Software/equipment needed for two way web-conferencing

[p_s_92]

The environment where it will be done will be a well lit classroom(indoors) and no background noise.

1. What equipment will I need other than a camera(Sony CyberShot DSC-W220 camera) for the recording of speaker voice? I know the camera is not recommended for such
recordings, but I cannot change it.

2. What software would be needed for the video conferencing? I looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comp...g_software for
different web conferencing software and feel that Openmeetings(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmeetings) would be fine, but it is limited to only 25
users whereas we might have upto 150 users, running Windows XP/Vista. Should I look at http://www.freebinar.com/ as it is free or are there other options
which I should consider?

3. Also, since Freebinar doesn't have recording capability, which free/open source software(something similar to Camtasia) can I use for recording screen
and audio in the background. End format from the recording(of the speaker's voice
and computer screen) can be a MPEG/WMV file which will need to be edited using Movie maker to edit some clips. Possibly, then we may use flash to add some
animation to the MPEG/WMV recording file to produce a video on a CD(and might be uploaded to the web as
http://www.luminafoundation.org/p...rning.html) which can be viewed by people who could not attend the web-conferencing.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[guns1inger]

Working backwards,

Camstudio 2.6a is a freeware capture tool that does a pretty good job.

If you want to do this cheap, then you will most likely have to live with limitations on the functionality. Freebinar doesn't appear to support video conferencing, for example.

How do you intend to use your still camera for this ? It can't record form the PC, so you will have to just sit it in front of the PC and hope it picks up the sound clearly when recording video, and it can only record in 10 minute chunks (according to the manual). If you are trying to capture the webinar audio, you would be better off have audacity running in the background and using it to capture the audio instead. Or, if you are going to use Camstudio or similar, taking the audio from that recording when it is done.

[lordsmurf]

That's the wrong equipment, and a budget of $0 is unrealistic for this task.

[p_s_92]

Working backwards,
Camstudio 2.6a is a freeware capture tool that does a pretty good job.
If you want to do this cheap, then you will most likely have to live with limitations on the functionality. Freebinar doesn't appear to support video conferencing, for example.

We need the participants to be able to view the presenter's computer screen and hear the presenter's instructions. I guess Freebinar can do both?

We also want the ability to view participant's typed questions if they have any during presentation if that is possible. Can that be done on a low budget? I know this part is difficult and might not be possible on a low budget.

What other free/open source tool would support video conferencing? Would ustream(http://www.ustream.tv/) work?

How do you intend to use your still camera for this ? It can't record form the PC, so you will have to just sit it in front of the PC and hope it picks up the sound clearly when recording video, and it can only record in 10 minute chunks (according to the manual). If you are trying to capture the webinar audio, you would be better off have audacity running in the background and using it to capture the audio instead. Or, if you are going to use Camstudio or similar, taking the audio from that recording when it is done.

Yes, most likely I will have to sit in front of the PC and hope it picks up the sound clearly. Then, use Audacity to refine it before creating a CD for the recording using the video recorded by Camstudio. I plan to create a recording using Windows Moviemaker by merging the captured video from Camstudio and recorded audio from the still camera which would be cleaned using Audacity. Or, is there a better method to do this?


Thanks for the advice and time.

[guns1inger]

If you go back and re-read my post, I did say that you can use Audacity on your computer to record the audio as the conference is running, however if you play with camstudio, you may find it can also record the audio in real time for you. As for Freebinar or any other similar service - you need to actually use it to see if it suits your needs. Get a few people together and do a small test run and see how it functions. Is it responsive ? Can people ask questions and get answers ? How clear is the audio or presentation ? How does it work for people with slower links ? You have to test it to see this for yourself.

[p_s_92]

If you go back and re-read my post, I did say that you can use Audacity on your computer to record the audio as the conference is running, however if you play with camstudio, you may find it can also record the audio in real time for you.

I have not used Camstudio so did not know it could record audio/video at the same time. Sorry, I did not understand your previous post fully.

As for Freebinar or any other similar service - you need to actually use it to see if it suits your needs. Get a few people together and do a small test run and see how it functions. Is it responsive ? Can people ask questions and get answers ? How clear is the audio or presentation ? How does it work for people with slower links ? You have to test it to see this for yourself.

I understand that part(I need to try out something and see how well it works for us) and am going to check that out. What I wanted to know(from anyone in the forum who has tried both freebinar and ustream for a situation similar to ours) was if one free service(freebinar) was better than the other(Ustream) and if there was a free service which provides video conferencing.

As you can see I am a complete newbie to these matters so any advice you experienced folks provide is welcomed. As you suggested Camstudio/Audacity which are free and do a good job too, I don't have to test/try other tools for it as your experience is benefiting me in the form of useful advice. I can try freebinar and ustream, but getting people in my office assembled for a test run is not easy. So, if I know one is better than other from you(or other posters) I can decide more easily which service to pick.

Hope you are not miffed. I really appreciate your advice and time.You are a great help.