Configure and Enable Live Webcasting

Overview

The administrative tasks for live webcasting involve a variety of configuration and setup items, and consists of these phases:

1. Prepare the infrastructure.

2. Train Academic Staff to use live webcasting.

3. Enable live webcasting for the section or special event.
4. Notify students of the live webcast.
5. Monitor the live webcast, if necessary.
6. Control the live webcast as needed. 

Prepare the Infrastructure

The architecture for live events consists of:

• A source: The EchoSystem SafeCapture HD or the Echo360 PRO
• A reflector: The Wowza Media Server (Wowza) to stream live Flash media content
• A sink: One or more EchoPlayers that allow students to view the content

Preparing the infrastructure consists of these phases:

1. Enable licensing.
2. Registering the ESS with Echo360's Collaboration and Statistics Service (only required if using chat and presence features of live webcasting).
3. Configure the Wowza Media Server, including configuring the system streaming settings for the ESS.
4. Optional - Distribute live webcasts with a CDN.

If you are currently using an Internal configuration of Wowza, and the combined load of live webcasts and on-demand recordings exceeds the capacity of the media server, you will want to convert to an External configuration of Wowza. Furthermore, the use of Wowza v4 with EchoSystem requires you to use an External configuration.

See Configure the Flash Media Streaming Server and Configure an External Wowza Media Server for media server configuration information as needed.

Enable Licensing

1. Update the ESS to use the EchoSelect license. This license includes live webcasting as an option.
2. Do one of the following:
   
   1. If you have a site license, continue with the configuration. See Configure the Wowza Media Server
   2. If you have venue licenses, assign the licenses to venues (typically classrooms) that will have live webcasting.

Configure the Wowza Media Server

1. Make sure the Wowza Media Server has a production license. Each viewer receiving the live webcast requires, at least, four connections to the Wowza Media Server and may need as many as seven. Development or staging licenses do not have enough connections to support a typical class.
2. Estimate your anticipated media server requirements for both live webcasts and on-demand recordings. See Deployment Planning and Bandwidth Requirements for Capture and Media Formats.
3. Install and configure your Wowza Media Server. See Configure the Flash Media Streaming Server and Configure an External Wowza Media Server for external configuration instructions.
4. Reconfigure the firewall ports for the Wowza Media Server.
5. Review, and if necessary, edit the Streaming Settings.

Optional - Distribute Live Webcasts with a CDN

Echo360 does not provide a CDN integration, but you can integrate your Wowza Media Server with certain CDNs as described in this article: http://www.wowza.com/partners.html. Please also see the push publishing article on the Wowza Support forum. The RMTP solution described requires some custom configuration on the Wowza server.

Enabling live webcasting consists of the following phases: 

1. Determine which sections might have live webcasting, and verify those sections occur in rooms containing a SafeCapture HD device.
2. Configure product group defaults and security settings for the section. 
3. Configure a schedule for the section. The section must be scheduled in a room containing a SafeCapture HD device.
4. Review the Person and Section roles for the section. Make sure you have a Teaching Assistant assigned to the section.
5. Notify the students/participants as necessary.

The sections below explain how live webcasting configuration differs from on-demand capture configuration.

Configure Product Group and Security Settings for the Section

If a section will typically use live webcasting as a normal part of its schedule, or there is a Special Events section dedicated to live webcasts of specific events, assign a live-enabled product group to those sections as the default. You can always select a different product group when scheduling the section if necessary.

Default Product Group selections include different bandwidth options, including low bandwidth streaming for mobile connections. Users can view live webcasts on mobile iOS devices, however, depending on which product group is selected for the webcast, a WiFi connection may be required for the event to stream smoothly.

If there are no existing live-enabled product groups that suit the needs of the section, you can configure a custom product group. See Manage Product Groups for details on product groups.  

Security defaults for a section determine whether students need to log in to view the Echoes or live webcasts for a section, or if the section outputs, including any live webcasts, are available to anyone with access to the proper URL.

The portion of the Edit Section page that contains these settings is shown in the figure below.

1. Use the Product Group drop-down list to select a live-enabled product group. The selected product group is passed through to each schedule you generate for this section, however, you can select a different product group for each schedule if appropriate.

2. Use the Security Module drop-down list to identify how users access captures for this section (either live webcasts or Echoes).

   • If you select Allow All, users are not required to log in to view any live webcasts or Echoes published for this section. This also means that the chat and presence capabilities for the live webcast are also disabled because these features require users to be identified (via their logins).
   • Selecting a different Security Module will require authentication (student login) in order to access the live webcasts or Echoes, and also allows the use of the chat feature for live webcasts if you have the Collaboration and Statistics Service  configured for your system.

For more information on adding and configuring sections, see Manage Sections.  

Configure a Schedule for a Live Webcast Section

All live webcasts must be scheduled. You can schedule a live webcast as late as 15 minutes before its start time.

Use the following steps for every section or event that needs live webcasting. The steps below assume you have already created a live-enabled product group as well as the section you must now schedule. See Manage Product Groups and Add a Section for more detailed information on those tasks.  

1. Navigate to the Schedules page (Schedule > Schedules).
2. You can create a new schedule for the section OR edit an existing schedule to do live webcasting:  
   
   • Select the section you want to schedule with live webcasting using the Term, Course, and Section drop-down lists. Click Add New.
   • Find the section you want to edit to include live webcasting from the Schedules list. Hover your mouse over the section and click the edit button that appears.
3. Select or if necessary, change the room where the section occurs. The room selected MUST have a SafeCapture HD capture appliance. Live can only occur in venues that have a SafeCapture HD. 
4. Configure or review the Date and Time, Exclusions, Presenters, and Echo Defaults settings.
5. Review or edit the Product Groups selection for the section.
   
   • If you choose a product group for which live is required, the Stream Live field is checked but grayed (dimmed) because there is no need to configure it.
   • If you choose a product group for which live is optional, the Stream Live field can be enabled or disabled as shown in the below figure. Enabling this check box generates a live webcast URL and allows students to view the section in real time.
     

     

6. Review the Echo Defaults section of the Schedule Details page. Be sure that the Echoes Initially Unavailable checkbox is NOT checked, as shown in the below figure. Uncheck the box if necessary.
    
   
7. Click Save.
8. Review the schedule settings. Be sure the Stream Live setting under Product Groups reads Yes.
9. Click Activate to activate the schedule.
10. When the Schedule Details page refreshes after activation, notice, in the Course/Description section of the page, there is a Next Live Event Link entry followed by a URL, shown in the figure below. If appropriate, you can disseminate this link via email or by posting it on a website, to allow students to join the webcast. The EchoCenter page for the section also provides access to the webcast. For more information on providing access to the scheduled live webcast, see Notify Students. 
    
    

Administer the Live Webcast

As an Administrator, you can monitor and control the live webcast as it is happening. The Instructor may also monitor and control the webcast through the instructor interface for the live webcast. 

Monitor the Live Webcast

You may want to monitor the SafeCapture HD inputs prior to the start of the live webcast, and monitor at least the initial few minutes of the presentation to make sure all of the sources are being webcast correctly. There are two ways to monitor a live webcast:

• Use the Monitor tab in the ESS interface.
• Use the Monitor tab in the SafeCapture HD appliance's user interface.

To monitor the webcast through the ESS interface:

1. In the ESS, navigate to Monitor > Summary.
2. The Capturing tab is active by default. If there is a current live webcast being captured, it is listed on the Capturing tab along with a Monitor link in the Streaming column, as shown in the below figure. 

   

3. Click the Monitor link. This opens the EchoCenter page for the live webcast section in a new tab.
4. Click to join the live webcast in progress. The student view of the webcast appears, allowing you to see the output being viewed by students.

To monitor the webcast through the SafeCapture HD appliance interface:

Below is an abbreviated procedure for this task. See Log In to the EchoSystem SafeCapture HD for more detailed instructions.

1. In the ESS, navigate to Configuration > Devices.
2. Look for the SafeCapture HD device in the room where the live webcast is taking place. If necessary, use the Search drop-down lists to filter which devices are shown.
3. Click the MAC address for the device. The Device Details screen opens.
4. In the Device Details screen, click the Local IP Address. A new browser tab opens, connecting to the device.
5. When prompted, enter your Administrator user name and password. The interface to the device appears, with the Capture tab active by default.
6. Click the Monitor tab to activate it. One of two monitoring tasks will be available:
   
   • If the webcast has not yet started, click Start Monitoring to review the inputs being received for the webcast. This is the feed the students will see once the webcast begins.
   • If the webcast has begun, the Monitoring tab shows the inputs being broadcast. This is the feed that students are seeing. The figure below shows the Monitor tab of a SafeCapture HD device. Notice that the figure shows both a Video and a Display feed.
     
7. When finished, click Stop Monitoring. If the webcast has begun, simply close the browser.

Capture Control of the Live Webcast

Live webcasts can be controlled much the same way that Ad Hoc recordings are controlled. This includes the ability to pause, resume, extend, and stop a live webcast. In fact, you use the same interface features. If you have integrated the capture appliance with an AMX or Crestron system, there are no changes to enable capture control functionality through the capture device API.

In the same way that pausing an Ad Hoc recording suspends the capture of a classroom's activities, pausing a live webcast suspends the broadcast of the event or class until the webcast is resumed. 

Typically the Instructor or Teaching Assistant (TA) for a section controls the live webcast. However, as an Administrator, you may want to manipulate a live event if you are:

• Testing the configuration to be sure everything is set up correctly, or
  Managing a special event, such as a guest speaker, and want to control the event broadcast as it occurs 

There are two ways to access the capture control features of a live webcast:

• Using the administrative access to the capture appliance
• Using the instructor interface of the live webcast screen

To use the administrative access method:

1. Navigate to Configuration > Devices.
2. Look for the SafeCapture HD device in the room where the live webcast is taking place. If necessary, use the Search drop-down lists to filter which devices are shown.
3. Click the MAC address for the device. The Device Details screen opens.
4. In the Device Details screen, click the Local IP Address. A new browser tab opens, connecting to the device.
5. When prompted, enter your Administrator user name and password. The interface to the device appears, with the Capture tab active by default, shown in the figure below.  
   

   

6. Use the Stop Capture, Pause Capture, and Extend Capture buttons as follows to manipulate the live webcast:

• • Stop Capture - Ends the live webcast. Note that you cannot restart a webcast; you must create a new one if you stop the webcast by mistake.
  • Pause Capture - Temporarily suspends the capture or broadcast of events in the venue. Useful for short breaks in the event or for the time taken to set up a classroom activity that may not need to be captured or broadcast. Once paused, the button changes to Resume Capture.
  • Extend Capture - Allows you to add time to the scheduled event, if necessary. Note that you cannot extend the time of a webcast past the start time of the next scheduled capture for the device.