How to record your user group presentations in high quality with low budget tooling

Every three months we at SDN manage to pull off SDN Events, full day four track, five sessions a track with great Dutch and some occasional international speakers showing off their great content to our attendees.

Last year we started to record some of these sessions, first ones to try out as proof of concept, but now in production already to share our content to a bigger audience.

I was asked more than once how we were able to record our SDN Event session recordings in relatively high quality with only some low budget tools. So here it is so far.

Recording gear setup:

SDN Event Recording - 2 Hangout Connections

This has been our setup up as we used it until today, but for the next event we will try something else for the reasons you will read at the end of this blog post. I guess we will continue to tinker with the setup until it is just perfect. This change will be the subject of another blog post, but only if all of this tinkering actually appeared to work for us. No need to bore you with something that does not work properly.

Right now we use two Google Hangout logins per recording, one from the ‘recording device’ (actually the device is not recording, Google Hangouts/YouTube is doing the recording for us) and one login from the laptop used by the presenter.

The ‘recording device’ is logged into Google Hangouts with the recorded projector screen and presenter and presenter voice using the Logitech webcam and wifi microphone set. The presenter logs into Google hangouts with his own laptop, sharing the desktop, providing a high quality representation of what is shown on the projector screen.

My gear list as used up to today with the configuration in the picture:

    • One recording laptop and a Google ID
    • Behringer XENIX QX1002USB
    • AKG WMS45 Band D Wireless Microphone Set
    • Logitech 930e HD Web Cam
    • One presenter laptop to share his desktop

 

Installing the recording gear:

Put the camera in front of the presenter covering both the projector screen and the presenters desk. Be careful not to put the camera too much into the viewing field of the audience.

The camera is fairly small, so not really an issue as it seems. This camera will be the ‘overview’ camera setup showing both the presenter walking around, sitting down at his desk and the big screen.

The wireless microphone is pinned on the presenter for near field voice recording, don’t hurt him by clipping it on his skin. This microphone will record his story telling voice, picked up with the AKG WMS45 wireless receiver set and dropped into the Behringer XENIX QX1002USB. The Behringer will provide the sound USB input channel for Google Hangout ‘source one’ combined with the camera ‘overview’ output by the Logitech 930.

The presenter is also logged in to Google Hangouts as ‘second source’. This will be full time sharing his desktop.

The main recording device will be logged in as video producer and you will be able to switch between sources, big screen and presenter or desktop view.

An example of a session recording (this recording is in English b.t.w.) :
”Mr. Moffat – Introducing Microsoft Power BI”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_bQ_EivYb4

A full playlist of all our (Dutch and English ) recorded sessions so far can be found here if you want to see more:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC5P51a_60YElMJvidAy7GagDJH0Y-UwX

What you see in this example is that we are able to switch between the big picture on the overhead screen and jump into detail by showing the desktop from the presenter laptop to get a good readable picture of the slides or even when there is live coding going on.

So is all good, doing it this way?

No, we are still learning and we found some downsides with this configuration (maybe more, but this is the main one) and that is that you require the presenter to log into Google Hangouts and therefor he needs a Google ID. This means that this is not a zero configuration solution to the speaker invited to do his session.

It seemed not everyone owns a Google ID. Also, it can be somewhat cumbersome to the presenter to log into Google Hangouts, disable his camera and recording microphone (check this ahead of time before the recording starts, as this will cause a critical echo caused by getting two sources at once, one over the wireless mic the other through the presenter laptop mic. So the last one has to be disabled. Also there is a small amount of his resources used to run the Hangout in the background. This could affect the responsiveness a little bit and maybe interfere a bit on high resource claiming presentations (for instance if he needs to compile a bit of code in the demos).

With the setup above you are able to live broadcast your sessions and immediately record it as is to share after the event. If you are afraid to broadcast live risking a lower number of attendees (why going to the event, it is broadcasted live) you can record the session private or unlisted and expose the video only when the event is over (this also gives you the option to record the session, download the video and edit the footage adding annotations, start or end screens and upload the edited footage to share as public video).

To get around the issues mentioned above we will test a slightly changed configuration by adding en extra device. But as said, I will explain this later on, when tested and with proof of recording properly.

I really hope this post will encourage you to try the same thing what we did and get more of the community efforts recorded and to get more of our valuable arranged sessions shared to a bigger audience. The information is way too valuable not to share!

If you want to comment on this setup, share improvements, have questions or just want to say something, leave your comments below on this post!

Week 9 – SDN Cast News, looking for the answer with André Obelink

SDNCast 42

With the twentieth anniversary of Visual Studio and the forty-second broadcast of our Dutch SDN Cast we speak with André Obelink on the subject of VB (Visual Basic) and the future of it. Forty-two is also the answer to life, the universe and all according to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Enough reasons to check out the recording on YouTube for this week.

André Obelink is Microsoft MVP and author of six books, five covering Visual Basic and the sixth written with co-author Sander Gerz on C#.

You can find André Obelink at several places such as
Twitter: @obelink
Website: http://www.obelink.com/

A returning question by many developers is will Visual Basic be around in the near future and if so where will it be positioned by Microsoft. A valid question, as it often appears that also with Microsoft Visual Basic seems to be the ‘forgotten’ language. APIs, sample code and documentation is released for C# at first and following a bit later the VB submission (sometimes we are still waiting for VB equivalents to arrive). We discuss all of this in depth, so if you are Dutch speaking look at this week’s Dutch SDN Cast.

Next to Visual Basic several other subjects get by, from the light-hearted topics such as Xbox Gaming to the very extensive exercise to write books and again – is there a future in book writing.

All in all enough topics making it well worth to jump to YouTube and watch the recording of the 42nd Dutch SDN Cast if you haven’t already watched it live last week.

Where can you find SDN Cast 42?
https://youtu.be/M8818TDd1ys

Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you won’t miss a single episode. Usually we are broadcasting live on Thursday evening 8PM GMT+1 in the winter but it might change depending on how things go that week. If you want to be sure you better subscribe to our channel on YouTube or go to http://www.sdncast.nl to discover when our next show will be planned. It will show you when the next show is starting.

News of the week

Azure Command Line 2.0 now generally available
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-general-availability-of-vm-storage-and-network-azure-cli-2-0/

TFS 2017 Management Pack
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/02/27/tfs-2017-management-pack/

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2017
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54791

Announcing the Xbox Live Creators Program
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2017/03/01/announcing-xbox-live-creators-program

Windows 10 SDK Preview Build 15042 Released
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2017/02/28/windows-10-sdk-preview-build-15042-released

Getting Started with a Mixed Reality Platformer Using Microsoft HoloLens
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2017/02/27/getting-started-mixed-reality-platformer-using-microsoft-hololens
Node v7.7.1 (Current)
Node.js 7.7.0 contains a bug that will prevent all native modules from building, this patch should fix the issue.

https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v7.7.1/

To relax a bit … Nintendo Switch
http://www.intertoys.nl/games/nintendo-switch/nintendo-switch-met-blauwe-en-rode-joy-con-controllers

Events

Events This Week

Game Developers Conference – February 27 – March 3rd – San Francisco
http://www.gdconf.com/

Events Next Week

Visual Studio 2017 Launch, March 7-8 – Online
https://launch.visualstudio.com/

Visual Studio 2017 Local Events, March 7 – April 30th

https://launch.visualstudio.com/local-events/

XABLU
https://www.xablu.com/event/visual-studio-2017-launch/
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-studio-2017-launch-party-amsterdam-tickets-32184912941
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-studio-2017-launch-party-eindhoven-tickets-32184874827
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-studio-2017-launch-party-hengelo-tickets-32184379345

Delta-N
https://www.delta-n.nl/visual-studio-2017-launch-event

Info Support
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-studio-2017-launch-party-tickets-32321070191

Upcoming events

REST-full APIs with ASP.NET Core – March 14, 2017 – Gouda
https://www.isense.nl/evenementen/restfulAPI

AKKA.NET & Docker Deployments – March 16, 2017 – Eindhoven
http://www.dotnetzuid.nl/Meeting/15/akkanet-docker-deployments

SDN Event 1 – Zeist – March 17, 2017
https://www.sdn.nl/EVENTS/17-maart-2017

You can already register, so put it in your scheduler and register!

Serverless Compute, March 23, 2017 – Quintor, Amersfoort
http://www.dotned.nl/dotned-bijeenkomst/23-maart-serverless-compute-bij-quintor/?id=123

Microsoft Tech Summit – Amsterdam, March 23-24, 2017
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/techsummit
https://www.microsoft.com/nl-nl/techsummit/amsterdam.aspx

Build – May 10-12, 2017 – Seattle
http://build.microsoft.com

Techorama – May 22-24, 2017 – Antwerpen, Belgium
http://techorama.be/

WWDC 2017 – June 5-9, 2017 – San José
https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=02152017a

DevSum 17 – June 8-9, 2017 – Stockholm
http://www.devsum.se/

Microsoft Data Insights Summit – June 12-13, 2017 – Seattle
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/datainsightssummit

NDC Oslo – June 12-16 2017 – Oslo
http://ndcoslo.com

E3 – June 13-1, 2017 – Los Angeles Convention Center
https://www.e3expo.com/show-info/2895/about-e3/

SDN Event 2 – Zeist – June 23, 2017
www.sdn.nl

Ignite 2017 – September 25-29 – Orlando
https://ignite.microsoft.com

SDN Event 3 – Zeist – October 6
www.sdn.nl

We hope you like to watch our SDN Casts. We try to keep up with the news in about an hour a week. You hear what is new and get fun demos on technology and Software Development that you can use in your daily job.

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel as we can get a better URL to remember our channel if we reach the number of subscribers needed to add this and make your and our lives a bit easier! And if you haven’t heard if you are the number 100 Subscriber you get something in return! Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3oE_YPB4AJVQSInC-yy3pw?sub_confirmation=1

Go to the website and check when our next broadcast will be!
http://www.sdncast.nl.

Week 8 SDN Cast News and Code Orange

SDNCast 41

There is a storm flying over our country, The Netherlands, while broadcasting, Wind force 10 and Code Orange issued by the Dutch weather institute. We will focus on real code however and leave the wind for what it is and where it blows.

Not one, but two guests in this 41st edition of the SDN Cast. Two guests from the country on the south side of the Netherlands, living in Belgium. And they are very versatile, Maarten Balliauw and Xavier Decoster.

Maarten and Xavier are founders of MyGet providing private and public Nuget feeds, NPM, Bower, Maven and Vsix repositories with your own packages or from other sources such as Nuget.org Npmjs.com or Maven Central. This is not all, the supported collections are still expanding so go to www.myget.org to see what is currently supported.

Maarten Balliauw is also Developer Advocate for JetBrains and from there Rider is originated, the multi-platform IDE under development by JetBrains.

We discuss the annually returning event Techorama. The Techorama conference is now one of the biggest events for developers in Belgium and outside Belgium. On the first day there are deep dive workshops planned and the following days from that two sessions-packed days with the best sessions available.

You can still register for the event here.

Twitter handles:
Maarten Balliauw – @maartenballiauw
Xavier Decoster – @xavierdecoster

Where can you find SDN Cast 41?
https://youtu.be/AztpitukNOQ

Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you won’t miss a single episode. Usually we are broadcasting live on Thursday evening 8PM GMT+1 in the winter but it might change depending on how things go that week. If you want to be sure you better subscribe to our channel on YouTube or go to http://www.sdncast.nl to discover when our next show will be planned. It will show you when the next show is starting.

News of the week

Announcing TypeScript 2.2
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/typescript/2017/02/22/announcing-typescript-2-2/

Team Services Update – Feb 15
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/02/17/team-services-update-feb-15/
https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/articles/news/2017/feb-15-team-services

Python support in Visual Studio 2017
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/pythonengineering/2017/02/22/python-in-vs2017/

Xamarine Stable Release: Cycle
https://releases.xamarin.com/stable-release-cycle-9/

Events

Upcoming events

Visual Studio 2017 Launch, March 7-8 – Online
https://launch.visualstudio.com/

Visual Studio 2017 Local Events, March 7 – April 30th
https://launch.visualstudio.com/local-events/

XABLU
https://www.xablu.com/event/visual-studio-2017-launch/
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-studio-2017-launch-party-amsterdam-tickets-32184912941
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-studio-2017-launch-party-eindhoven-tickets-32184874827
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-studio-2017-launch-party-hengelo-tickets-32184379345

Delta-N
https://www.delta-n.nl/visual-studio-2017-launch-event

Info Support
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/visual-studio-2017-launch-party-tickets-32321070191

SDN Event 1 – Zeist – March 17, 2017
https://www.sdn.nl/EVENTS/17-maart-2017
You can already register, so put it in your scheduler and register!

Microsoft Tech Summit – Amsterdam, March 23-24, 2017
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/techsummit
https://www.microsoft.com/nl-nl/techsummit/amsterdam.aspx

Build – May 10-12, 2017 – Seattle
http://build.microsoft.com

Techorama – May 22-24, 2017 – Antwerpen, Belgium
http://techorama.be/

WWDC 2017 – June 5-9, 2017 – San José
https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=02152017a

NDC Oslo – June 12-16 2017 – Oslo
http://ndcoslo.com

E3 – June 13-1, 2017 – Los Angeles Convention Center
https://www.e3expo.com/show-info/2895/about-e3/

SDN Event 2 – Zeist – June 23, 2017
www.sdn.nl

Ignite 2017 – September 25-29 – Orlando
https://ignite.microsoft.com

SDN Event 3 – Zeist – October 6
www.sdn.nl

We hope you like to watch our SDN Casts. We try to keep up with the news in about an hour a week. You hear what is new and get fun demos on technology and Software Development that you can use in your daily job.

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel as we can get a better URL to remember our channel if we reach the number of subscribers needed to add this and make your and our lives a bit easier! And if you haven’t heard if you are the number 100 Subscriber you get something in return! Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3oE_YPB4AJVQSInC-yy3pw?sub_confirmation=1

Go to the website and check when our next broadcast will be!
http://www.sdncast.nl.