays, direction changes, reminders, or important notices.
Keep announcements short and action-oriented: "Please take your seats â ceremony begins in 2 minutes." or "Dinner is served â please proceed to the dining hall."
While live, a viewer count is displayed at the top of the Live Control page. This is the number of guests currently connected to your live session. The effective cap depends on whether you are in Test mode or Full Live mode â see Event window & test mode above.
The viewer count reflects active connections, not unique devices. A guest who refreshes their page will briefly drop and re-add to the count. Guests on slow connections may reconnect automatically.
Guests who attempt to join when the viewer cap is reached will see a "session full" message. In Test mode this cap is 5; in Full Live mode it is your plan's guest limit.
You can edit item content directly from the Live Control page without switching to the editor. This is useful for last-minute changes during the event.
Changes made in Live Control are saved immediately to the program. There is no undo in Live Control â use the regular editor for complex structural changes before the event.
Focused view is a guest-side feature that hides upcoming items â guests only see the current and past items. This creates a "reveal as you go" experience for certain event types.
Focused view is available on Pro and Business plans (plans with the "live" feature flag enabled at the higher tier).
Stopping a live session does not unpublish the program. Guests can continue to view it after the session ends.
If you close and reopen the Live Control tab for a program that is still live, the page restores to the current live state â including which item is highlighted.
Most plans allow 1 concurrent live session. Business allows 3. Attempting to go live when your limit is already reached will be rejected with an error â stop one of your other live sessions first, then try again.