RoseBud Technologies, Inc.
Lync Online Webinars Last Modified: September 11, 2012
Contents
Lync Online ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Contents ................................................................................................................ 1 Credits ................................................................................................................... 1
Overview ................................................................................................................... 2 1. Organising the Webinar ..................................................................................... 3 2. Hosting the Webinar ........................................................................................ 10
Lync Clients ...................................................................................................... 10 Access & Permissions ......................................................................................... 10 Content Sharing ................................................................................................. 12 Additional Features ............................................................................................ 15
Credits Author: Greg Wartes – RoseBud Technologies, Inc. 770-926-5030
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Overview
1. Organising the Webinar
2. Hosting the Webinar
3. Recording and Distributing the Webinar
4. Conclusion
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1. Organising the Webinar
There are two ways to create an Online Meeting (webinar) with Lync. The first is via
an Outlook plugin (see below).
Although this way is the fastest,
it assumes default settings for your meeting. For the sake of this blog, we will focus on
the second way - via the "Lync Online Web Scheduler" (https://webdir0b-
ext.online.lync.com/Scheduler/).
The Web Scheduler is a browser-based application where you can create and manage
your Online Meetings.
Firstly you will be prompted to sign in with your Windows Live ID (see below).
Once logged in, you will have the option to “Create New Meeting” (see below).
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The “Create New Meeting” link will open a form with basic meeting options, broken
down into:
General
Meeting Time
Access and Presenters
Invitations and Audio (see below)
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For setting up a webinar, the most important options are those under “Access and
Presenters”.
Firstly, decide “Who will bypass the lobby” (see below). The lobby is an area where
attendees wait to be admitted – until this has been done, they have no access to the
meeting (audio, content sharing etc.). Lobby permissions can be quite granular and will
depend on how you wish to control access to your webinar.
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Secondly, decide “Who is a presenter” (see below). We will explore the differences
between Attendees and Presenters in detail a little further on.
Essentially, a presenter is anyone who can control the sharing of content (whether that
be a presentation, application or desktop view). You can also promote Attendees to
Presenters during the meeting, so I usually set this option to “Organizer Only”.
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Once you’ve saved your settings you will receive your meeting link (see below). This
is the link your attendees will need to use to join the webinar. Note that this link will
not change and will remain active until your online meeting has expired (determined
by the time set on the “Meeting Settings” screen).
Having generated a meeting link, you will now be able to review your meeting settings
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and “Join Info” through the “Meeting Summary” interface (see below).
One feature that is worth exploring quickly is the “Export as iCalendar” tab (see
below). An “iCalendar” or “iCal” is a small file that contains meeting information. If
you use Outlook, opening an iCalendar file will automatically add the meeting
information to your personal calendar.
iCalendars are great for webinar promotion as they allow attendees to easily reserve
time for the event and act as a reminder.
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The "Export as iCalendar" link will prompt you to "Open" or "Save" the file (see
below). Choose "Save".
Once saved, your iCalendar file (see below) is ready for distribution.
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2. Hosting the Webinar
Hosting a webinar with Lync is easy, but running one smoothly requires a basic
understanding of:
Lync Clients
Access & Permissions
Content Sharing
Additional Features
Lync Clients
There are 3 Lync clients with varying functionality, the full client, the “Lync Attendee”
client and the “Lync Web App” client.
Full client: This contains all the features of Lync, but requires a Lync license (through
traditional CAL licensing or through Office 365).
Lync Attendee client: This client contains many of the features of Lync and almost all
the features a webinar attendee might require (two-way audio, content sharing etc.).
This client is free, but requires a download.
Lync Web App client: This client contains only a few features of Lync and only the
bare minimum for a webinar attendee. This client is also free. Attendees using the Wep
App can hear audio but need to dial-in to use their microphone.
It is useful to make webinar registrants aware of the various clients as soon as possible.
Those that opt for the Lync Attendee client will need to make time to download and
install, those that opt for the “Lync Web App” client may need to arrangements to dial-
in etc.
Access & Permissions
There are 3 key levels of access in Lync Online meetings, but they will vary depending
on how you configure "Access & Permissions" in the "Meeting Settings" (see above).
The Lobby: If the online meeting has restricted access, users will have to wait in the
lobby until they are admitted by a presenter (see below). Those in the "The Lobby"
have no access to features or content.
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As webinar registrants may turn up late, it is worth having another presenter assigned
to "Admit" users from the lobby so that it does not distract you from presenting.
Attendees: Attendee is the default permission for users joining the meeting, either
directly or after being admitted from the lobby (see below). Attendees are able to
participate in Instant Messaging and Audio / Video but are not able to share content
(e.g. a presentation, application or desktop view)
.
Attendees can be promoted to presenters by existing presenters.
Presenters: Presenter is the default permission for the meeting organizer and any users
the organizer has specified in the "Meeting Options". Presenters are able to "Admit" or
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"Deny" those in the lobby, promote Attendees to Presenters, share content and more.
They are the meeting administrators.
Content Sharing
Presenters are able to share 3 main types of content:
PowerPoint Presentations
Programs (AKA Applications)
Desktop Views (Main, Secondary or All Monitors)
This content is shared with attendees and presenters on an area of the Lync client
referred to as the "Stage".
For the purpose of this blog, we will explore sharing a PowerPoint Presentation in
more detail (see below). Although some webinars may include software
demonstrations - for which the Programs sharing is ideal - most if not all involve
PowerPoint Presentation sharing.
Having selected "Share > PowerPoint Presentation", you will be prompted to locate a
PowerPoint Presentation on your machine for upload. Although the upload speed is
pretty good (it's never taken me longer than 5 minutes per presentation), it is worth
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uploading your presentation in advance - particularly if you have multiple presenters or
large file sizes (see below).
In my experience of hosting webinars across a number of Web Conferencing platforms,
I've always found that:
Many of your registrants will turn up around 5 minutes late
Some of your attendees will have technical difficulties
For that reason, I tend to begin my presentations with a couple of opening slides.
A pole is a good way to keep early attendees engaged whilst you wait and can provide
valuable insights (see below). These can easily be set up and configured in the "Share"
drop down.
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A slide with some instructions can help frustrated users with technical difficulties (see
below). Encourage them to use Instant Messaging to describe their problem and
yourself or another presenter can address their issue.
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With your presentation uploaded and your attendees settled you can begin your
webinar. Simply use the presentation navigation (located in the bottom-right hand
corner of the client) to move between slides (see below)
Additional Features
To add some extra interactivity and creativity to presentations, you may want to take
advantage of the"Annotation" tools. These allow presenters (or presenters and
attendees, depending on permissions) to annotate and highlight the slides being shared
(see below).
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If you would like to share promotional material with your attendees, such as a PDF or
the presentation itself, you can use the "Attachments" tool to upload these and make
them available for download (see below).
