A virtual presenter that talks to your audience while you stay in control

Key facts

How an AI live stream host works with IAMX

You build the character in IAMX Studio. During the show, it answers queued viewer comments aloud the same way it answers any typed question, while the picture and the broadcast stay with your own tools.

• Comment source: a script you run posts your platform's chat comments to IAMX.
• Operator console: IAMX queues the comments for an operator to manage.
• Renderer: an Unreal Engine build in cloud mode or the character open in a browser.
• Encoder: OBS or a similar tool captures the renderer and streams it to your platform.

Comments pile up unanswered until a renderer is connected. Keep exactly one renderer open, and use a character that is not live on your website during the show: another open session of the same character, such as a Studio preview tab or a website visitor, can take over or duplicate the answers, and exact operator lines play in every open session.

The operator console: you decide what gets answered

While your character is connected in a renderer, the operator console lets you queue, prioritize, skip, ban and hand-answer viewer comments, which the AI character answers aloud. You can move a good question to the front, requeue a skipped one, write your own reply for the character to read, or pause new comments while you talk yourself. Comments that arrive while intake is paused are discarded, not held.

Operators can make the character say an exact line, such as a sponsor read, or a hand-written reply to a comment, without the AI model when it uses a free built-in voice or your own TTS provider key; IAMX-included ElevenLabs voices and realtime provider voices cannot speak these lines. These lines play on every live session of that character at once. Their lip sync is prepared in the MetaHuman format, so a web 3D avatar may play the audio without matching mouth movement; test it first.

In Unreal deployments, operators can also stop the character mid-answer. With a browser renderer, the MUTE and EMERGENCY buttons do not interrupt the character (EMERGENCY still discards waiting comments), and the queue is answered oldest first apart from comments you move to the front.

Bringing viewer comments into the queue

Any chat source you can script, such as YouTube, Twitch, Kick or your own site, can forward comments to your IAMX queue through the authenticated comment API with an IAMX API key. IAMX has no native connectors for these platforms, and it handles chat only, so the character does not react to gifts, likes or follows.

Built-in spam rules for rate limits, repeated messages, links and banned words can automatically ban viewers. The rules are on by default, apply to your whole workspace and ban a viewer on the first matching comment, including a harmless link, so set them for the audience you expect before going live. Moderation is rule-based, not AI-based.

Going live with an AI host, step by step

Confirm each piece before your audience arrives.

1. Check the voice

   Preview the character's voice in IAMX Studio. For exact operator lines and hand-written replies, use a free built-in voice or your own TTS provider key.

2. Start one renderer

   Open the operator console, select the character, then launch your Unreal Engine build in cloud mode or open the character in a browser, and close any other open session of that character. An NPC status appears in the console's status bar once a renderer is connected.

3. Test and set rules

   Create an IAMX API key for your chat script, post a test comment from the console's Test Message tab, listen for the answer in the renderer and adjust the spam rules.

4. Go live

   Run your chat script once the stream is live, capture the renderer and its audio in OBS or a similar encoder, and stream to your platform as usual.

Each AI answer uses your plan's usage units, a busy chat produces many answers, and a character on a realtime voice model uses units faster than a standard character. The live stream guide describes the console controls.

A virtual host for events, stages and screens

IAMX characters can present at events full screen in a browser or inside your Unreal Engine project, and an operator can push exact lines from the same console with a free built-in voice or your own TTS key; on a web 3D avatar such a line may play without matching mouth movement. In Unreal deployments, the operator can also stop the character mid-answer. The IAMX Unreal Engine plugin provides prebuilt Windows 64-bit packages for Unreal Engine 5.3 to 5.8 and needs a network connection to IAMX.

For a display or digital human kiosk, the published character page has a full-screen button; device lockdown is set up in the browser or operating system. Visitors can tap the microphone once to keep talking hands-free after the browser is allowed to use the microphone. After a set period of inactivity, a web 3D character can play an animation, a video or a spoken greeting to attract visitors; sound plays only after audio has been enabled on the device.

When Continuity is enabled on a public character, visitors can scan a short-lived, single-use QR code to carry their recent conversation to their phone.

Scripted presentations in the web 3D scene

For planned segments, the Performance Timeline in IAMX Studio arranges animation, narration, music, video, cards and camera shots on a shared clock, and the Scene Director chains your actions, waits and information cards into a guided presentation. Uploaded voice-over narration gets prepared lip sync from the server, so your AI presenter avatar speaks your recorded script.

A Scene Director presentation can start when a visitor taps the scene or after an inactivity delay. With Continue after a conversation turned on, a visitor question pauses it, and the interrupted action restarts from its beginning after the answer. Narration and music wait until audio has been enabled on the device, and animations need a web 3D avatar. These presentations run in the web 3D scene, not in LiveFace, Pixel Streaming or Unreal.

Short clips for your own channels

IAMX Studio can record the web 3D scene of your branded character for up to 60 seconds in the browser, with tab audio where your browser supports it, or save a PNG snapshot when you need a still image. Recording a Scene Director presentation with uploaded narration lets you capture a short scripted segment. LiveFace and Pixel Streaming output are not recorded, and you publish to social networks with your own tools.

Frequently asked questions

Related pages

• Live stream operator guide
• Digital human kiosk
• MetaHuman AI in Unreal Engine
• Avatar Studio
• All use cases