How to share a powerpoint having a video file into slide efficiently?

[Karlitos-79]

Hi all,

    I converted an existing powerpoint file using the UCF toolkit so I can add my video and be able to share it during a presentation.

The thing is, let say my video comes in the 7th slide.. when getting there, I need to wait all attendees get the video "buffered".

I was wondering if there was a way the videos included in the presentation can be buffered at the moment I share my UCF file (which is a powerpoint converted)... so I am already ready to click on the Play button.

I don't want them to minimize the screen to open a video file from the Transfer functionnality. I really like to have the presentation having everything embedded so it goes smoothly.

At the moment, we can deal with it, but if there is a way so it buffers from the beginning, we wouldn't have to wait when getting to a slide having a video embedded.

Any other good practice for video sharing?

Is there a way to send an enhancement request to WebEx?

Thanks

Karl

[ggavish]

Karl,

When you share a presentation, the file is uploaded to the WebEx server in preparation to be shared with attendees. The time it takes for the file to upload depends on the size of the file and your network upload speed. It is recommended that the presenter joins the meeting and shares the file a few minutes ahead of the attendees to make sure the file is fully uploaded.

On the attendee side, the Meeting Client automatically downloads the presentation slides in sequence so as not to overload the server and the network. That is, first the common components of the presentation are downloaded (such as slide background). Then the first slide is downloaded. Once it is done, the second slide is downloaded, etc. Each slide download time depends on the contents of the slide, size, network performance on attendee side, etc. (obviously text is downloaded much faster than graphics or video).

If the presenter reaches the slide containing the video before it was fully downloaded for all the attendees, then there may be a delay until the video is "buffered", as you put it.

If your site version is WBX27.22 or newer, you may want to consider sharing the video file directly using Share->File, which provides real-time synchronized video file sharing.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any further questions.

Best,

Gal.

ggavish@cisco.com

[salvatorenestor]

From my testing and understanding of the buffering process, the video does not start to buffer to the attendees until the slide containing the video is actually on screen (no background buffering). Now this was on T26 but not sure it has changed. I had many discussions with WebEx Engineers about the way it worked and I thought that it was not neccesarily the best way to handle it as it caused problem for atendees on slower links and confused a lot of atendees and made for a small mess when it happened.

Salvatore Nestor

[ggavish]

Salvatore,

The information I provided above is based on my conversation with the Eng team. We are currently using T27.26 so many improvements were made since T26 including sharing video files in real time.

I hope that helps.

Gal.

[salvatorenestor]

I'm glad to hear that. I'll still do some testing to verify that.

Thanks,

Salvatore Nestor

InTheCloudTek, LLC

[Karlitos-79]

I am actually using this version: WebEx Client Version:                 MC:T27LC from my WebEx Enterprise - Site Administration panel.

Like said by Salvatore, the buffering process explained is not what is actually done.

When I click on Share, File and i select my UCF file (which is a powerpoint converted having a video embbeded into a slide), even if it already been couple minutes the presentation is on... when I get to the slide with the video, the attendee sees Loading which goes from the beginning... it is not already half downloaded, it start from the beginning at that point.

And just to make sure, I share a presentation, not a video file only. My video file is embedded into a powerpoint presentation converted with UCF.

Is it managed differently?

Thanks all for your feedback.

Karl

[salvatorenestor]

Karl,

  Thank you for that information. I will verify what you've said this weekend. Most WebEx people are extremely helpful but they don't always have the level of knowledge that is required to answer technical questions correctly. I think this comes from Cisco...

Thank You,

Salvatore Nestor

InTheCloudTek, LLC

salvatore.nestor@inthecloudtek.com

[ggavish]

Karl,

I went back to the Eng team and we did some testing. My description above indeed applies to how a PPT file is loaded and shared in a meeting but it does not include the embedded videos.

Like you said, the embedded video will only start loading when the host reaches that particular slide in the presentation.

This is by design since we do not know in advance which video the host will decide to share or skip and the intention was to save bandwidth and CPU.

We are developing a solution to improve that. In the mean time, since your site version is T27LC, I highly recommend sharing the video file through File Sharing which provides real time (synched) streaming of the video content.

Regards,

Gal.

[Karlitos-79]

Hi Gal,

   any update from your Eng team on what will be worked on to improve the video sharing from PPT presentation?

Thanks in advance

Karl

[ggavish]

Karl,

As I mentioned about we are currently developing a solution to improve performance for embedded video in a PPT but since it's still in development, I'm not sure I'm allowed to reveal details.

It should be available by the end of this year.

You might want to check out sharing video files through Share -> File menu. This option uses real-time streaming technology and the video playback is fully synchronized between the presenter and attendees.

Regards,

Gal.

[ggavish]

Karl,

I wanted to give you a quick update about sharing video files embedded in a presentation.

We now support embedding of video (or other media) files in Office 2010 PowerPoint presentations. You no longer need to use the UCF Toolkit to embed media files and the video file no longer needs to be downloaded by the participants and is streamed in real time to all attendees.

This is supported in WBS27.31 or later.

Check your WebEx site release notes for a full list of the supported video file formats.

I hope that helps,

Gal.

[gps03]

Hi Gal,

Just curious, is this functionality available in all of WebEx (Meeting Center, Event Center, Training Center) or is it limited to WebEx Meeting center only?

Thank you,

-Greg

[ggavish]

Hi Greg,

Thank you for bringing this up.

Sharing a video embedded in a PowerPoint presentation is currently supported in MC only.

Sharing the video file itself (through the Share -> File menu) is supported in MC, TC (starting WBS27.26) and EC (starting WBS27.31).

Hope that helps.

Gal.

[salvatorenestor]

All I believe except Support Center.

Salvatore Nestor

IntheCloudTek.com

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 3:26 PM, gps03@health.state.ny.us <

[roberthagens]

Hello,

I am embedding a .mov file in a powerpoint presentation. When I share the ppt over webex meeting center in slideshow mode and play the movie, remote participants sometimes see the video and other times see a black rectangle. I've tried this in powerpoint 2010 as well. Any thoughts?

Thank you,

Rob