Webcast 5.4 Release Notes

Released: January 16, 2021

New features

Except for 480p video, these features are available by request. If you'd like the feature added to your account, contact your account representative.

• Improved high resolution video for your events:
  • All webcast events now default to 480p high resolution video (16:9 widescreen player).
  • A 720p high resolution option can be added to your account by request.
• Screen share for Video Bridge events is now available. This requires the 720p high resolution video option. You cannot screen share using Firefox at 720p.
• FINRA Compliance. Hosts can now be blind copied on all customer-facing communication sent from the webcast service, for archival purposes. This is a FINRA requirement for financial institutions.
• Schedule events to run at 5-minute intervals for more flexible event start times.
• New language templates are available. You can now set up your event in Czech, Polish, Romanian, and Vietnamese.

Updates and enhancements

• System requirements updates:
  • Windows 7 and Flash are no longer supported.
  • Minimum OS and browser versions are now iOS 12, macOS 10.14, Microsoft Edge 82, Chrome 82, and Firefox 78.
  • Minimum recommended hardware are now 2 Ghz and 4 MB RAM.
• Event Library (My Events). The event list and navigation tree at left adjust to your browser size.
• Usability improvements to make the mobile viewer experience responsive, accommodating different screen sizes.
• M4A files are now supported. On the Event Content tab, you can upload M4A audio files as primary clips. Supported audio formats are MP3 and M4A.
• Audio archives are now provided as MP3 files on the Event Summary page; previously recordings were in M4A format. The MP3 format is more widely accepted by transcription vendors.
• The expiration date for an event archive (replay) is now included on the Event Summary tab, under Event Details.
• On-Demand Studio. You can now delete a slide deck from an archived event, even if the event script for the live event contains one or more of its slides in the timeline.
  
• Q&A. On Event Setup, you can change the title of the Answered Questions tab and choose to display the total number of answered questions. 
• Reminder and follow-up emails. To ensure these emails can be sent, you must create them at least 20 minutes before the scheduled send time.
• Report updates:
  • To ensure reports include all relevant event data, we recommend waiting until 30 minutes after the event ends to run reports.
  • Audience Details report. You can see the number of people who unsubscribed from event emails.
  • System Usage report (if available). New options let you retrieve viewer counts for the event replay (Unique OD Viewers) and the Simulated Live event (Unique SimLive Viewers). The report also includes the number of slide decks uploaded per event.

Bug fixes

• Live Studio issues:
  • If a presenter joined and the event wasn't able to determine their location based on their IP address, the USA dial-in number wasn't displayed as expected.
  • Captions are cut off on audio events and video events that use the 320px player.
  • Questions with < and > characters seemed to be submitted successfully, but they were not. Added an error message to inform viewers that < and > are not acceptable characters. 
• On-Demand Studio issues:
  • Layout switches were not updated on the timeline if you used Cut Heads/Tails to adjust the start and end times of the event. Layout switches remained at their original timestamps.
• On-Demand event issues:
  • Sometimes the jump points panel (list of slides or other content changes in the event) didn't open or couldn't be closed.
  • If an event began with a layout other than the default, there was a short delay while the player switched from the default layout to the one used at the start of the event. 
• Exams and Certification. Including a pipe ( | ) symbol in the certificate title causes issues when trying to resend the certificate.
• Email & Marketing tab. When you edited a follow-up email that was scheduled at top of the hour or :05 minutes after, the minutes field was cleared and you had to fix the time before saving.

  

  

• Portal with disclaimer. When you clicked I do not acknowledge, the page showed the date December 12, 2012 and the message denying you access. The date is no longer displayed.