Create the Webcast Homepage

As a webcast producer, it is important to prepare your audience to have a positive viewing experience. The webcast home page is a key tool for doing this. It is a page where visitors can get an idea of what, where, when, and how they will be able to participate.

The webcast home page should include the following:

URL of the Webcast

A typical URL for a Webcast looks like this:

http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/encoder/tutorial.rm

Except for the actual filename (in this case, tutorial.rm), you will use exactly this URL, including the server address, /ramgen/ command, and /encoder/ location.

You select the filename. Choose a filename that is simple, brief, and "speakable".

Link to Media Player

You can help your audience achieve maximum quality for the webcast by providing a link to the current version of the appropriate player. NIS provides a list of media players for your convenience. You can simply refer your visitors to this page or add the relevant HTML to your own.

Standby Message

A standby message is a brief streaming audio or video clip informing visitors of the starting time or other relevant details for the Webcast. You must create this clip yourself. It should have the same filename that you will use for the webcast itself. Most webcast producers create an audio clip (rather than video) by speaking into a mic and encoding that voice input directly with Producer.

Once you have created the standby message, request assistance from NIS staff to upload it to the server.

The standby message accomplishes two purposes: because it has the exact URL as the live webcast, it allows you to make sure that URL is operational in advance. Second, it gives your audience a means to test that their system is ready for the event- if they can hear or see the standby message they will be able to hear or see the live webcast.