TechTip: Optimizing Capture Quality

Simple and Inexpensive Ways to Improve Your Recordings

Meetings, by their nature, tend to be very dynamic experiences involving one or more presenters, group discussions, demonstrations, visual aids, and other types of rich interaction. To do justice to experiential information of this kind, meeting-capture systems are designed to record these sights and sounds, in addition to capturing conventional text notes and static artifacts like PowerPoint slides.

Unfortunately, if the quality of the recording is poor, the value of the capture as a whole will be compromised, because during playback it will be difficult to hear and see what went on. Fortunately, by paying a bit of attention to the recording hardware and setup, a good playback experience can generally be achieved. This TechTip describes Meeting Companion’s media capture capabilities and offers suggestions for how to optimize the quality of the audio and (optional) video you capture.

Every Quindi File Contains Audio

Every Quindi file includes an audio track that serves as the time basis of the capture. This audio is captured by a microphone that is either built-in to the computer or freestanding and connected to a microphone jack or USB port.

Meeting Companion Supports Various Microphones

Meeting Companion works with a variety of microphones. The best microphone for a particular situation typically depends on the type of meeting, the meeting location, and the number of participants.

• Built-in microphones: Most laptop computers have a built-in microphones. While these microphones are often of reasonable quality, they are usually a poor choice for meeting capture because they pick up sounds emanating from the computer itself (keystroke clicks, fan noise, etc.) in addition to the voices of the meeting participants. One exception: using a built-in mic can be a good choice for personal capture sessions (such as practicing PowerPoint presentations) when the Quindi user is the only participant and there are few keystrokes.
• Free-standing microphones: These microphones plug into either the computer’s mic-in jack (or sometimes the USB port) and have cords that provide some flexibility in where the microphone is placed. Free-standing microphones can be thought of as either personal microphones or conference room microphones depending on their typical placement and intended use. Personal microphones are usually small and portable, while conference room microphones are usually somewhat larger, stationary, and often require an external power adapter. There are several types of freestanding microphones:
  • Omni-directional microphones can pick up sounds from any direction, and are often a good choice for capturing audio in small meetings, as they can be placed in the middle of a conference table to pick up all participants’ voices. The Audio-Technica ATR60C is an excellent, low-cost personal omni-directional microphone and is available from the Quindi online store.
  • Uni-directional microphones are designed to pick up sounds from a particular source and suppress sounds that come from other directions. This type of microphone can be useful for authoring tutorials alone or for interview sessions when there is a primary speaker who is stationary (e.g. sitting at a desk), but is often not a good choice for meetings that have multiple participants or where the primary speaker is moving around.
  • Tracking microphones are a special type of conference room microphone that use multiple microphone elements and sophisticated signal-processing algorithms to focus on a specific sound source, and can follow the source as the speaker moves around or another person begins talking. The Acoustic Magic VoiceTracker is an excellent conference-room tracking microphone that combines an array microphone with state-of-the-art signal processing to provide outstanding audio quality throughout the entire 180-degree field of view in front of the microphone, even as the speaker moves around. The Acoustic Magic VoiceTracker is also available from the Quindi online store.

If meeting captures are to happen in a single place (e.g., a specific conference room) it may be desirable to pre-configure the area. The ideal setup would include a dedicated PC with Quindi software loaded for use by presenters, a permanently-placed high-quality array microphone and, if video is needed, a good camera (see below). Alternatively, if captures are going to take place at various locations (perhaps by a specific person who’ll travel from place to place) then a laptop and a quality camera with a built-in microphone may be a good approach.

Capturing Meeting Video

All Quindi captures include audio, but in certain circumstances it makes sense to also capture video. Video is useful for recording facial expressions, gestures, and events involving physical objects. The decision to use video can be made on a meeting-by-meeting basis.

Meeting Companion supports capturing video from a variety of different webcams. In addition to enabling video capture, Meeting Companion can also use the webcams to take still images, or snapshots of whiteboards, physical objects, and people.

The following considerations often factor into decisions about what webcam to use and how it should be positioned during a meeting.

• Single camera versus multiple cameras: Quindi Meeting Companion supports up to two cameras to capture live action and snapshots during a meeting. However, in the current version, only the first camera’s output (audio, video, and snapshots) is output in save-for-web format. If you plan to distribute the content via save-for-web, be sure the first camera’s output will suffice for web-based viewing.
• Camera with built-in mic versus separate devices: If your objective is to capture a group of participants, you can position the camera further away so that they are all in the frame. Of course, a microphone in that position may not provide acceptable audio quality. In that case, a better approach would be to position a wide-angle webcam to the side of the group, and an omni-directional tabletop microphone in the center of the group.
• Zoom and snapshot quality: Many of today’s webcams can take high-quality snapshots in addition to standard-quality video. Quindi Meeting Companion supports taking time-stamped snapshots from a webcam (as well as from other image sources, such as your computer desktop), regardless of whether the camera itself has a “snap” button. Some cameras also offer zoom and pan/tilt controls, which permit the camera to be directed towards a specific part of a field of view. In most cases, these zoom and pan/tilt operations are carried out by manipulation of the captured image itself rather than through physically changing the camera’s position or focal length. As a result, even “zoomed” images might not be any sharper.
   
  If the objective is to capture audio and video of meeting participants and high-quality white board snapshots, then the best approach is to use two computers, each with a copy of Quindi software and a camera. The first machine would have a relatively wide-angle camera, off to one side, to capture all the meeting participants, and a separate microphone placed in the middle of the group to pick up participants’ comments and discussions. The second machine would have a camera focused and framed directly on the white board and would use the snapshot function to capture the white board contents. Meeting notes could be entered on either machine, or both of them. After the meeting, the two resulting Quindi files would then be combined into a single file (using the SyncPoint feature) that contains everything: the meeting participants’ discussions, any bookmarks or notes entered by the note-takers, and the high-quality white board snapshots. This file could be viewed or annotated directly, and/or saved to web for viewing by non-Quindi users.

Webcam Recommendations

The following webcams have proven to work well with Meeting Companion.

For laptop computers

• Creative Webcam Live! Ultra: This camera has no built-in microphone, but provides a good quality widescreen image.
• Creative Live! Voice: This camera provides good image quality, and has a built in microphone. However, its microphone is a two-element array mic that focuses straight ahead and doesn’t track moving speakers. This makes it suitable for interview-style sessions, but may not be a good choice for group meetings.
• Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000: This is a compact lipstick-sized notebook camera. It provides good image quality and has a built-in mic in an attractive form factor. However, it is not designed for tabletop use.

For desktop computers

• Logitech is a market leader in webcams, and they make some very solid cameras (QuickCam Pro 5000, QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, etc.). The QuickCam Ultra Vision offers good image quality but may be tricky to position properly.
• Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000: This camera has good image quality, a built-in microphone, and is usable on either a laptop or a tabletop. However, because it is very lightweight, be careful not to tip it over.

There are also many cameras from other manufacturers (e.g., Rocketfish) that work well. In general, any camera that produces RGB 24 output format will work. (The ones mentioned above do.) A camera that is USB 2.0-compatible may be preferable as it’s significantly faster than earlier USB technology.

Notes

If you wish to print this document, you may get better results if you select the shrink to fit option, if available, or print in landscape mode.

Trademarks mentioned in this article belong to their respective owners.

For Logitech webcam users: Version 10 of the Logitech webcam drivers introduced a compatibility issue with Quindi Meeting Companion version 1.5.0.10 and earlier. Please read our support note on this topic.

Questions?

If you have questions about this TechTip, please email: support@quindi.com.