FAQs
What equipment do I need to watch?
1. An internet connected computer or laptop with speakers or headphones attached. You will need flash player installed, and an up-to-date internet browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer). A standard domestic 2mb broadband connection should be fine, if you have a better connection than that, then you’ll get a smoother delivery. If you have a dial-up connection, you might struggle to receive the webcast.
(Soon all you’ll be able to watch on smartphones too).
2. The website address (or URL) of the webcast and the time and date.
How do I start watching?
Just click the play button in the video window.
How can I interact?
There’s a chat facility that you can use to communicate with other viewers and the webcast online facilitator. The facilitator can answer your questions about the webcast technology and can collect your questions for the speakers you’re watching. You can also follow the event via it’s Twitter hashtag, if it has one.
What can I expect?
At the beginning, and depending on the speed of the broadband connection you have, you might experience a few glitches as the webcast “buffers”. This might be the picture freezing, or the sound cutting out. It happens because your computer has to piece back together the information it has been sent via your internet connection, and it receives a lot of information at the beginning. If a freeze happens, give it 15 seconds to see if your computer catches up and starts showing it correctly again. If a complete freeze takes place for longer than that, try refreshing your browser. (An internet browser is the programme you use to look at the internet: Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc. You can use any.)
You can refresh your browser by going to the View menu then clicking “Reload Page”.
If a webcast goes down at the point of production, the organisers will let you know via the chat facility, and all you have to do is wait to be told by them that theyre starting the webcast again. You may then need to refresh your browser .
Can I do other things on my computer during the webcast?
Yes – multitasking with other applications whilst simultaneously participating with webcast events is one of the benefits our users often comment about! Often people have other tabs open in their browser to view websites that speakers mention.
However that if your broadband connection is 2mb or lower that you close other internet-dependent applications (like email, Tweetdeck, other internet browsers); and that you just have one tab on your browser open that is showing the webcast. You can still work on that word processing or spreadsheet you were doing though!
What if I arrive late at the webcast website?
You can watch it live from the point where you arrive. After the live webcast is over, its likely that there will be an on-demand version that the event organiser will share online, meaning you can watch anytime at your leisure.
Can I share the webcast?
Yes – you can let your friends or colleagues know about the webcast through clicking on the “Share” button. There might also be a Twitter hashtag for the event that you’re watching – the event organisers will let you know this.