User Guide for Cisco Show and Share 5.2.x
Chapter: Live Events
Live Events
You must be logged in as a live event manager to create or run live events in Cisco Show and Share.
Concepts
•
What is a "Live-Event?" page 2
•What are "Pull" and "Push" Configurations? page 3
•What are "Encoding Formats" (Presets)? page 4
•Understand the Question-and-Answer Workflow
What is a "Live-Event?"
Some videos in Cisco Show and Share portray events while they occur, in real time. We call this video type a live event.
Other videos show events that occurred in the past. We call this video type on demand.
On Demand |
Authorized audience members can start to watch a Cisco Show and Share video on demand (VoD) file from the moment that it is published until the moment that it is deleted, archived, or hidden. Its availability might span any number of dates and hours, depending on its freshness and continued relevance. Any Cisco Show and Share audience member can start to watch a VoD from its beginning, no matter when they start to play it. Likewise, any audience member can rewind, skip ahead, or jump to different parts of a VoD at any time. You can archive or delete your own VoDs at any time. Afterward, they are no longer available. |
Live Event |
Authorized audience members can start to watch a Cisco Show and Share live event stream at a fixed date and time that is reserved in advance. After the live event is started, audience members who connect late will see the event in progress. They cannot see what came before. During a live event, audience members all see the same thing at the same time. They cannot: • • • • Later, after the live event is stopped, it is no longer available to anyone. However, if you save the live event stream to an encoded video file, you can then publish that file as a VoD (Window media files only). |
Note When you output a VoD from a live event stream that includes synchronized slides, you can publish the VoD file after the event is finished. The slides remain synchronized.
However, if you have MXE transcoding with Cisco Show and Share or if you edit the file in other video editing software, you will lose the slide synchronization instructions from your live event. This loss occurs because the synchronization data is part of the encoded video. Therefore, this data is lost whenever you re-render or re-encode the video.
Related Topics
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
•Preview the Draft of a Live Event
•Edit the Draft of a Live Event
•Publish a Listing for Your Live Event
•Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event
What are "Encoders"?
In relation to Cisco Show and Share, encoders are devices that convert video and audio to the special formats that computers use. Encoders:
1. Take in the live signals or recorded data that represent video and audio.
2. Convert and compress this information in particular ways.
3. Generate computer-playable media in the form of streams, files, or both.
Eventually, this information becomes available to its potential audience. However, the exact infrastructure, methods, and intermediate steps that make this possible all vary from one network to the next.
Video/Audio Streams |
Streams are transmitted. • • Audiences that receive a stream cannot save or edit it, ordinarily. But they can play it — at their discretion — if their computers are equipped to play it. |
Video/Audio Files |
Files are downloaded manually or cached automatically. This delivery method is ideal for on-demand. Files reach one computer at a time, any time. This method works well for video-on-demand when information confidentiality or protection is not important. Audiences that download or cache a file can save it. And they can play or edit it — at their discretion — if their computers are equipped to play or edit it. |
Cisco Show and Share is compatible with many encoders from many manufacturers. However, its features help you to manage and operate Cisco Digital Media Encoders (DMEs), specifically.
Related Topics
•What is a "Live-Event?" page 2
•What are "Pull" and "Push" Configurations? page 3
•What are "Encoding Formats" (Presets)? page 4
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
What are "Pull" and "Push" Configurations?
At a high level, Cisco Digital Media Encoders (DMEs) support two basic modes of operation, called pull and push. We will ask you to choose one of these whenever you use advanced encoder settings for a live event.
•In pull configurations, the streaming server pulls streams from the encoder. The encoder is passive.
•In push configurations, the encoder pushes streams to the streaming server. The encoder initiates.
Related Topics
•What is a "Live-Event?" page 2
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
What are "Encoding Formats" (Presets)?
We will ask you to choose an encoding format whenever you use advanced encoder settings for a live event.
Encoding formats are named collections of settings — presets — for encoders that you use with Cisco Show and Share. We include many of these presets in our factory-defined default settings for Cisco Show and Share. However, the administrators for your Cisco Show and Share community are authorized to create, change, rename, and delete encoding formats at any time.
Each named encoding format specifies:
•A media output type, such as WMV.
•Dimensions, such as 640x480, that are suitable for a particular type of playback device.
•A bandwidth consumption rate that is optimized for the expected network capacity.
•The overall quality (bitrate, frame rate, and more).
Related Topics
•What is a "Live-Event?" page 2
Understand the Question-and-Answer Workflow
Live events in Cisco Show and Share can include options for remote participants to submit written comments and questions. When you use this feature, the workflow can involve several members of your Cisco Show and Share community. This topic describes all phases during the expected sequence of events.
1. Leaders for your Cisco Show and Share community buy and install a feature license.
2. Leaders for your Cisco Show and Share community choose whether to allow audience questions during live events generally.
Note If your community does not allow audience questions generally, this workflow stops here. No one can use this feature while it is turned Off sitewide.
3. You choose if your particular live event should support audience questions and comments.
4. A live event moderator — possibly you — chooses when to start accepting audience questions.
5. Audience members write and send their messages in real time, from the same Cisco Show and Share page where they watch your live event.
6. The live event moderator pre-screens these incoming questions and comments as they arrive. Moderators can:
•Move any high-priority questions to the Presenter's View tab.
•Move any low-priority questions to the Removed Questions tab, either manually or automatically by keyword.
•Use keyword filters to see and manage only the messages that match those keywords.
7. The presenter then responds to any number of these pre-screened questions and comments. (These are messages that the moderator moved to the Presenter's View tab.)
The following illustration represents phases 5 through 7 in the question-and-answer workflow.
Procedures
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
•Preview the Draft of a Live Event
•Edit the Draft of a Live Event
•Publish a Listing for Your Live Event
•Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event
•Download Questions From Your Live Event
Create the Draft of a Live Event
You can prepare for a live event before it will occur. This preparation is considered a "draft."
Note•No one will see any listing for your live event until you prepare and publish a listing.
•No one can watch your live event until you start it.
Before You Begin
To succeed at this task, you must have Live Event User privileges. In addition:
•Administrators for your Cisco Show and Share community must:
–Install a license to activate support for live events.
–Configure Cisco Show and Share to work with at least one encoder.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Show and Share from the global navigation.
Step 2 Click My Account, and then click Create a Live Event.
Step 3 Click DME Live Event.
Step 4 (Optional) If the Live Event Basic Setup drawer is closed, click its toggle to open it.
Step 5 Enter a name and description for your live event.
Step 6 (Optional) Enter tags that express important concepts about your live event.
Step 7 Enter the video stream's URL (on the streaming server), and then choose an encoder from the Encoder list.
Never use the Encoder URL except for testing.
Do one of the following:
• |
Default settings are simplified and streamlined for your convenience. 
Just enter the date and time manually when your live event will start and stop. OR Click |
• |
In addition to date and time management controls that work like those in the default settings, advanced settings offer rich options for customization. 
You can specify the encoding format (preset)1 , channel2 , and publishing mode3 , the signal cable inputs for video4 and audio5 , which input standard6 to use, and whether to save a permanent copy of your live event so you can republish it later as a VoD. |
to choose a date from a calendar. Then, choose time values from lists. 1 An encoding format is a named collection of predefined encoder settings. You might think of them as presets. Each encoding format serves a distinct purpose. 2 Your Cisco Show and Share administrator can tell you which ports and modes a particular channel supports. 3 Should the streaming server pull streams from the encoder? Or should the encoder push streams to the streaming server? If you are not sure, ask your Cisco Show and Share administrator. 4 The video input options are Composite (RCA) and S-Video. 5 The audio input options are Unbalanced (RCA) and XLR Balanced. 6 The variant of NTSC, PAL, or SECAM that your country uses as its video input standard for television. |
Step 8 (Optional) If the Live Event Images drawer is closed, click its toggle to open it.
Step 9 Click each of the Browse buttons to choose, one at a time, which JPEG images Cisco Show and Share should use in support of this live event.
•Audiences will see the thumbnail image when they browse through available videos.
•Audiences who try to watch a live event before it actually begins will see the pre-event image until the live-event stream is started.
•Audiences who are connected to a live event after it ends will see the post-event image until the live-event stream is stopped.
Note You cannot save any draft of your live event setup until you choose all of these images.
Step 10 (Optional) If the Optional Items drawer is closed, click its toggle to open it, so that you can turn advanced features On or Off.
Note You cannot see or use any advanced feature here that a Cisco Show and Share administrator has turned Off sitewide.
a. Choose whether to use the Question and Answer module during this live event.
When this module is turned On, remote audience members can submit questions to presenters in real time.
b. Choose whether to use the Polling module during this live event.
When this module is turned On, audiences can respond to polling questions that you ask. Your poll can include any number and combination of true/false questions and multiple-choice questions.
When you write a multiple-choice question, you must also write at least two possible answers to the question.
•Click Add more polling replies to add an answer.
•Click 
to delete an answer.
•Click Add another question to expand upon your poll.
•Click Preview Poll to see your poll as authorized viewers will see it.
Tip Remember, a poll is not a quiz. Poll questions do not measure knowledge. Instead, they measure sentiment, comfort, or familiarity. For this reason, a polling question might never have any "right" or "wrong" answer.
Step 11 (Optional) Click Browse to choose related files for upload. We will attach these files to your live event so that authorized viewers can download them after the event is started.
Note The Related Files feature is visible only after you choose DME Live Event as the live event type.
Step 12 Click Save as Draft.
Step 13 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
What to Do Next
•Would you like to preview your live event draft and confirm that you defined its properties correctly? See the "Preview the Draft of a Live Event" section.
•Would you like to edit your live event draft? See the "Edit the Draft of a Live Event" section.
•Would you like to publish a listing for your live event? See the "Publish a Listing for Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to start your live event and administer it? See the "Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to delete your live event draft? See the "Delete Your Live Event" section.
Preview the Draft of a Live Event
After you save a live event draft and before you publish it, you can preview it.
Before You Begin
To succeed at this task, you must have Live Event User privileges. In addition, you must create and save a live event draft before you can preview it.
Procedure
Step 1 Navigate to the Preview a Live Event page.
a. Click My Account.
b. Ensure that the Videos drawer is opened.
c. Click the Live Events tab.
d. Mouse over the live event draft, and then click Play.
Step 2 Click Back when you are finished.
Step 3 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
What to Do Next
•Would you like to edit your live event draft? See the "Edit the Draft of a Live Event" section.
•Would you like to publish a listing for your live event? See the "Publish a Listing for Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to start your live event and administer it? See the "Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to delete your live event draft? See the "Delete Your Live Event" section.
Related Topics
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
Edit the Draft of a Live Event
After you save a live event draft and before you publish it, you can edit any of its settings.
Before You Begin
To succeed at this task, you must have Live Event User privileges.
Procedure
Step 1 Navigate to the Edit a Live Event page.
a. Click My Accounts.
b. Ensure that the Videos drawer is opened.
c. Click the Live Events tab.
d. Mouse over the live event draft, and then click Manage Video.
The Edit a Live Event page opens.
Step 2 Change options, settings, and values, as needed.
Tip These are the same options, settings, and values that you saved when you created your live event draft.
Step 3 Click Save as Draft.
Step 4 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
What to Do Next
•Would you like to preview your live event draft and confirm that you defined its properties correctly? See the "Preview the Draft of a Live Event" section.
•Would you like to publish a listing for your live event? See the "Publish a Listing for Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to start your live event and administer it? See the "Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to delete your live event draft? See the "Delete Your Live Event" section.
Related Topics
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
Publish a Listing for Your Live Event
You can publish a listing for your live event. Doing this helps other Cisco Show and Share community members to plan ahead. An event listing tells them:
•What — You plan to host a live event.
•Why — Its purpose.
•When — Its start and stop times.
•Who — The identities of your scheduled presenters and intended audience.
Before You Begin
To succeed at this task, you must have Live Event User privileges. In addition:
•Administrators for your Cisco Show and Share server must:
–Install a license to activate support for live events.
–Configure Cisco Show and Share to work with at least one encoder.
•You must create and save a live event draft before you can publish a listing for it.
Procedure
Step 1 Navigate to the Publish a Live Event page.
a. Click My Account.
b. Ensure that the Videos drawer is opened.
c. Click the Live Events tab.
d. Mouse over the live event draft, and then click Publish.
The Publish a Live Event page opens.
Step 2 Check values in the Live Event Summary drawer.
Step 3 (Optional) Click Edit to start correcting any values that are wrong.
Note When you click Edit, we close the Publish a Live Event page and open the Edit a Live Event page in its place.
Step 4 Check values in the Category and Permission Options drawer.
to delete a category from your list. 
to delete a user or group from your list.
Step 5 Check values in the Scheduling drawer.
•Click Immediately when you want the listing to become visible right now.
•Click At a scheduled time when you want the listing to become visible at a set time in the future.
a. Click 
to choose a date from a calendar.
b. Choose time values from the lists.
Step 6 Click OK to publish the listing for your live event.
Step 7 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
What to Do Next
•Would you like to start your live event and administer it? See the "Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to delete your live event draft? See the "Delete Your Live Event" section.
Related Topics
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
•Edit the Draft of a Live Event
Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event
You can use the Live Event Administration page to turn On the availability of a live event stream. Then, after the stream is started:
•Audiences can watch your live event in real time through Cisco Show and Share.
•You can administer special features as the event moderator.
–Did you activate the "Question and Answer" feature when you prepared your live event draft? If so, audience members can submit questions for the presenters to answer. And then, as the event moderator, you can pre-screen these questions for the presenters before they respond.
–Did you activate the "polling" feature when you created your live event draft? If so, you can run an ad-hoc survey spontaneously during your live event. Or, if you prepared an audience survey and saved it as part of your draft, you can run that survey during your live event. Members of the remote viewing audience can then use Cisco Show and Share to submit their answers to your survey questions.
–If your organization's encoder is a Cisco Digital Media Encoder (DME), did you activate the "slide show" feature when you created your live event draft? And did you then upload a ZIP archive that contains sequentially numbered JPEG copies of presentation slides for your live event? If so, you can sync the slide deck to your event in real time.
Note Administrators for your Cisco Show and Share server are authorized to turn these special features On or Off, at their discretion. You cannot see or use any feature that is turned Off.
Before You Begin
To succeed at this task, you must have Live Event User privileges. In addition:
•Administrators for your Cisco Show and Share server must:
–Install a license to activate support for live events.
–Configure Cisco Show and Share to work with at least one encoder.
•You must save a live event draft before you can start and administer it.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Show and Share from the global navigation.
Step 2 Navigate to the Administer a Live Event page.
a. Click My Account.
b. Ensure that the Videos drawer is opened.
c. Click the Live Events tab.
d. Mouse over the live event draft, and then click Administer.
The Administer a Live Event page opens.
Step 3 If your organization uses a Cisco Digital Media Encoder (DME), click Start for Encoder and then Start for Broadcast in the "Main administrative controls" panel to start your live event stream.
OR
If your organization uses a third-party encoder, turn it On in its usual way.
Step 4 Do any or all of the following.
) moves a question to the Presenter's View tab. 
) moves a question to the Removed Questions tab. 
Step 5 If your organization uses a Cisco Digital Media Encoder (DME), click Stop for Broadcast and then Stop for Encoder in the "Main administrative controls" panel to stop your live event stream.
OR
If your organization uses a third-party encoder, turn it Off in its usual way.
Step 6 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
What to Do Next
•Would you like to edit your live event draft? See the "Edit the Draft of a Live Event" section.
•Would you like to publish a listing for your live event? See the "Publish a Listing for Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to start your live event and administer it? See the "Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event" section.
•Would you like to delete your live event draft? See the "Delete Your Live Event" section.
Related Topics
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
•Visual Reference: Administer a Live Event
Download Questions From Your Live Event
You can download a list of the questions submitted by your audience during a live event.
Before You Begin
You must have Live Event User privileges, be the administrator of the live event, and be logged into Cisco Show and Share to perform this procedure.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Show and Share from the global navigation.
Step 2 Choose My Account > Videos > Live Events.
A list of the live events that you administer appears.
Step 3 Mouse over the live event for which you want to download the question list, and then click Administer.
The administration page for the live event appears.
Step 4 Click Export Questions.
A dialog box prompts you to specify a download location for the question file. The exact dialog box that appears depends upon the browser you are using.
Step 5 Use the dialog box to specify the download location. By default, the file is named QuestionsReport.txt. However you may be able to rename the file upon download.
The file contains the question asked, the time it was asked, and the status of the question.
Step 6 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
Delete Your Live Event
You can delete your live event draft.
Before You Begin
To succeed at this task, you must have Live Event User privileges and be the administrator for the live event you want to delete.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Show and Share from the global navigation.
Step 2 Navigate to the Delete button.
a. Click My Account.
b. Ensure that the Videos drawer is opened.
c. Click the Live Events tab.
d. Mouse over the live event draft, and then click Delete.
Step 3 When a server prompt asks you, click Yes to confirm the deletion.
Step 4 Verify that a system message tells you the deletion was successful.
Step 5 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
Related Topics
•Create the Draft of a Live Event
•Preview the Draft of a Live Event
•Edit the Draft of a Live Event
•Publish a Listing for Your Live Event
•Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event
Reference
•Supported Dimensions for Encoded Video
•Supported Encoding Bitrates for Flash Video on DMEs
•Supported Encoding Profiles for Windows Media on DMEs
•Visual Reference: Administer a Live Event
Supported Dimensions for Encoded Video
We support these dimensions for video. All dimensions are in pixels.
•Show and Share Default 400x300
•FULL 640x480
•CIF 320x240
•QCIF 160x120
•CUSTOM
Supported Encoding Bitrates for Flash Video on DMEs
We support these encoding bitrates for video. All values are in kbps.
•32
•40
•56
•64
•80
•96
•112
•128
•160
•192
•224
•256
•288
•320
Supported Encoding Profiles for Windows Media on DMEs
Capture Profiles for Windows Media 9 Conversions
•Convert To Windows Media 9 (2M)
•Convert To Windows Media 9 (1.5M)
•Convert To Windows Media 9 (768K)
•Convert To Windows Media 9 (350K)
•Convert To Windows Media 9 (50K) for Mobile Streaming
Capture Profiles for Broadband
Film
•Video for broadband film content (1500 Kbps total)
•Video for broadband film content (768 Kbps)
NTSC
•Video for broadband NTSC (1500 Kbps total)
•Video for broadband NTSC (2 Mbps total)
•Video for broadband NTSC (256 Kbps)
•Video for broadband NTSC (384 Kbps)
•Video for broadband NTSC (768 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Broadband (NTSC, 1400 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Broadband (NTSC, 700 Kbps)
PAL
•Windows Media Video 8 for Broadband (PAL, 384 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Broadband (PAL, 700 Kbps)
Variable Bitrate
•Windows Media 8 Best Quality based VBR for Broadband.
•Windows Media 8 Fair Quality based VBR for Broadband
•Windows Media 8 High Quality based VBR for Broadband.
Capture Profiles for Color PDAs
•Video for color PDA devices (150 Kbps)
•Video for color PDA devices (225 Kbps)
Capture Profiles for Dial-up Modems and ISDN
•Video for dial-up modems or LAN (28.8 to 100 Kbps)
•Video for dial-up modems or single channel ISDN (28.8 to 56 Kbps)
•Video with audio emphasis for dial-up modems (28.8 Kbps)
•Video with voice emphasis for dial-up modems (28.8 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Dial-up Modems (28.8 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Dial-up Modems (56 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Dial-up Modems or LAN (28.8 to 100 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Dial-up Modems or Single-channel ISDN (28.8 to 56 Kbps)
•Video for e-mail and dual-channel ISDN (128 Kbps)
•Video for LAN, cable modem, or xDSL (100 to 768 Kbps)
•Video for single-channel ISDN (64 Kbps)
•Video for Web servers (28.8 Kbps)
•Video for Web servers (56 Kbps)
•Windows Media 9 (1.5M)
•Windows Media 9 (2M)
•Windows Media 9 (350K)
•Windows Media 9 (50K) for Mobile Streaming
•Windows Media 9 (768K)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Color Pocket PCs (150 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Color Pocket PCs (225 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for LAN, Cable Modem, or xDSL (100 to 768 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Local Area Network (100 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Local Area Network (256 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Local Area Network (384 Kbps)
•Windows Media Video 8 for Local Area Network (768 Kbps)
Visual Reference: Administer a Live Event
The top of Administer a Live Event page shows in real time how your live event looks to its audience.
Tip This area is blank until you start the live event stream.
Lower on the Administer a Live Event page are areas where you can:
•Start or stop the live event stream.
•Moderate the written questions and comments that audience members submit for your event's presenter.
And then, at the bottom of the Live Event Controller page, you can manage audience polling.
Related Topics
•Start and Administer (Moderate) Your Live Event
Troubleshooting
There is a delay between when I select a slide as a Live Event administrator and when it appears on the viewer's screen
When you select a slide, the slide synchronization information is embedded in the video stream itself. There is a built-in latency of about 7-10 seconds that is used for buffering the video stream (for smoother playback). When the video stream arrives at the viewer's browser, Cisco Show and Share retrieves the slide indicated by the embedded information. So, although you might see a delay from when you select a slide from the admin console to when it appears on a viewer's desktop, the delay applies to both the video and the slide and viewers should not notice any lag. This is normal behavior.
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