DEMO: Best Practices for MOOC Video

This page describes our setup for the demo we presented at Learning @ Scale 2014. While the demo was a 15 minute overview with some tips for production, this page includes a lot more detail about how we made everything work.

Slides

Here’s some download links for our files:

• Keynote Source, with embedded clip
• PDF, pretty
• Keynote Source, no embedded clip
• PowerPoint Converted, no clip
• PDF, with presenter notes

An unfinished, as given, version of our slides can be found, here. (PDF link).

Setup

Our setup was relatively simple for the demo, and once configured could be setup in a couple minutes. The signal flow diagram below shows how everything was connected. We had a green screen, and a light standing next to the camera, facing the green screen to help with lighting. The “Host” computer was the main computer providing video to a single projector.

As a quick point, the entire setup (excluding a laptop) could be built for around $2,000 depending on how much extra equipment or features you need. If you’re looking to build a setup yourself, shoot for a good middle-range for flexibility that would allow you to upgrade as necessary.

At the demo, we projected the composite feed (green screen overlay on slides) to the projector. In a normal lecture setup, you would probably want to project the presenter’s output. To do this you would split the output of the presenter computer. We’ve listed one recommendation for a splitter below.

Hardware

This is a list of the specific hardware that we used during the presentation, with a little bit about what each piece was doing. We’ve listed specific models, but you should be able to swap any item for something similar if you’d like.

• Canon XA10      Amazon | B&H Photo
  This was the camera we used to record the demo. It's compact, but high quality and includes an HDMI output feed to the computer.
• 15" Macbook Pro (retina display)      Amazon | B&H Photo
  We used a 15" Mac because of the graphics power as well as the ability to have dual thunderbolt inputs and HDMI output at the same time.
• Blackmagic Ultrastudio Mini Recorder      Amazon | B&H Photo
  The mini recorder is a tiny HDMI input device which works quite well for simple recording. We could have used two for the demo, but we had other recorders as well.
• Blackmagic Intensity Extreme      Amazon | B&H Photo
  This is a slightly more advanced box which supports HDMI output as well as Component input, which we didn't use for the demo but can also be useful.
• Blackmagic Ultrastudio Express      Amazon | B&H Photo
  While we didn't actually use this for the demo, we have this slightly larger box because it allows us to more easily record high quality audio when necessary. This also supports HD-SDI in/out which is more common anong professional cameras and installations.
• Green Screen      Amazon | B&H Photo
  
• Tripod      Amazon | B&H Photo
  
• Tripod Head      Amazon | B&H Photo
  
• Arri Light      Amazon | B&H Photo
  
• Softbox (for Light)      Amazon | B&H Photo
  
• HDMI Splitter      Amazon | B&H Photo
  

Additional Tools

• Presenter Computer
• HDMI Cables
• Mini-HDMI Cable – Our camera has a special HDMI connector.
• Thunderbolt Cables
• Power strip
• Wireless Microphone (The room was small at the talk, so we didn’t actually need this.)

Software