Presentation broadcasting

This invention generally concerns online presentation broadcasting over a network, and more particularly, broadcast of a presentation that includes both a live portion and a predefined portion over the Internet. A system and method for broadcasting a presentation over a computer network to an online audience. The system comprises an integrated environment that leverages many of the features of Microsoft Corporation's NETSHOW™ server technology, along with Microsoft Corporation's POWERPOINT 2000™ presentation design application program to enable a presenter to broadcast a presentation to an online audience over a computer network, such as an intranet or the Internet. The system enables a live presentation comprising a plurality of presentation slides, and audio and optionally, a visual content to be broadcast to a plurality of receiving computers over a network so that the presentation slides are displayed and the audio and visual content are replicated on the receiving computers synchronized with the presentation slides, just as in the live presentation. Preferably, the plurality of presentation slides are sent as HTML files via the computer network in advance of the start of the presentation. During the presentation, the live audio and visual content is captured and encoded into an advanced server file stream format that is streamed from a local computer (at the presenter's location) or a NETSHOW™ server to the receiving computers. The live audio and visual content is then replicated on the receiving computers using a media player. Also, slide display commands produced in conjunction with a display of the presentation slides during the presentation are streamed to the plurality of computers, so that the presentation slides are displayed on the receiving computers in synchrony with the live presentation, by loading the HTML files into a browser application program running on each of the receiving computers, in response to the slide display commands.