Recording a Narrated Presentation

NOTES:

• In order to use a Narrated Presentation Suite, you must have reserved it **three days** prior to arriving.
• For sanitary purposes, **please bring your own headphones** for audio monitoring.

Once you have arrived in the suite (back hallway of IMC, formerly "Hamel 33 & 35"), you will see a boom microphone, an iMac, an HDMI cable, and a 3.5mm (commonly referred to as "Aux") cable. You will record your presentation using the iMac. The boom microphone will pick up your voice, so try to position yourself under the mic as best you can. The HDMI and 3.5mm lines are for hooking up an external source, i.e. laptop.

Connecting Laptop

1. Connect the HDMI cord to your laptop using the proper adapter (via either Mini Display, USB-C, or the HDMI itself). NOTE: For best results, make sure your laptop's display is set to "Mirrored" (see "Troubleshooting" section below).

   

2. Connect the 3.5mm cord to your laptop's headphones port. NOTE: Connecting audio via this 3.5mm cord is what allows you to raise or lower the volume of your laptop audio with its volume keys (so you can ensure your voice is audible when speaking over a clip). If you lose this ability and see the "no volume control icon" while pressing these keys, please visit the "Troubleshooting" section below.

   

Connecting Laptop

1. Connect the headphones you brought with you into the jack on the red Focusrite audio interface.

   

2. Listen into the headphones to monitor your levels.
3. Adjust the "Monitor Volume" knob on the red Focusrite interface until at a comfortable level (the 2 o'clock setting shown below is a good working standard).

   

Making a Recording

1. Login to the iMac in the room.
2. Click on the OBS application in the dock.

   

3. OBS will launch and likely prompt you with two pop-up boxes: the first asking to use the iMac's internal camera, the second asking to use the iMac's internal microphone. Click 'OK' for both.

   

   

4. You will then arrive at the main recording window. It should be fairly simple: a large box displays whatever video you are sending through the HDMI line, and two meters below display the audio levels from the boom microphone (i.e. your voice) and from the 3.5mm line (i.e. your laptop audio).
5. If you haven't already connected your laptop, the video display will be solid black. To hook up your laptop, see the "Connecting Laptop" section above.

   

6. By now, you should see your laptop feed in OBS and audio coming through on both meters below the video screen. If either of these is not true, please visit the "Troubleshooting" section below. Here is an image of a working feed:

   

7. If you are ready to record, you can start the recording by clicking the 'Start Recording' button in the bottom right panel in OBS (do not click 'Start Streaming'!).

   

8. Now you are recording. You'll see a red circle and timer appear in the bottom right of the screen indicating how long you've been recording.
9. When finished with your presentation, click 'Stop Recording' (where the 'Start Recording' button used to be).

   

10. The file will then automatically be dropped on the Xsan and uploaded to your Kaltura media account. NOTE: If you would like to gain access to that file, please request it from James Runde (jcrunde@wisc.edu).

Troubleshooting

Audio

• Audio levels from laptop are not displaying in OBS.

  

  On your laptop, make sure of three things: 1) The audio from your laptop is routing through the headphone port and NOT the HDMI port (for help with this see below); 2) The volume on your laptop is not muted (to test this, use the volume keys on your laptop); and 3) The volume on the streaming service player (Youtube, VLC, Kaltura, etc.) is not muted.

• The audio from your laptop is not routing through the headphone port.

  

  If you get the "no volume control" icon when trying to turn up or down your laptop audio, then it is routing sound through the wrong port. To fix this:

  1. Open up "System Preferences."

     

  2. Click on the "Sound" icon.

     

  3. Select the "Output" tab.
  4. Select "Headphones" in the list (instead of "HDMI").

     

Video

• Laptop feed is not "Mirrored."

  If the video feed you see in OBS is not a direct representation of what you see on your laptop, your display settings are wrong. To fix this:

  1. Open up "System Preferences."

     

  2. Click on the "Displays" icon.

     

  3. Select the "Arrangement" tab.
  4. Check the box labeled "Mirror Displays."