Webinar Technology Requirements and Instructions
NSSE will be using the Adobe Breeze/Connect platform provided by Indiana University to deliver its Webinars. When Adobe acquired Macromedia, the product line included Macromedia Breeze. Functionality for Connect is the same. To provide continuity, the Breeze Meeting service providers chose to keep the Breeze name at IU. Breeze allows a group of people access to an online meeting room for presentations and collaborative work.
System requirements
To participate in a NSSE Webinar or Breeze Meeting, you need the following requirements:
- An Internet connection
- 56k or above - Broadband strongly recommended. Internet connectivity issues are the most common problem encountered by online Webcast participants. If bandwidth on your campus is not sufficient to handle the broadcast in addition to all the other Internet interactions taking place there at the given time, the audio and visual portions of the event may not play "in sync" or may even not be receivable.
- One of the supported operating systems and browsers listed at http://www.adobe.com/products/connect/productinfo/systemreqs/
- Macromedia Flash Player 6.0.65 or later as a browser plug-in Note: Macromedia Flash Player is standard in most browsers. This Adobe Web page will determine if the Flash Player is installed on your computer and report the version..
- Invitees do not need a Breeze Meeting account in order to log into the meeting.
- (Optional) A sound card and speakers to hear audio broadcasts from other meeting participants
- (Optional) A microphone to broadcast audio to other meeting participants
- (Optional) A web camera to broadcast video to other meeting participants
- If you will be a Host or Presenter in a Breeze Meeting, you'll need the Breeze Meeting Add-in. You will be prompted to install it the first time you enter a Breeze meeting as a Host or Presenter, or the first time you are promoted to Host or Presenter within a Breeze meeting. If you'd like to install it ahead of time, you can do so. It is available for Windows (version 9.0.177.0) or Macintosh (version 9.0.177.0) Operating Systems.
About a Breeze meeting
- Using Macromedia Breeze Meeting, you can enter and participate in a live online meeting. You and other meeting attendees can join a meeting from anywhere in the world, as long as you have a browser, Macromedia Flash Player plug-in, and an Internet connection.
- A meeting can have as few as two or as many as several hundred attendees.
- A meeting room is an online application that you enter at a specific URL. Once in a meeting, you can see and hear various types of media, such as a live video broadcast of the presenter, a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, or a video. We do not use live video since it requires too much bandwidth.
- In real time, presenters can demonstrate software on the computer or use a whiteboard to draw or annotate images or text.
- A meeting occurs during a specific time, and then it is over.
- Upon login, you see a Flash-based interface in your browser containing "pods" (miniature windows within the Breeze Meeting interface) where content appears.
- Those in the meeting will see the presentation or the shared resource at the center of the meeting and can interact at various levels, starting with simple text chat and ranging up to controlling or manipulating the presentation/shared resource themselves, if the host or presenter permits it and enables the higher level of access.
- Participants can view Breeze Meetings on their desktop or laptop computers or in a classroom or conference room setting using computer project technology.