Running with Scissors

This week I had a chance to view a live webinar from Sonic Foundry on their Mediasite product which allows quick production of multimedia presentations. I must say, I’m impressed. You can view a large number of presentations (10740+ as of this writing) on all sorts of topics at http://mediasite.com. At the web site, you can get an idea of what the presentations look like, or just to enjoy the many good presentations out there, like this on about massively multiplayer online gaming and learning, or this one on using technology to improve learning. Even you you are not interested in the product, I urge you to look at some of the presentations available to you for no charge on this site.

Mediasite is a packaged system that allows you to stream live presentations, including live video of the speaker, audio, and PowerPoint slides. But is also packages those live presentations for web based on-demand access. Sonic Foundry also plans to add automatic creation of MP3 audio files for podcasting in the next version. Presentations can go beyond PowerPoint as well, including live computer demonstrations (though I’m not sure about what the frames per minute going out are) or connecting to a document camera.

The real impressive part is that this can be done rather simply. You need to have a properly set up “studio” which could be anywhere, including a classroom or lecture hall. Mediasite has a hardware connection where the computer VGA signal is input, microphones are attached, and video of the presenter can be connected. Then, the presenter simply makes their remarks, lecture, demonstration, etc. Mediasite can stream the presentation live, which allows online viewers to participate in polls or submit questions.

I’m just getting started into researching all that it could do, and of course there is some of that “irrational exuberance” that comes from a good dog and pony show, but I couldn’t help but think how something like this could make recording live presentations like Student Academy, Faculty Academy, or the Great Lives lecture series really easy, and really accessible. We could stream the presentations live, offer them for later viewing, and podcast them, all with one system. Of course there are negatives – this is a pricy system that includes hardware, software, & servers. I also need to look into the dreaded “vendor lock-in” issue.

Here is an example of a conference that used Mediasite to document the presentations. Sonic Foundry was one of the sponsors of EduComm 2006, and they “Mediasited” many of the presentations. Here is some info they sent out about it and how to get access to the conference presentations:

Earlier this month, Sonic Foundry mediasited several presentations at
EduComm 2006 in Orlando. Check out the EduComm 2006 Mediasite catalog
(look for the tracks highlighted in purple; registration is free).
http://r.vresp.com/?SonicFoundry/e9e50d5c55/624154/59a25bfcb8/026e155