Suggestions on how to record a meeting

Recording of a conference/workshop provides the following:

1) Office-mates, bosses, friends, family, . . . a way to see/hear what a particular person presented

2) A way to learn about the subject without the time/expensive of travel - experiencing 1 or more or perhaps all of the presentations

3) A way to advertise the current event, so as to get more future event participation

4) Something concrete to show bosses so as to get travel money for future presentations.

5) Share the information with many people - perhaps 100X more people than who could attend the live presentation.

Why

It is very desirable for people around the world to see or at least hear the presentation

The presentation virtually always is a lot more than just the 'reading' the slides.

The audio also includes most of the emotional content of the presentation

We will assume that all presentations will be in PDF or Power Point format (easily converted to PDF)

(If not, someone can take digital pictures during the presentation or the Poster session)

AUDIO + PDF = lowest cost & least time to download

There are many low-cost hand-held digital audio recorders capable of recording >20 hours

When a person wants to experience the presentation he:

1. Downloads both the audio and PDF files

2. Re-plays the audio in one window of his computer, and views the slides in another window.

3. Clicks to the next slide at the right time

   • note - it is desirable to have a 'beep' which the person can hear, as the presenter will tend to not say aloud that he is going to the next slide
   •    a beep is better than a clack etc. as a narrow bandwidth beep can be easily amplified before uploading to the internet - (to make it easier to hear)

It is desirable to take several pictures during the presentation

so that the viewer can see who is making the presentation to be listened to

Might consider taking pictures of the audience as well.

VIDEO + PDF = next lowest cost

• A video of the presenter requires 100X more bandwidth, and more expensive equipment, but the results are much more engaging.
  • There are a wide variety of ways to record video now - all require some tripod to 'hold' the video recorder
  • SmartPhones, iPad2, etc can record the video acceptably (approximately 10 hours before needing to save the video to a computer)
  •    Note: many companies may telescopic lens add-ons (approx $30) which are extremely useful, but not required.

The viewer experiences the presentation in a very similar way to that described above

1) Download files 2) Replay both files, but the recording does not need to have a beep to indicate when another slide is being shown,

Integrated Video & Slides = Highest cost and most professional (not recommended)

A video is made and post-processed by inserting the slides into the video. This is very time consuming and expensive.

VitaminDWiki can upload all of the media and host all but the videos

Probably use Vimeo with is similar to YouTube but easier to upload long videos

Note VLC free media player provides a great way to view videos faster than real-time

A 1.4X speedup can easily be used. I use a 2.5X speedup (10 hours real time ==> 4 hours)