Zoom webinars

Zoom webinars enable you to hold online seminars where designated users can present to an audience.

Webinars are typically used for events that are presentations to large audiences, such as information sessions and panel discussions.

The webinar host and nominated panellists can share their camera, audio and screen with attendees.

Attendees can participate through question and answer threads, chat and live polling. Attendees can’t share their camera, audio or screen.

A Zoom webinar is different to a Zoom meeting. Meetings are designed to be collaborative and allow all participants to share their camera, audio and screen.

Scheduling a Zoom webinar

Step 1: Request access

You will need to request temporary webinar access to be able to schedule a Zoom webinar for an event.

At least one week before you plan to hold your webinar, submit an IT request for access. In your request, include:

a brief explanation of why you’re requesting webinar access, and
the date of your event.

After the event, your webinar access will be removed. You'll need to submit a new request for any future events.

Step 2: Schedule the webinar

To schedule your webinar:

Visit the UQ Zoom web interface and log in with your UQ username and password.
Select ‘Webinars’ in the menu on the left.
Click ‘Schedule a Webinar’.
Enter the title of your webinar as the topic. You can also add a description for your own reference if needed. Only you will see the description.
Set the date, time and duration of your webinar, and make sure that the correct time zone is selected.
You'll then have the following options:
- To make the webinar a regular event, tick ‘Recurring webinar’ and fill in how often you want it to recur and an end date.
- To set up registration for the webinar, tick 'Registration'.
- To set a password for the webinar, tick ‘Require webinar password’ and enter a password. Ensure that participants are given this password before the webinar.
In the 'Video' section, choose whether the 'Hosts' and 'Panellists' can use video in the webinar.
In the 'Audio' section, leave 'Both' selected.
In the 'Webinar Options' section, you have access to the following options:
- To allow attendees to submit questions during the webinar, tick ‘Q&A’.
- To start your webinar as a private practice session, tick ‘Enable practice session’. Attendees and panellists will only be able to join once you choose to start broadcasting.
- Don't tick 'Only authenticated users can join'.
- Don't tick ‘Make the webinar on demand’. This feature isn’t enabled at UQ. You won’t see this option if you’ve selected recurring webinars.
- To record the webinar as soon as it's started, tick ‘Record the webinar automatically’. Choose 'On the local computer' to save the recording to your computer, or 'In the cloud' to save the meeting to a cloud server. The person who scheduled the webinar will receive an email link to the cloud server recording once the recording has been processed.
If another person is going to start the webinar at the scheduled time, you can give them access to do this by making them an alternative host. Click ‘Advanced options’ and add their email address.
Click ‘Schedule’.

Step 3: Invite attendees

Once you’ve scheduled the webinar, you’ll see a screen showing information about the webinar, the settings you’ve selected, and options for inviting attendees.

Any alternative hosts will be sent an email automatically. You'll need to invite other attendees separately.

You can choose how you would like to invite attendees. To send attendees a:

calendar invite: select one of the ‘add to calendar’ options. The calendar invite includes the date and time, the topic and details about how to join the webinar.
link to the webinar: scroll down to the ‘Invitations’ tab, find the ‘Invite Attendees’ section and copy the ‘link to join webinar’
full invitation: scroll down to the ‘Invitations’ tab, find the ‘Invite Attendees’ section, click ‘Copy the invitation’ and paste the text into an email. The full invitation includes the date and time, the topic and details about how to join the webinar.

If you selected ‘Require webinar password’ in Step 2, you’ll need to send attendees the webinar ID and password, which you can get from the full invitation. Don’t use the invite options listed above as they all include a link that allows attendees to join without entering a password.

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Bandwidth requirements for Zoom webinars

Before hosting or attending a Zoom webinar, you should check that your internet connection meets the recommended bandwidth requirements. You can do this using a site like Speedtest.

The bandwidth used by Zoom will be optimised for the best experience based on your network. The system will automatically adjust for 3G, wifi or wired connections.

Recommended bandwidth for webinar panellists

1:1 video calling:
- For high-quality video: 600Kbps (up/down)
- For 720p HD video: 1.2 Mbps (up/down)
- For receiving 1080p HD video: 1.8Mbps (up/down)
- For sending 1080p HD video: 1.8Mbps (up/down)
Group video calling:
- For high-quality video: 800Kbps/1Mbps (up/down)
- For gallery view and/or 720p HD video: 1.5Mbps/1.5Mbps (up/down)
- For receiving 1080p HD video: 2.5Mbps (up/down)
- For sending 1080p HD video: 3Mbps (up/down)
Screen sharing only (no video thumbnail): 50-75Kbps
Screen sharing with video thumbnail: 50-150Kbps
Audio VoiP: 60-80Kbps
Zoom Phone: 60-100Kbps

Recommended bandwidth for webinar attendees

1:1 video calling:
- For high-quality video: 600Kbps (down)
- For HD video:1.2Mbps (down)
Screen sharing only (no video thumbnail): 50-75Kbps (down)
Screen sharing with video thumbnail: 50-150Kbps (down)
For audio VoiP: 60-80Kbps (down)