The eLecture Server requires Microsoft SQL Server (any version) to be present on the server computer. Follow links on our download page to install free SQL Server 2005 or 2008 Express. Do not change any settings offered by installation wizard; simply click on Next buttons.
After SQL Server has been installed, run the installation program for eLecture Server. If Unreal Media and Archival servers aren't present on your system then the installation will install these servers together with eLecture server. All these servers run as windows services, so you finally have 3 new services on your system: UMediaServer, UArchivalServer and eLecture Server.

After the installation of eLecture Server, run an Administration Console program, choose your language and add new lecture via the menu item. Each lecture is associated with a single lecturer; therefore, you will need to add a first new lecturer to the system.

To enable web-based access to eLecture Server, you need to install WebELecture ASP.NET 2.0 web application on the computer running IIS web server.
Install IIS Web Server using "Add/Remove Windows Components" in control panel. On Windows Vista, 2008 Server and 7 be sure to select ASP.NET and IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility.
On Windows XP you may need to manually register ASP.NET 2.0, by running aspnet_regiis.exe utility located in "Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727" folder.
On Windows 2003 Server you need to make sure that ASP.NET 2.0 is an allowed server extension; use IIS Manager to confirm that.

It is highly recommended to run WebELecture with HTTPS protocol, to ensure secure communications.

You can install WebELecture on the same computer where you have eLecture Server(recommended) or on a different one. If it is a different computer, you need to edit _ELectureServerIP settings in web.config file, located in inetpub/wwwroot/WebELecture folder. For serving lectures to internet audiences, you need to specify External_ELectureServerIP setting which should be a public IP address of a computer running eLecture Server. Web.config file also allows to specify your logo image file that will appear on the player.

The key components of a lecture are live audio/video feeds. To add audio/video feeds, you will need to install Unreal Live Server or have our UM300/UM400 hardware device. Ideally, the Live Server should not be installed on the same computer where the eLecture Server runs, because Live Server consumes processor and memory resources very intensively for real time encoding of live audio/video. When configuring live source, make sure the encoding is compatibe with Flash Player; this is essential for WebELecture users. Once you have configured a live source, you can import this configuration to eLecture to add a streaming feed associated with the lecture. Up to 3 feeds can be added to a single lecture. Alternatively, you can add live feed manually, specifying Live Server IP address and ID of live source configured on the Live Server.

Windows-based users participating in live lectures can also install the eLecture Console, if they prefer desktop application over web-based access. This installation is straightforward; no configuration is required. In order to connect to the server, the student needs to know the IP address of the server and port number.

When the lecture is configured, the lecturer can login to the system with the credentials previously used to create a new lecturer with Administration Console program. Students can register their accounts online; depending on the lecture settings they will or will not be able to freely subscribe and participate in live lectures. Attention! Only lectures that allow free self-subscribing will initially appear at the student's console in the list of available lectures. A lecture that does not allow self-subscribing, requires an administrator to subscribe students to it. Usually this process involves some payment for subscription; such lectures can be published on organization's website; once a student makes payment, an administrator will subscribe this student for that lecture. Then that lecture will appear in the list of available lectures for this student and he/she can participate in that lecture.

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