Be aware of your environment

•      Test network connectivity when recording live presentations.

•      If possible, scout the location where the presentation will be recorded prior to the presentation. Take note of lighting conditions, ambient noise levels, and availability of adequate electrical outlets.

•      Allow at least one hour for hardware setup and system testing prior to recording the presentation.

General production tips

•      Tape down cords and cables to avoid tripping and loss of power.

•      If your microphone uses batteries, keep fresh, spare batteries on hand.

•      Use the AC power supply for your camera—never rely on battery power when recording a presentation.

Preparing for live events

•      Test internet speed before your event and morning of each event day.

•      Used hardwire internet.

•      Pre-roll the live stream 5 minutes or more.

•      Test all AV and streaming before your event and the morning of each event day.

•      Watch/playback all tests.

•      Monitor incoming signals and live stream.

•      When in doubt, keep recording.

•      Unless absolutely necessary, don’t touch any power, network, or AV related cabling when live.

Recording high-quality video

•      If you are using a digital video camera and recording the video in camera mode, make sure the tape is not inserted. Otherwise, the camera will shut off after a few minutes since it will not be recording to a tape.

•      Avoid excessive zooming, panning, and tilting to ensure a higher-quality video stream. We recommend placing the camera on a tripod whenever possible.

•      Set the camera to manual exposure mode so the picture's brightness will not fluctuate when the presenter moves out of the frame.

•      Photograph the presenter in medium close-up (head and shoulders). When a relatively low resolution is used, wider shots can reduce the clarity of the video.

•      Avoid using a plain white wall or walls with small or busy patterns. Whenever possible, use a solid color background. Videos with a solid-color background compress cleanly and efficiently.

•      Put the camera at eye level or slightly above eye level. The presenter should be photographed head-on or slightly to one side. If the presenter will be favoring one side of the room because of the seating of the audience or needs to look at a screen, the camera should be on that side.

•      Use bright, even lighting whenever possible. Appropriate lighting is critical to obtaining a high-quality video for your presentation. Overhead florescent lights, typically used in conference rooms, may create shadows under the presenter's eyes.

Recording high-quality audio

•      Whenever possible, hold presentations in closed areas. This will eliminate ambient noise such as sounds from a busy corridor.

•      Always use a high-quality microphone. Built-in camera microphones pick up a lot of ambient room noise and should be avoided.

•      If possible, use a lapel (lavaliere) microphone. The microphone should be placed about six to eight inches from the presenter’s mouth.

•      Place wireless microphone receivers as close to the transmitter as possible. This may be accomplished by using a longer audio cable from the receiver to the Recorder.

•      Do not put the microphone or audio equipment near fluorescent lights, which emit a hum that can reduce the presentation’s audio quality.

•      Check your audio levels prior to starting the presentation and intermittently during the presentation. To avoid distortion, try not to exceed 0dB. Monitor audio levels using the audio meter in the Recorder interface.

•      Use headphones to monitor the presentation’s audio quality.

•      Consider using an external audio mixer or a microphone preamplifier and individual microphones for multiple presenters.

•      Test for lip sync issues when audio and video pass through multiple AV switches and/or mixers. Some AV switches tend to add a little delay.

Recording high-quality slides

•      If you are using multiple image sources during a presentation (e.g. a digital white board, a laptop, and a document camera), connect the inputs to a switch and feed the output into one of the Recorder’s HDMI/DVI/RGB/YPbPr ports). This allows the presenter to switch easily from one input to the next as needed.

•      When recording a presentation, capture the most important events. Some sources (a digital white board, a document camera, a presentation with animation) generate a lot of events. For these sources, select one of the existing image advance presets in which the Recorder’s sensitivity to image changes is reduced.  For example, capture the important result of a completely written equation versus capturing the process of the presenter writing the equation. Increase the sensitivity as needed to capture important events.

General

•      Do not move around excessively. Consider using a podium or a stool to minimize movement.

•      Use a laser pointer, if possible, to point out details on a screen.

•      When using a lapel microphone, attach it to the outside of clothing to avoid excessive noise.

•      Place the presentation computer within an arm's reach for easy access with minimal movement.

•      When writing on a digital whiteboard, avoid turning your back to the audience for long periods of time.

•      Avoid wearing a plain white shirt, stripes, or a shirt with busy or small patterns.

Interacting with the audience

•      When taking questions from the audience in the presentation room, include an audience microphone or repeat all questions for the web audience.

•      Use a moderator with a separate computer when interacting with the web audience using a Q & A forum. The moderator can monitor questions as they are received and read them to the presenter for smooth integration into the presentation.

•      Think about poll questions in advance. Determine the order in which the polls will be sent to the web audience. If possible, prepare a poll template in advance that can be added to the presentation when needed.

•      Announce polls to the web audience when they are sent so the audience knows they are available to answer.

•      Give the web audience sufficient time to answer a poll before proceeding with the presentation.

Effectively using presentation aids

•      When using presentation software, such as PowerPoint, use the following guidelines to ensure that your web audience is able to clearly see the images:

o  Fonts: Use a sans-serif style font such as Arial.

o  Size: Use a minimum font size of 18 point—larger is better. A good rule of thumb is fonts that are too small to read when projected in a conference room will also be too small for the audience viewing the presentation on the web.

o  Contrast: Use maximum contrast—dark text on a light background or white letters on a dark background. Avoid using light text on a light background such as yellow text on a white background.

o  Colors: Use a solid background. Avoid using backgrounds with busy or small patterns.

o  Slide content: Fill the entire slide with content, from edge to edge.

o  Bullets: Limit bullets to four or five per slide.

•      Avoid excessive text animation effects or video in PowerPoint slides since only still images are transmitted to the web audience. Capturing changes in slides as a result of animation will generate a large number of events. However, if some of these images need to be transmitted to the audience, the Recorder operator has the ability to select individual video or animation frames for transmission.

•      When using any new image input (visualizers, digital white board, or diagnostic equipment) as a presentation aid, read the manufacturer’s documentation prior to the presentation.

Include audio descriptions in your prepared script, outline, or storyboard

As you create your script, outline, or storyboard, make sure to include detailed descriptions of any visuals (tables, graphs, etc.) that are relevant to the content. If time permits, read your descriptions to other people to see if they can clearly visualize what you are describing. If they cannot, adjust the descriptions as needed.

Provide clear audio descriptions

Clearly describe all steps if you are demonstrating something or working through a problem. Talk through your visuals clearly using the script you prepared in advance.

Edit presentations

Once you have recorded your presentation, review and edit it. Make sure to add slide titles, descriptions, and chapters to the presentation as needed.

Include captions in final on-demand presentation and provide transcripts

Once you have recorded and edited your presentation, add captions to it. If you created a script or outline in advance this will help the process go faster. Also consider adding a transcript. Transcripts are useful for all students and can be used to create study guides and assist students who are not native speakers of a language.

When using speech-to-text captioning services, it is extremely important to produce quality audio

We suggest using a high-quality microphone, preferably one you can wear on your collar or lapel, since this has been shown to increase the quality of the generated text. If you will be taking questions from the audience, we suggest repeating the question instead of using a separate microphone.