Webcast 5.5 Release Notes

Released: April 11, 2021

New features

Video bridge events support 15 webcam presenters (up from our previous limit of 10). A new filmstrip layout supports two main speakers on top with others in a filmstrip below. You can promote a speaker to the top and pin them there.
Report templates. Now you can save frequently-used report configurations as templates to reduce setup time and standardize reports across events. Report templates can be shared with all webcast admins on your team. This feature is being rolled out to customers over the next couple weeks.
Extend the capabilities of your webcast by including interactive tools or features delivered by services like Slido, MeetingPulse, and Pigeonhole.
- This requires that you have an account with the service that provides the polls, real-time Q&A, surveys, or other collaboration tools that you want to incorporate in your event.
- Add a custom player tab to your event and use the embed coding from the third-party app or service.
SSO: On request, allow your webcast admins to authenticate using your organization’s Single Sign-On (SSO). Contact se@webcasts.com to learn more.

Internet Explorer 11. Beginning May 1, 2021, you will not be able to sign in to the Webcast Admin portal with IE11.
Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10 systems will be supported for viewers until August 17, 2021. Microsoft's end of life support for IE can be found here.
Reminder that support for legacy Microsoft Edge ended on March 9, 2021. The Chromium-based Edge browser is supported.

Login. If you set up two-factor authentication to secure your account, when signing in, now you can just enter the code and press Enter.
The unsupported browser error message now provides a list of supported browsers.
If your webcast account is nearing expiration, the following message is displayed when you sign in to the Webcast Admin portal and a similar message is included in the email notification.
Your Webcast account is nearing its expiration. Have questions about your renewal options? Contact Support.
You can click the logo in the top left of any page to return to My Events (the home page).
Event search now accepts three characters; previously you had to enter at least four.
We upgraded the WYSIWYG editor for custom footers on the event registration page (Registration tab > Registration footer) and event player (Event Content tab > Player Footer). The upgraded editor will be rolled out across the Webcast Admin portal in upcoming releases.
Event Summary. Click Copy to quickly copy the event URL to the clipboard.
Event Summary. The time zone for a guest admin is now the same as the event time zone; previously guest admins defaulted to Eastern time zone. In reports, the guest admin sessions are now in sync with the event.

The default tab and lobby aspect ratio is now 16:9, instead of 4:3. Most slide decks are created in 16:9 widescreen format. This change makes for a smoother transition when the event starts and slides are presented.
Mute button. The hover text on the Mute button is now translated.
Security enhancements to the Viewer test and FAQ.

Event Details now include the video size. (At the top of the page, click Calendar and click the event link to display details.)

Live Studio. If a presenter starts the webcast while slides or overlay videos are still processing, they will load automatically when they're ready, without restarting or refreshing the Live Studio.
Viewer (event player). In Slides-only view, the banner and slides were not aligned.
Guest admins. Fixed issues where a special character in the guest admin's name caused errors.