What's great about Mediasite is that it isn't just a way to record things. It's also a way to distribute your recordings. Mediasite allows you do things such as set permissions so you can control who gets to see it, create a catalog of multiple records (such a conference or a series of lectures), and provides you with a link to distribute. The link stays with the recording, which means if you decide to organize your folder by dragging things into new folders, the link to the video will not change.
Use the side-bar (at right) to get instruction on Mediasite's other features, and the basics such as logging in and creating folders. What follows will outline how you can get links you can distribute to an audience, and how to create a public facing catalog if you have more than one video you'd like to distribute with one single link.
Generate a Link for your Recording
First, choose which presentation you'd like to generate a link for. Usually, it will be one stored in your own folder. Click the title once to open up the presentation.
Next, under the preview window, click "Share," as seen below.
After you click "Share," a new section will appear underneath the "Player, Select Player" settings. Notice you have three options.
- The first, "Paste link in email or IM," is the actual URL to the playable video. This is the link you'll want to distribute to your audience. You can copy and paste it into an email, post it on CTools, etc.
- The second, "Paste HTML to embed in website," is a way in which you can embed the player onto a web page, such as a blog. This will allow your audience to view the presntation directly in their web browser without having to leave your web page.
- The third, "Send invitation," will generate a message in a new window, and you can use that to send a pre-written message to anyone. Simple fill out the form and press "Send," (seen below).
Creating a Catalog
Catalogs are the public facing equivalent to folders. If folders organize your content for you to see, think of catalogs as a collection of content that others can see. Any folder or sub-folder you own can be turned into a catalog. You have the option of enabling a "Catalog" of a specific folder, which gives you one link you can send out that would give your audience a list of the recordings in that folder/catalog. They can then click on any of them to begin watching.
To create a catalog, click "Publishing" in the lower left corner of the window.
Notice that the tab on the top will change to "Publishing" and you will see a list of your Catalogs on the right side, if you have any. To create a new catalog, click "Add New."
In the window that appears, enter the name you want for the catalog as well as a brief description. Click on "Click to link to a Mediasite folder."
The following window will appear, where you can browse to the folder you wish to link to the catalog. Select the folder by clicking on it, once.
You will then see which folder is linked to the catalog. Click "Save." All videos contained in that folder will be viewable in the Catalog. If you click "Click to view catalog in a new window," you can see how the catalog will appear to others.
Sharing a Catalog
To get the link for your catalog so you can distribute it via email, post it to CTools, etc., you must first open the catalog. If you left off from the last step above, you'd need to click where it says "Click to view catalog in a new window." When you're viewing the actual catalog, you'll see a "Links" button in the upper right corner of the window. Clicking that will present you with the link to the catalog and the HTML code if you'd like to embed the catalog in a web page, as seen below.
You may also click "Email," instead of "Links." This will open a new window in which you can send an email directly from Mediasite inviting someone to view your catalog.
