- Author: Michael L. Poe
Mediasite by Sonic Foundry is a new tool for ANR to capture, share and distribute information knowledge. Our video production staff uses this technology to capture your presentations with a video camera, the Mediasite recorder, and whatever you display on a computer. With an Internet connection, your presentation can be streamed live. If your presentation originates at a site without an Internet connection, it can be recorded and later uploaded when a connection is available. A link can be provided to your audience for viewing using any computer type with a browser and an Internet connection.
The initial equipment investment in this lecture capture system was partially funded centrally by ANR and is offered on a recharge basis to cover the unfunded cost of the system and the professional staff to operate it. The rough estimate is $1,000/day plus travel, if any, for the CSIT producer-director.This system replaces what typically cost $700 for the day of recording and another week of editing time that brought the project cost to $3,000-$4,000 for the capture of a one-day event.
To schedule CSIT lecture capture services, contact Sr. Producer-Director Ray Lucas.
- Author: Michael L. Poe
Microsoft Powerpoint works great until it doesn't. A common problem I'm hearing about is font substitution.
Pros know that it is a bad idea to mix fonts. Ideally, you stick to the same font throughout your flyer, poster, powerpoint file or whatever you are producing. You can bold, highlight, italicize the same font for emphasis as needed, but it is still same font. The common fonts between computers are usually Arial, Times New Roman, Tahoma, and Verdana. When there are substitutions of these basic fonts, they are hardly detected. That's a good thing.
Powerpoint doesn’t embed fonts by default, which means that you may have a font on your computer that someone else does not. When they open your Powerpoint presentation it will look very different from what you created, because when Windows can not find the font you specified it will substitute another font, with results that can be unsettling. Switching between Mac and PC can result in small empty boxes instead of letters and that's even worse. Your letter font was probably substituted for a symbol font. So it is best to stick with the common fonts.
The second way to avoid the problem is to tell PowerPoint to embed your fonts. This means that the fonts you use will travel with your presentation, and should eliminate the missing font problem.
Font Embedding
These steps guarantee you will have the fonts you want when you move your file to any other PC, and you won't need to load custom fonts onto the presentation machine when you arrive at your speaking destination.
Note that font embedding will increase your file's size. To keep the file size a bit smaller, you can embed only the characters that are used in your presentation (rather than a full font set); or, you can embed all font characters, which can result in a much larger file. Unless you are sure you or others won't make any changes to the file, embedding all characters is recommended.
To embed fonts in your PowerPoint 2010 or 2007 presentation:
1. Install on your computer any custom fonts that you want to use. You can't embed fonts into your presentation unless the fonts have already been installed.
2. Open the PowerPoint presentation.
3. Do one of the following:
- In PowerPoint 2010, click the File tab, and then click Options in the left pane.
- In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office button in the upper left corner, and then click PowerPoint Options.
4. In the PowerPoint Options dialog box, in the left pane, click Save.
5. Under Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation, select the Embed fonts in the file check box.
6. We recommend also selecting the second option, Embed all characters (best for editing by other people).
7. Click OK.
To turn off embedding, follow the same steps above, but deselect the Embed fonts in the file check box in step 5.
If you have questions about this, remember the Help in your version of Powerpoint will let you search for "embed fonts."
- Author: Michael L. Poe
To help ANR personnel to find training, the ANR Training Coordination committee has established the ANR Training website to serve as a directory. At the top of every page on the site are tabs for quick access to communications technology, safety and compliance training. I'm a big user of search fields and that's where I start on almost any site I visit.
The committee is also establishing standards for training development within ANR. Its members can suggest practical delivery methods to teach particular subjects and use varied modes of training delivery including, webinars, face-to-face workshops or seminars, desktop and room-based video conference technology, recorded tutorials, institutes and combinations of modes.
- Author: Michael L. Poe
It seems every other call I get is about someone planning a webinar. After about 30 seconds I realize they are not planning a webinar. Here's a quick primer in web conferencing terms.
The basics:
According to Wikipedia, "Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. Applications for web conferencing include meetings, training events, lectures, or short presentations from any computer. A participant can be either an individual person or a group."
For the past few years, we've been using Adobe Connect for web conferencing. You know you are using the WWW (World Wide Web) if you are using a browser. Room-based video conferencing does not use the web but it does use the Internet. So it is not web conferencing. It uses specialized equipment in a specific location.
A webinar is short for web-based seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web. It is typically one-way, from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction. Webcast and webinar are synonyms. A webinar can be collaborative and include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter. There are usually dozens to hundreds of people participating in a webinar. They are conducted through the experience by a moderator who sets the event rules, fields the questions, and introduces the presenters. Often, the audience has paid to participate in the online seminar.
On the other hand, some webinars can become complicated when presenters are in separate locations with various levels of Internet connectivity, combined with a live in-person audience, and possibly another audience participating via telephone conferencing connections. Multiple locations, mixed audio technologies and the vagaries of Internet traffic have been the downfall of some recent DIY webinar events in ANR. It takes much more than the equipment and software to hold a successful webinar. It's the skill of experienced production professionals that really makes the difference. To increase your chances for success, make sure you contact me to help you think through the technical side of your next webinar. I'll help you prepare for online meetings, too, but at least now we are talking about the same thing.
- Author: Michael L. Poe
If you are a frequent user of Adobe Connect at UCD or ANR, you already know there will be a system upgrade from version 7.5 to 8 tomorrow. Adobe inserted a pop-up for the past week as you enter a Connect meeting room as Host. This upgrade is taking place on Adobe's server where they host our accounts. It's all up to Adobe to make it happen.
This upgrade is actually a migration. Our stuff is moving. There will be some significant changes, but the previous recordings and links you may have generated from Adobe Connect use over the past few years should not change. Adobe will be redirecting everything to the new URL we will be using and we will still provide access through the ANR Portal.
The Adobe Connect Pro 8 features list includes a few things we've been looking for including the ability to integrate ReadyTalk audio conferencing, a desktop application for easier download of recordings, better audio and video quality, keyboard shortcuts, and rich text formatting in the note pods.
For more and frequent details about the impact on ANR, subscribe to Mike's Adobe Connect Blog where Connect-specific info is posted. This blog is also found in your ANR Portal (top of right-hand column) when you click on Adobe Connect Help.
Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California.
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