What is MeetUp Studio?
Khul Ke is a community platform built around meaningful conversations. At its core is RoundTables, structured discussion formats for creators and educators.
MeetUp Studio is the live broadcast control room built on top of Khul Ke Meet. It lets hosts run professional-grade webinars, panel discussions, and live events without a production crew.
The challenge was designing a surface that felt like a broadcast console, not a video call, for hosts ranging from first-timers to seasoned producers.
The canvas is what the audience sees, everything else is backstage.
- Reduced median time to first broadcast from 3min → 47 seconds
- 8/8 test participants found GO LIVE button on first attempt
- SUS Score of 84 (Excellent), up from 62 in the prior version
Setting the Stage
Khul Ke & RoundTables
Khul Ke is a community platform for structured conversations. RoundTables are its signature format, moderated panel discussions between 2-8 guests, streamed live to an audience.
Khul Ke Meet
The underlying video conferencing engine that powers all live events. It handles media streams, participant connections, and the technical plumbing behind every broadcast.
Redesign the Broadcast Surface
The existing broadcast UI was a direct port of the Meet interface, functional but not designed for live production. The brief: make it feel like a proper studio, not a patched-up video call.
The Core Tension
A community host wants to run a panel discussion, invite 4 guests, show their faces to an audience, share a presentation slide, and broadcast it all to Facebook and Khul Ke simultaneously. They have no production crew, no technical background, and can’t afford to fumble on-air.
Compose
Set up the visual layout, who’s on screen, where, how big, before going live
Send Everywhere
Push the live stream to multiple destinations, Facebook, Khul Ke, with one tap
Stay in Control
Manage guests mid-stream, admit from waiting room, mute, remove, without disrupting flow
Success Criteria
- A non-technical host can set up and go live in under 60 seconds
- Zero ambiguity about what the audience sees, the canvas is the preview
- Power users (Komal-type) can access granular controls without cluttering the default view
What We Learned
| Tool | Mental Model | Setup Time | Where It Hurts |
|---|---|---|---|
| StreamYard | TV Production | ~4 min | Scenes metaphor confuses newcomers; no mobile layout |
| Restream Studio | Broadcast Console | ~6 min | Too many panels; overwhelming for casual hosts |
| Riverside | Recording Studio | ~3 min | Excellent quality but live streaming is secondary |
| Zoom + Live | Video Call | ~2 min | Feels like a call, not a broadcast; no branding controls |
| MeetUp Studio | Live Stage | 47s (target) | Balanced & Intuitive, canvas-first, no scene metaphor |
Participant 1
I always have to have a second person monitoring the chat and clicking ‘Bring to Stage’ because I’m focused on the content.
Participant 2
I feel like a juggler. Managing guest entry, slides, and chat all at once, something always drops.
Participant 5
Is this actually live? I can never tell if my audience is watching or if something broke. The UI gives me no confidence.
Design Tension
Anjali Dixit
Community Manager, Women-in-Tech Non-Profit
29 · Bengaluru
I want it to feel like Zoom for me, but look like television for them.
Goal
Run her monthly Women-in-Tech RoundTable and broadcast it live to Facebook and Khul Ke without needing IT support or a producer, while keeping her full attention on the conversation.
Frustration
Every tool she’s tried puts setup steps after she’s already greeted her guests, she ends up apologising for technical delays on camera.
Komal Sharma
Independent Broadcast Producer
34 · Mumbai · ~12 livestreams/month
I’ll forgive a missing feature. I won’t forgive a feature I can’t find.
Goal
Deliver polished, multi-destination live shows for agency clients, managing lower-thirds, layout transitions, and vertical format previews in real time without breaking her production rhythm.
Frustration
Advanced controls are buried under menus that don’t survive a live stream, she’s built workarounds that add 10 minutes of pre-show ritual for every client brief.
Design TensionAnjali wants fewer decisions; Komal wants more handles. I resolved this by making the canvas a direct manipulation surface, Anjali never opens it, but every Komal-grade control lives there for the asking.
Decisions That Defined the Product
One Canvas, Not Scenes
Competitors use a “scenes” metaphor borrowed from OBS, you compose scenes offline, then cut between them. We abandoned this for a live canvas. What you see is what the audience sees, always.
Layouts Are Previews, Not Labels
Layout chips show a miniature visual diagram of the actual arrangement, not text labels like “Grid” or “Spotlight”. Users instantly understand the output without mental translation.
Destinations Are First-Class Chips
Streaming destinations are not buried in settings. They live in the top bar as toggle chips, grey when inactive, colored when active. The host always sees where they’re streaming.
Mobile Frame as First-Class Layout
Most viewers consume live content on mobile (9:16). We added a Mobile Frame layout chip that recomposed the canvas into a vertical format, treating mobile as a primary output, not an afterthought.
One Red Button, Binary State
No “Start Broadcast”, “Begin Streaming”, or “Go Live Now”, just one button. Pre-live: large red GO LIVE. During live: same button becomes END LIVE. Binary, irreversible states with full confirmation.
Waiting Room Off by Default
Guests entering the waiting room don’t disrupt the live canvas. The guest rail is a separate zone, hosts see who’s waiting and can drag-admit them to the stage. Separation prevents accidental on-air moments.
Prototype
Outcomes & Validation
- SUS Score
- 88/100
- Setup Time
- -35%
- Host Rating
- 4.8
- Guest Retention
- +50%
System Usability Scale (Iterative)
Host Independence Post-Release
Reflection & Future
Lesson: Onboarding is everything
Even with a simple UI, the stress of being “Live” makes users lose focus. We learned that a guided ‘Tech-Check’ walkthrough reduced first-time anxiety by more than half.
Future Roadmap
Ability to transition from a normal Khul Ke Meet session into Studio mode.