Channels

AI podcast hosts

Two of your characters host a show on air. You set the topic, start the show, steer it live and decide which viewer comment each host reads.

Open the console from the top bar: Channels › Podcast (page title Podcast Console). In podcast mode two of your characters talk to each other rather than to a visitor. Host A opens the show and puts the first question to Host B, and they keep going around your topic, reacting to each other. You steer from the console: hand a viewer comment to the host who should read it, make a host say a line word for word, or stop the show.

The Podcast Console with the Host A and Host B header, the OFF AIR badge, Start and Stop, and the Setup, Live transcript and Viewer comments panels. — The **Podcast Console** before a show: the header shows **Host A** and **Host B** with an **OFF AIR** badge and **Start** / **Stop**. Choose the hosts under **Setup** on the left first: **Live transcript** needs both hosts and **Viewer comments** needs Host A, as their empty panels say.

Both hosts must already be running. Each host is a character running in a podcast-capable Unreal Engine build with the IAMX plugin, connected with its own character ID, before you press Start. If Host A is not connected, the console says Host not connected: no running scene found for Host A and the show does not start.

Setting up the show

Fill in the Setup card on the left:

Field	What to put in it
Host A (opens the show)	The host who opens the show. Viewer comments are collected for this character, so point your comment bridge at Host A.
Host B	The partner. Each list leaves out the character chosen in the other, so the two hosts are always different characters.
Topic	One line, for example "artificial intelligence in education" or "this week in football".
Notes / sub-topics	Points you want covered, the tone you want, anything to avoid.
Rules (pinned into both hosts on every turn)	Hard constraints, such as "never name competitors" or "keep answers under a minute". A rule that stops the hosts fixating on the audience (answer the comment, then go back to talking to each other) is always added for you.

Pressing Start sends Host A an opening brief — your topic and notes, and an instruction to talk like a real podcast in its own configured language rather than read a list — and asks it to welcome the listeners and put the first question to its partner. The console header shows both hosts by name and its badge switches to ON AIR. Your rules are applied when the show starts; to change them mid-show, press Stop and then Start again.

Your setup is stored in this browser, so leaving the page does not lose it. The on-air state is kept on the server: if you close the page mid-show, the show carries on and the console shows ON AIR again when you come back.

Running the show

Viewer comments are yours to choose

This is the important difference from a normal live stream: while the show is on air, nothing is answered automatically. Comments arrive under Viewer comments and wait. Pick the good ones and press the microphone button with Host A's or Host B's name on the comment. The console confirms Handed to …, and that host reads the comment into the conversation on its next turn.

That is deliberate. A two-host show falls apart if it stops every fifteen seconds to read "hi from Türkiye". Choosing a few good questions an hour makes a far better programme.

Control	What it does
Microphone button with a host's name	Hands that comment to that host.
Skip / Delete	Clears a comment out of your list.
Freeze / Open	Closes or reopens comment intake, for a segment you do not want interrupted.
Clear	Deletes the entire comment feed, after you confirm.
Refresh (circular arrow)	Reloads the list. While the show is on air, it also refreshes by itself every few seconds.
Test comment box	Enter a name (@viewer) and a comment, then Send. It goes into the same intake your comment bridge uses, so you can test the flow before the audience arrives.

Making a host say something exactly

The Say verbatim card takes a line of text and has one button per host. The chosen host speaks it word for word, bypassing the AI. Sponsor reads, corrections and “we'll be right back” all go through here. The console confirms Spoken, or tells you the host is not connected.

Watching it happen

The Live transcript in the middle merges what both hosts have said, Host A on the left and Host B on the right, and updates every couple of seconds while you are on air. It is also the fastest way to notice a show drifting off topic; a line in Rules and a restart puts it back.

Ending the show

Press Stop. Both hosts leave podcast mode and the badge returns to OFF AIR.

Always press Stop at the end. While a show is on air, automatic comment answering is suspended for both hosts — that is what stops them reading every arriving comment mid-discussion. Because the on-air state is kept on the server, the suspension stays in place until you press Stop, even if you close the console. Stop always clears it, even when the console reports that the stop could not be delivered to a host.

Broadcasting it

It works as with a normal live stream: IAMX produces the conversation and your encoder produces the broadcast. Capture the window your two hosts are rendered in with OBS, add the audio and stream to the platform. See Going live for the full setup, including the TikTok comment bridge — point it at Host A.

When something goes wrong

What you see	What it means
Host not connected: no running scene found for Host A when you press Start	Host A has no running Unreal session, or the build is not the podcast-capable one.
Host not connected — the comment was not delivered	The host you picked is not running. Start it, or hand the comment to the other host.
The badge says ON AIR but nothing is happening	The start message reached Host A, but the show did not begin. Press Stop, check that both hosts run the podcast-capable build, and start again.
A host reads every viewer comment by itself	The show is not on air. Comments are held for you only while the badge shows ON AIR. Press Start.
Comments are never read	Working as intended — only the comments you hand to a host are read.
The transcript is empty	Pick both hosts first. If it says Nothing yet — press Start., the hosts have not said anything yet or are not actually connected.
Your setup vanished	Setup lives in the browser you typed it into. A different browser or cleared site data starts fresh.

Where to go next