General Viewing

The public-i Player is designed to make viewing the webcasts as easy as possible. The webcast should start automatically for you on the left-hand side of the screen with an information area appearing on the right. The information area can be used to view information from presentations, associated weblinks and documents and speaker profiles and navigate through the webcast via speaker name and agenda index points. Information may be entered into polls and surveys or feedback provided through the icons in the interactive section below the video.


Player types

Public-i webcasts are transmitted in either RealPlayer or Windows Media formats. In some instances both RealPlayer and Windows Media versions may be available; in this instance the Public-i Player will default to Windows Media format. The Public-i Player will automatically detect if the appropriate media player is installed on your computer; if it is not a link to a download page for the player will be displayed. Simply follow the instructions on the page to download and install the player - both RealPlayer and Windows Media player are free for end users.

Recent versions of either Windows Media or RealPlayer will be required for the webcast to work correctly. If you are a normal home user both players will automatically update themselves if required.

Real Player is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh based computers and can be downloaded from www.real.com.

Mozilla Firefox users: Please note that if you installed Mozilla Firefox AFTER you installed Real Player the Real plugin is not fully functional and you will not be able to use the index points to jump to specific position. To rectify this please re-run the Real Player setup and it will correctly install the plugin for Firefox.

Windows Media player is only available for Windows based PCs and Mac and can be downloaded free from www.microsoft.com.

For those that are not using Internet Explorer, or Firefox with the required ActiveX plugin, with Windows Media, it is unfortunately not possible to use the index points to jump to specific points in the meeting. A workaround for this is currently being worked on and should be available soon.


Navigation

To launch a webcast simply click on the link to the live webcast on the home page of the organisation's Microsite or alternatively go to the 'webcasts' page where all available webcasts are listed in chronological order and click on the name of the webcast of interest. This will launch the Public-i Player in a separate browser window. The webcast will start playing automatically.

Where webcast agendas, speaker profiles, links, documents and presentations are available a tab will be displayed in the Public-i Player interface to the right of the video window; click on the tab to access the supporting information. For polls and surveys, an icon will be displayed in the interactive section below the video.

Feedback can be sent to the organisation supplying the webcasting service. To send feedback click on the "Feedback" icon below the video window, fill out the form which appears in a new window and click "Submit feedback"

Online help can be accessed via the Public-i Player by clicking on the "Help" icon which is displayed below the video window.

The way in which webcasts are displayed can be adjusted to suit the viewer's preferences. By default the webcasts will display in the compact version of the Public-i Player which displays graphics and icons. A text version is also available and can be selected by clicking on the "Text" link at the top of the Public-i Player page. The text version of the Public-i Player maintains all of the features of the compact Player but has been designed to meet all rigorous standards for accessibility and offers enhanced features for those with visual and hearing differences. Settings for the Player can be adjusted either via the "Settings" icon below the video window, by scrolling to the bottom of the page on the text version of the Player or via the settings page on the Microsite.


Viewing from within a network

If you are viewing from within a corporate network it is possible that your computer has not been set up to permit the viewing of webcasts. Please contact your network administrator if you experience any difficulties.


Accessibility

The Public-i Microsite and Player has been created to be as accessible as possible in line with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Access Initiative guidelines and the Disability Discriminations Act guidelines. We have implemented a number of features to allow customisation to enhance your viewing experience – to view those features please view the accessibility page.