A system and method for recording and playback of a live presentation that
enables a reproduction of audio and visual aspects of the live
presentation and enables on-demand viewing of the presentation at a later
time. A live presentation comprising a plurality of presentation slides,
audio content, and optionally, visual content are recorded as a data
stream, so that when the recording of the data stream is played, the
presentation slides are displayed in substantial synchrony with
reproduced audio and visual content on a viewer's computer, thereby
reproducing the live presentation. The plurality of presentation slides
are saved as HTML files to a predetermined location that is accessible by
the viewer's computer over a computer network, such as the Internet.
During the presentation, the live audio and visual content is captured
and encoded into the data stream, which is in an active streaming format
(ASF), and the data stream is saved to a file. Also, slide display
commands produced in conjunction with the display of the presentation
slides during the presentation are interleaved into the data stream. In
response to a viewer's request to view the presentation at a later time,
the data stream file is downloaded to the viewer's computer and played
back using a media player, which decodes the data stream file to
replicate the live audio and visual content of the presentation. As the
slide display commands are encountered during playback of the data stream
file, corresponding HTML slide files are downloaded over the computer
network to the viewer's computer and displayed so that they are
substantially synchronized with the reproduced audio and visual content
of the presentation.