Getting started with HD Meeting Webinar.

WindstreamEnterprise

OfficeSuite HD Meeting® Webinar allows you to broadcast a high-definition video meeting to up to 10,000 view-only attendees, depending on the size of your webinar license. Webinar licenses start at a capacity of 100 participants and scale up to 10,000 participants.

As the host or a panelist, you can share your screen, video, and audio in a webinar, while attendees can use the chat or question and answer options to interact with the host and panelists. 

Webinars can require preregistration—with the option for the host to add custom registration questions—or registration can be turned off for attendees to join by simply clicking a link at the time of the webinar. Webinars can be held once, can reoccur in a series, or can be the same session held multiple times. 

See comparison of HD Meeting versus Webinar features. 

This post covers: 

• Purchasing a webinar license 
• Registration for webinars 
• Registration approval 
• Scheduling a webinar 
• Inviting attendees and panelists 
• Starting a webinar 

Prerequisites 

• Must purchase a Webinar plan of 100, 500, 1000, 3000, 5000, or 10000 participants 
• Host user type must be Licensed and be assigned the Webinar add-on 
• HD Meeting desktop client must be the most current version 
• HD Meeting mobile app must be the most current version 

Note: HD Meeting Rooms and CRC (H.323 and SIP) devices can join a webinar and be a panelist, but they cannot be the host of the webinar. 

For attendees to have feeds in 720p or 1080p quality, the respective quality needs to be enabled by Windstream Support. After contacting support, please allow up to 5 business days for the feature to be enabled. All other prerequisites for 720p or 1080p Group HD must be met as well. 

Purchasing a webinar license 

You can purchase a webinar license by visiting the WE Connect Portal and going to the ‘License’ page > select ‘HD Meeting’ > purchase webinar license. The user you are assigning the Webinar license to must have an active HD Meeting license before adding webinar to the user. You can also contact your account representative or Support for assistance.  

Registration for webinars 

There are two approval methods for webinars that require registration. 

1. Automatically Approve - All registrants to the webinar will automatically receive a confirmation email with details on how to join the webinar. 
2. Manually Approve - The host of the Webinar will manually approve or decline a registrant’s approval. If a registrant is approved, they will receive an email with details on how to join the webinar. 

Webinars that require registration will have registration customization with Webinar Reports including the custom fields. 

Scheduling a Webinar 

• Learn how to schedule a Webinar that requires registration 
• Learn how to schedule a Webinar without registration 

Notes: 

• A non-recurring webinar ID will expire 30 days after the meeting is scheduled for, but the webinar cannot be started after the scheduled date/time. If you edit the webinar in the ‘Previous Webinars’ tab and reschedule for a later day, it can be started again and will remain on your list of previous webinars for another 30 days past the new scheduled date. You can restart the same webinar ID as many times as you would like before the scheduled date. 
• A recurring webinar ID will expire 365 days after the webinar is started on the last occurrence. You can re-use the webinar ID for future occurrences. 
• Scheduled webinars can be started at any time before the scheduled time. The links will not expire or become invalid unless it is past the scheduled date for a non-recurring webinar or has not been used for over 365 days for a recurring webinar. 

Inviting attendees and panelists 

Panelists are full participants in the meeting. They can view and send video, screen share, annotate, etc. Panelists count towards the maximum number of attendees for your webinar. Please note that panelists will receive a direct email invitation separate from the attendees of the Webinar. 

Adding panelists 

You can invite a person to be a webinar panelist. 

1 . Sign into the HD Meeting web portal. 

2 . Click Webinars. 

3 . Click the topic of the webinar you want to add panelists to. 

4 . On the Invitations tab in the Invite panelists section, click Edit. 

5 . Enter a name and email address to invite them.  

 6 . (Optional) Select Add Another Panelist to add more panelists. 

7 . Click Save to send invites to the added panelists. 

If you checked Send invitation to all newly added panelists immediately, they will be sent an email invitation after you click Save.

Notes: 

• You can add up to 1,000 panelists, depending on meeting capacity. 
• You can delete and add panelists any time prior to the Webinar.

Recurring webinars  

If a webinar is recurring, the user will be a panelist for all webinars in that series. If you want them to join as a panelist for one webinar occurrence only, you will need to add them as a panelist before the webinar that you want them to be a panelist for and remove them before the next occurrence. 

Importing panelists using a CSV file 

If you want to add many panelists to a webinar, you can specify the panelists in a CSV file and upload it to the web portal. 

Creating a CSV file of panelists 

1 . Open spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel. 

2 . Create a new file.

3 . Specify the following information: 

• Column A: Email address of each panelist. 
• Column B: Full name of each panelist.  Note: Don't enter column titles, for example, Email Address and Full Name. 

4 . Save the file as a CSV file (comma delimited). 

Importing the CSV file 

1. Sign into the HD Meeting web portal. 
2. Click Webinars. 
3. Click the topic of the webinar you want to add panelists to. 
4. In the Invite Panelists section, click Import from CSV. 
5. Click Import. 
6. Select the CSV file you created. 

You will see a list of panelists you're importing. You can click these options: 

• Resend: Immediately send the invitation email to the panelist. 
• Copy: Copy the invitation email for the panelist. 
• Delete: Remove the panelist from being imported. 
• Send invitation to all newly added panelists immediately: Send an invitation email to all panelists being imported after you click Save. 

Note: If you don't see a list of panelists you're importing, click Cancel, reload the page, then click Edit in the Invite Panelists section. 

7 . Click Save. 

Removing panelists 

1 . Sign into the HD Meeting web portal. 

2 . Click Webinars. 

3 . Click the topic of the webinar you need to remove panelists from. 

4 . In the Invite Panelists section, click Edit. 

5 . Next to the panelist's name, click Delete. 

6 . Click Save. Note: This panelist will now be removed from all webinars in the series and will need to join as an attendee. 

How to invite Attendees 

Attendees are view-only participants who can be unmuted if the host chooses. Their view of the webinar is controlled by the host. They can interact with the host and the panelists through the Q&A and the chat. 

If the webinar does not require registration, you can copy the join link and share with your attendees. 

If the webinar requires registration, the host will need to share the registration link and have the attendees complete the registration form. Once registered, they will receive an email notification with a unique join link. 

There are three different ways to invite attendees to register: 

• Copy the registration URL and share via email, your website, etc. 
• Select Copy the invitation to view and copy the invitation created by HD Meeting to send out to your attendees. 
• Select Email me the invitation to receive a copy of the HD Meeting invitation that you can then forward to potential attendees. 

Starting a webinar 

There are a few ways that you can start your webinar. 

• Sign into the HD Meeting web portal and click Webinars. Find the webinar and click Start. 

• In the HD Meeting desktop client, click on the Meetings tab. Find the webinar, and click Start. 

• If you have added this to your calendar, click on the link displayed on your calendar reminder. Make sure that you are logged into your HD Meeting account before clicking the link.