Desktop Conferencing

Here are a few tips about recording presentations using MegaMeeting… hopefully these hints and tips can help you through the set up if you choose to give it a go!

We want to record a PowerPoint Presentation by a remotely based tutor on one of our Distance Learning programmes. He was due to speak at a residential event but can’t make it, so we plan to record his presentation in advance. As he doesn’t have access to screen capture software such as Camtasia, we decided to record his presentation via the ShareMyDesktop feature in MegaMeeting. This way we can record the presentation given via MegaMeeting, using Camtasia on a University PC.

Another option would be for the tutor to download a trial version of Camtasia and record the presentation himself, but he would need to be confident in using the software and saving the file correctly to return it to you.

We’ve tested the recording in advance of this, and after several attempts (and lots of fun and games!) came up with the following tips:

What equipment do I need?

• The person recording the meeting needs Camtasia on their PC. You will also need to feed the audio cable from the line out socket to the line in socket on the back of your PC.
• The person presenting will need a webcam (if you want to capture them on video) and a headset with a microphone.

Getting started

• The person recording the presentation should act as the Host of the meeting. First log in to MegaMeeting as a Host at https://bath.megameeting.com/. Follow the Meeting creation wizard using default settings, apart from choosing ‘Auto-accept attendees‘. Enter the email address of the person who will be presenting – this sends them an email with a link to join your meeting
• Once the presenter has joined the meeting, you should test out the connection by speaking to each other through MegaMeeting. Make sure you are receiving audio (you’ll need to hold the Transmit button or Lock transmission). Be sure that your microphone isn’t on mute on the computer’s volume panel or on your webcam control panel (which might default to Microphone Mute)!
• Once you are happy that you can see and hear each other via MegaMeeting then you can begin…

Setting up the meeting

• Once the presenter has joined the meeting, the host needs to give the presenter permission to use ShowMyDesktop. Go to Host Options > User Rights. Select the User Name, choose ShowMyDesktop and set as ‘On‘ from the drop down list
• The first time the presenter selects ShowMyDesktop they will need to download the software, then leave and rejoin the meeting… the host needs to reset their permission to ShowMyDesktop once they rejoin the meeting

Recording

• The Host needs to set up Camtasia to capture the screen whilst the presenter presents.
• Open Camtasia Studio (we are using version 5) and click on Make a Recording. Click on Audio Options and choose the correct Audio Options to pick up the sound (you see the sound bar picking up the sound when you have the settings correct). Click Select Area to Record and select your entire screen. You are now ready to record. Click Record to begin
• In the MegaMeeting browser window, click on Full Screen on the top tool bar.

Starting the presentation

• The person presenting can now click on Show My Desktop, sticking with the Entire Screen option for What to Show.
• For the host, a message appears saying ‘A presentation is about to begin’. At this point the host can hear audio from the presenter, but the presenter can no longer see the video feed or hear the audio from the host.
• The presenter can now open and run through their PowerPoint presentation. The host can capture the screen and audio via Camtasia. Once the presentation is finished you can stop the recording, and save your Camtasia recording. The presenter can Stop the Show My Desktop feature so you can speak to each other again
• Once the Show My Desktop feature is disabled, you’ll need to hold down the Transmit button or Lock button to speak again

Trouble?

• If you lose audio, you will need to exit MegaMeeting and re-enter… don’t forget to give the presenter permission to Show My Desktop once they re-enter the meeting

This is a common question from staff. Their need is they’d like a megameeting room where their students could arrange to meet up to discuss work, or socialise, however, the staff members concern is they’ll need to be involved. However, the answer is no. You can set a room up (with a unique name), and forward the room name to your students (or add to a news forum on your Moodle course). Your students simply need to go to bath.megameeting.com, click on guest, type the name of the meeting in the box, click yes, then they are in. This will shift the emphasis towards the student being able to take responsibility for organising their own conferences.

I managed to capture video and audio simultaneously this morning during Nitin’s coffee break session. He presented using MegaMeeting and I recorded using Camtasia (version 6 on my PC), with the audio settings changed like this:

In the recording panel, access the dropdown list to the right of the audio icon and select options.

 

Update 28 May 09 | In a meeting this morning, Dom mentioned that he tried using this method and it didn’t work… So if you hope to use this method for a high-stakes session, please test it beforehand, and please leave comments if it fails to work. Equally, I’d be interested to hear if it does work.

I just attended a QR codes Megameeting session (very interesting!), which had poor audio quality at the start (long periods where I and others couldn’t hear people, frequent audio break-up, webcam feeds freezing).

These largely seemed to disappear when we reduced the number of video feeds (via ‘Turn Video Off’ in the bottom-left corner of the screen). As they crept back up, so audio deteriorated again (for me at least). The critical breakpoint on this occasion seemed to be more than 4 simultaneous feeds (this could probably do more conclusive testing though!)

So, from this experience a pre-emptive solution seems to be that everyone has their video turned off except when talking. Assuming that people have got audio turned off as well (so speak via ‘push to talk’ or ‘lock’), it’s a slight pain as there are two things to click on/off at the start/finsish.

I suspect that a useful strategy for future meetings would be to have a maximum of 2 (e.g. Chair and whoever’s currently speaking) active video windows at once. I’ve got Megameeting training with James this afternoon so will pass this experience on and find out if it’s a common issue/there was something happening their end etc…