User Guide AcuStudio 8 Enterprise Edition

User Guide AcuStudio 8 Enterprise Edition 2

Downloading and Installing AcuConsole (AcuStudio-AcuConference) The installer for can be downloaded from: http://presentur.ntu.edu.sg/login/download.asp To remove the water mark in the recording, you have to register the License Key (available from ServiceDesk or your School IT/eLearning Support Team) before using the application. Help and Support If you need assistance to set up the audio and/or video devices and register the software on your office computer, please contact the School IT/eLearning Support Team. 3

Welcome AcuLearn Version 8.0 AcuLearn version 8 is a major breakthrough in design and functionalities. The focus of version 8 is to address the market s need for MOOC, Flip Classroom and High Quality video production. There are many innovative designs that will address the users need in video production. AcuConference AcuConference is perhaps the most scalable video conference system in the world. AcuConference is OEM to many telecommunication operators to provide high quality Internet conference services. These services are used by enterprises, military, education, healthcare and government institutions. The key strength is not only in its architectural design to ensure high availability and scalability, but in its ability to transmit high quality video and audio with minimum delay. AcuStudio Recording/live webcast AcuStudio is an easy to use and fast video studio recording tool. This software will empower its users to create high quality video content quickly without professional assistance. Organizations can also deploy schedule the recording on the NTU video server for unattended recording of meeting rooms or lecture halls. Key features of AcuStudio: - Record up to 3 devices at the same time - Auto detect the point of focus by putting the important video channel into big view - Record from microphone and/or audio from video playback like YouTube - Edit slide within video - Single video playback Good for YouTube, Coursera and mobile device - HLS Live Streaming Supports HTML 5 - SCORM 2 - Support hot plug-in of devices 4

- Multi-language Close Caption - Reorder and Delete - OCR - Auto-indexing using motion detection During recording, you can also live webcast it. Viewers are able to view the live recording on their PCs with browsers, IOS and Android mobile devices that supports HTML 5. The recorded video can be edited with the tool sets in AcuStudio. Users can trim a portion of the video, re-order the indexes, and replace the document video before publishing to the network. AcuStudio is specifically designed to address the needs for video content production in schedule mode such as lecture halls or self production. It is an excellent tool for MOOC and Flip Classroom because AcuStudio provides the entire necessary tool set its user to create video content with ease. Convert/ Upload Convert/ Upload is a utility that provides a convenient way to: convert media files to AcuStudio format (acmx) and upload them upload multiple acmx files 5

Recommended Requirements This section lists the recommended requirements for hardware and software. AcuConference and AcuStudio (Recommended) Windows Vista and above Office XP and above CPU: Intel i5 RAM: 4 GB Network: Ethernet/ Wifi 802.11 n and above Ear piece with microphone Web-Cam that supports at least 320X240 format and above If video source is analog, hardware capture card is required 6

Table of Contents AcuStudio 8 Guide Getting Started 8 Installation and Registration 8 Startup Mode 10 Main Menu 10 Settings 112 AcuStudio Menu 13 Limit Gain: 13 Enable OCR on secondary video: 13 Watermark: 143 AcuStudio Interactive: 143 Add devices on motion detect: 14 Select Start from AcuStudio Interactive Menu. 154 AV Wizard 154 Test Profile 176 Summary 187 Recording 198 Start/Pause/Resume Recording 198 Full Screen PowerPoint 198 During Record 20 Record Preview 20 Annotations 210 Live Webcast 221 Publish History 232 Dual Monitor (Extended Screen) 243 Convert/ Upload 24 Settings 25 Converting and uploading media files 26 Upload multiple acmx files 31 Opening/Previewing Recordings 35 Editing Recordings 35 Append recording 35 Edit Slide 36 Video Trim 38 Edit Title, Content and Notes 37 Change Index Picture 39 Web Editing Remove index picture 39 Web Editing Skip Over Time 40 Closed Caption 40 Publish Recordings 43 Learning Management System 42 7

Getting Started Installation and Registration The installer for AcuConsole can be downloaded from: http://presentur.ntu.edu.sg/login/download.asp To remove the water mark in the recording, you have to register the License Key (available from your School IT/eLearning Support Team) before using the application. After you have installed AcuConsole (AcuStudio + AcuConference + Converter + Batch uploader) software, select Register, enter your license key (must be connected to Internet). 8

If you want to install AcuConsole to another computer, you need to connect the Internet and uninstall the program. This will release the license key. Registration will remove AcuLearn Logo from your video recording. The software is fully functional without having to register too. If you need assistance to set up the audio and/or video devices and register the software on your office computer, please contact the School IT/eLearning Support Team. 9

Startup Mode AcuStudio can be set in 2 modes. When AcuStudio is installed in lecture halls and controlled remotely, set it to Schedule Mode by clicking on Start under Schedule. When AcuStudio is used for desktop style recording, set it to Interactive Mode. The Settings menu will correspond to the respective modes. Default setting is Interactive Mode. 10

Main Menu 11

Settings There are common settings and specific setting for AcuConference, AcuStudio and Convert/ Upload. Select Settings Enter the server and proxy information as required by the system. NTU users can login to AcuConsole using the following server settings and their NTU network account ID and Password as shown in the screenshot below. 12

AcuStudio Menu AcuStudio General: Click on AcuStudio Settings and select General Recording tab: Limit Gain: When checked, the amplification of the audio will be limited. This will prevent the unwanted background noise to be amplified and sudden loudness when the speaker speaks again. However in the case of where many speakers will be using the system, as in a lecture theatre, the gain should not be limited. For example, if a lecturer speaks very loudly and holds the microphone close to his mouth, the amplification is reduced. The next lecturer speaks softly with the microphone further from his mouth; he will be too soft if the gain limit is enabled. Uncheck Limit Gain when AcuStudio is set in lecture hall and many lecturers are expected to use it. Check Limit Gain if we are expecting single speaker in a noisy environment. Enable OCR on secondary video: If checked, AcuStudio will do an OCR on the secondary video device. Note: OCR is done on a best effort basis. The main purpose is for better indexing and searching for related content 13

Watermark: If checked, you can embed an image (eg Company logo) in the videos. Browse to the required image file; choose the position, % width as compared to the video and opacity. AcuStudio Interactive: Select Settings under AcuStudio Interactive. Add devices on motion detect: When checked, the video will appear once AcuStudio detects movements. Example: If you set to record 3 devices, the initial recording will capture the camera s video. The visualizer and document will be captured only when AcuStudio detects change in the image of the visualizer camera and/or document screen. 14

Select Start from AcuStudio Interactive Menu. Enable Record: Record video according to settings. Enable Webcast: Webcast your video according to settings. You can select either one or both options. AV Wizard Select the number of devices that will be recorded. AcuStudio supports up to maximum of 3 devices. These devices can be video and/ or monitor screen. 15

Select the sources for audio and video. Note that audio can be configured to record audio from both video playback (Movie, YouTube etc) and microphone. If you have selected to record mic + speaker, it is advisable not to place your microphone too near the speaker. If your microphone picks up audio from the speakers, the sound quality will be affected (Echo effect). 16

For each device, you can select the capture size and color space. Some hardware support certain fps based on certain color space e.g. 30 fps is supported on MJPG for 1280X720. You may need to fix the setting based on your hardware specifications. For document settings, you can also choose enable or disable motion detect if the device is connected to a document camera. If motion detect is selected and motion detected, AcuStudio will move the channel to big video view. You can choose the standard template for HD or FHD or customize the profile to your preference. Please note the warning below for certain older devices cannot playback high quality video. Test Profile As mentioned above, understanding the settings of webcam and the relationship between color space, fps and source size can be perplexing. AcuStudio can help you do that job. By clicking on the Test Profile button, the system will run through a series of test on your available hardware color space, fps, source size and CPU. If your profile selection is higher than your hardware capabilities, AcuStudio will automatically configure a more suitable profile for you. If your profile selection is lower than your hardware capabilities, AcuStudio will use your desired profile and no changes will be made. The recommended profile for typical lecture video recording is as follows: 17

Summary After choosing the AV profile, a summary of your selection is shown. If you are satisfied with your selections/settings, click Finish to exit the wizard, otherwise click Back to change your selections/settings. 18

Recording Start/Pause/Resume Recording To start recording, click on Start under AcuStudio - Interactive or press the shortcut key (Default F6). If you have selected to record 3 devices, your recording user interface will similar to the picture below. Full Screen PowerPoint If you would like to record and display full screen PowerPoint with the video panel display on the left, you need to open the PPT using the PPT button and select your PPT slide. If you open your PPT using your monitor desktop and go to full screen view, the PPT display will overlay your left video panel. You will not be able to see your video panel unless you have extended screen. In which case, your local video panel will be displayed on the extended screen. 19

During Record Once you have clicked on the Record button, AcuStudio will display the production output video on the bottom left corner. Notice that there are different layouts below the output video display. If you choose Auto layout, the big video channel view will display according to motion detection as follows: Slide/ Screen: Any motion detected on Slide/ Screen plus 18 seconds cool down Document Camera: Any motion detected on camera plus 18 seconds cool down After cool down period, the video of the presenter will take the big video channel. If you have turned off Motion Detect on the presenter webcam, the video of the presenter will never take the big video channel. Document Camera motion detection will take priority over Slide/ Screen. Cool down period starts once no further motion is detected. Record Preview If you are recording 3 devices with high quality video settings, you may notice very high CPU utilization. This is perfectly normal. When CPU reaches 85% over 10 seconds during recording session, the recording preview fps will be reduced to conserve CPU. This will not affect final video production fps. However, if CPU exceeds 95% within 2 minutes on recording, AcuStudio will stop automatically and you need to select lower quality settings or reduce the number of devices to be recorded. 20

Annotations Annotation Tools are available while you are recording. Click on the annotation tool button and select your tools. Close the Annotation Tools window to clear annotations on the screen. If you have selected to record in full screen mode, the annotation tools are accessible on the top middle of the screen. This tab is auto-hide. When your mouse cursor is at the top middle, the tab will drop down as below. 21

Live Webcast If you have selected to webcast, AcuStudio will prompt to select webcast session prior to the start of recording. When your account is created, a default webcast room will be created for you. You can create your own webcast room with different description and link external URL to your webcast room. This is useful for embedding 3 rd party web chat to your webcast. Accessing Webcast In order to invite the participants to your webcast, you can Copy Link and email the URL to them. Alternatively, you may also inform your participants to access through: http://www.ntu video serverip.com/search and enter your userid in the author field. The participants will see: 22

Publish History You can access all your publish content by click on Publish History button. There are a couple of things you can do here: (1) Double click on the content to launch online view (2) Copy Link Web access link (3) Delete content (4) Download your content from the server to local file (Editing purpose) (5) If you are company administrator, you can select to see the publish content of your company. 23

Dual Monitor (Extended Screen) When you are connected to another monitor and set it to Extended Screen, AcuStudio will automatically make use of that extended screen to display the output video when your desktop application goes into full screen such as browsers and PowerPoint. This will allow you to see your recording output when the primary monitor shows the full screen application. If you have chosen to record in Full Screen mode, the recorded output will always be displayed in the Extended Screen. Extended Screen Primary Screen 24

Convert/ Upload Convert/ Upload is an utility program that provides a convenient way to: convert media files to AcuStudio format (acmx) and upload them upload multiple acmx files Settings Select Settings under Convert/ Upload. NTU users can login to AcuConsole using the following server settings and their NTU network account ID and Password as shown in the screenshot below. 25

Converting and uploading media files From the main menu, select Convert/ Upload Click on Convert/ Upload tab and select the folder that you want the converted files to be saved Select Import Media Files and click Next Select Add File to select and convert media files or Add Dir to convert all media files in that folder. Click Next 27

Select the profile that you want to encode and whether you want to convert or convert and also upload to the NTU video server. *The converted file is saved as acmx in Documents\AcuStudio\autosave (can be configured in Settings for Batch Upload) 28

If you have chosen to Convert and Publish to Network, you will be prompted to login to AcuConsole. Enter the required information and determine who can access this recording. After that, just click Start to convert and upload 29

After the conversion/uploading has completed, you can click on the file to view the converted file in AcuStudio player: 30

Upload multiple acmx files Select Batch upload acmx files and click Next Select Add File to select acmx files or Add Dir to convert all acmx files in that folder. Click Next 31

Log in to the AcuConsole and click Next : Enter the desired information. If the Title is left blank, the file name will be used. If you enter something, the Title will be what you have entered with the file name appended. Select If available, use original publish setting if you want to make use of the publish setting that is already in the acmx files (Those that have been published before with the information saved and schedule recordings files). The existing content will be replaced if it has been published before. Click Next 32

Fill in the information and select the NTULearn course sites and content area where the recording is to be published to. Please note the following: - Studio ID Leave it blank - Expiration Date You can choose to include an expiration date. This is for information only. The recording will not be deleted or make unavailable to viewers. However, please note that all course and content materials will only be kept up to 2 years only. - Publish Notes Check to include the Notes that you have added. If you have recorded a PowerPoint slide show, this is the Speaker s notes that you have created in PowerPoint 33

Click OK to start uploading the acmx files to the video server. 34

Opening/Previewing Recordings Recordings are saved as acmx files. Browse to the file that you want to open. Click on Preview OR double click on any slide to commence playback: 35

Editing Recordings You can edit as follows: - Append recording - Edit Slide - Video Trim - Edit Title, Content, Note and Chapter - Change Index Picture - Web editing remove index picture - Closed Caption Append recording Simply click on the record button to append to current recording. You can use this function to include welcome note or ending comment to the current recording. Once you have appended a recording, you can move your new recording by right clicking on that video. Note: In order to append a new recording to an existing acmx file, the profile must be exactly the same, otherwise the Append Recording menu will be disabled. 36

Edit Slide It is common to rectify your slide after video production. To do that, right click on the slide you want to edit and select Edit Slide. You will be brought to the recording user interface. Click on PPT button and select your new slide. Click on the record button. The original video will playback while it replace the old slide with the new one. Note the Original tab on the bottom left. The animations of the slide will also playback to provide you with a guide on the animation timings. If the slide to be replaced is static page, you may stop the recording after 3seconds. You do not need to wait for the entire playback to stop. Note: AcuStudio will take the new slide and replace the old slide entirely. 37

Video Trim Video Trim removes unwanted portions of the video. Go to Preview window and select Trim tab. The top section (blue rectangle) represents the position of playback of the entire length of video. The bottom blue bar shows the length of the current selection. Click on the Mark in and Mark out to select the section to be trimmed. You can increase the accuracy by zooming in on the current section by clicking on the magnifying glass on the right. Edit Title, Content and Notes On the bottom right of the Preview window, select the respective tabs and edit the text accordingly. 38

Change Index Picture For non PowerPoint presentation, AcuStudio will automatically determine when and where to place a new index. This is done using motion detection on the document. Sometimes the index picture capture may not be ideal and you can click on the camera button to select a new index picture to replace the default index. Web Editing Remove index picture Administrator and content author can remove index picture in the table of slides (TOS) during playback. In order to access this feature, the user has to login to NTU video server, BlackBoard or Moodle to verify his role. Alternatively, the user can also access the content from Publish History to remove index picture. When you mouse over the index, it will display an X on its top right corner. If you want to remove that index, simply click on X and confirm. Once you have removed an index, the only way to recover the index is to upload the original acmx file again. 39

Web Editing Skip Over Time Schedule recording will automatically skip to the time when audio is detected. With this feature, the viewers will view the playback when the presenter switches on the microphone. However, if you want to manually set the start playback time, you can access the content and click on marker tab M. Enter the Start Time and End Time of the segment you want to skip over and click on Apply. 40

Closed Caption Select Closed Caption tab Select Language Enter Text Note: Enter Insert new line Text When you enter text, the playback will pause and continue after you hit Enter key Edit Closed Caption by clicking on the []. 41

Publish Recordings Recordings can be published to Content Distribution Network, i.e. NTU video server and AcuStream, local hard as HTML file, mp4 video or SCORM package. Publishing to NTULearn Course Site NTU users can login to AcuConsole using the following server settings and their NTU network account ID and Password as shown in the screenshot below. 43