I thought I'd report on some experimenting we've been doing here at the UofU around using Wimba as a lecture capture system. I'll describe the use case and the hardware that we've successfully tested to bring everything together in Wimba.
Use Case:
An instructor wants to record an in-person session they are conducting for a live group and save it for delivery via a Wimba archive. The instructor needs a way to display the Wimba e-Board and write on it (using it as the whiteboard for the class). The instructor also needs to control the TALK feature of Wimba while moving about the room on camera.
The Tested Setup:
1) A Macbook Pro laptop with bluetooth enabled
2) Wimba room with the instructor signed in
6) A Cannon XL1 video camera (any camera with RCA analog video output should work) on a tripod with RCA video out to the XLR8 USB video input
Settings:
1) Install the Graphire tablet driver software on the Mac and pair the tablet with the Mac in the Bluetooth device setup. Now the tablet becomes the mouse for Wimba and a pen for the e-board. In the Wacom tablet setup (under the Mac system settings) set the left tablet button to act like the CNTL button on the keyboard. Now you have a button activate TALK.
2) Connect the wireless mic receiver to the Mac mic port. In the Wimba room select LINE -IN for the audio input
3) Install the ProView_USB_1.3.2 driver on the Mac. Connect the XLR8 USB device (video from the camera plugged in using an RCA cable). In the Wimba room options select Composite ProView USB as the video input.
4) Turn on the camera and open the Wimba room's video window.
5) Start the Wimba archive.
The instructor can now roam the room pressing the tablet button to talk and using the tablet to write on the e-board or click through slides. The Wimba room should be projected for the class to see the e-board. The chat and participant list can be dropped down to minimize them. You may also want to detach the presenter console and minimize it if you don't need the slide list.
Congratulations. You now have a Wimba live lecture capture system. With Wimba 6 (Summer 09) you can even export the recorded archive as an MP4 for podcasting.
