  The increasing adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) systems in different domains
have led to a need to support interaction between many spectators and a VR
user. This is common in game streaming, live performances, and webinars. Prior
CSCW systems for VR environments are limited to small groups of users. In this
work, we identify problems associated with interaction carried out with large
groups of users. To address this, we introduce an additional user role: the
co-host. They mediate communications between the VR user and many spectators.
To facilitate this mediation, we present StreamFunnel, which allows the co-host
to be part of the VR application's space and interact with it. The design of
StreamFunnel was informed by formative interviews with six experts.
StreamFunnel uses a cloud-based streaming solution to enable remote co-host and
many spectators to view and interact through standard web browsers, without
requiring any custom software. We present results of informal user testing
which provides insights into StreamFunnel's ability to facilitate these
scalable interactions. Our participants, who took the role of a co-host, found
that StreamFunnel enables them to add value in presenting the VR experience to
the spectators and relaying useful information from the live chat to the VR
user.
