2335, and 2339
The classrooms mentioned above are hybrid capable classrooms that utilize additional hardware that is not standard in the rest of our rooms. These rooms can still be used as a basic lecture space, but they also have, a lapel mic for voice amplification, recording, and web-conferencing, ceiling microphones that cover the whole room, (also for recording and conferencing), an auto tracking or PTZ camera at the back of the room pointed at the front, a wall mounted 65" side display showing the content from the left hand monitor at the podium, and a Huion tablet as a second display at the podium that can be used for annotation.
Below we will go through the AV control panel for these rooms, what it looks like and how it works. And we'll cover those additional pieces of hardware and describe how they can be used. The AV control panel sits on top of the podium and allows you to adjust the presentation source for the projection system, control the volume for the in room speaker system, control the volume of the microphone use for in room voice amplification, as well as control a few other things related to the rooms focus on hybrid learning.
Two Important Notes:
When the system is off, the touch panel will display a "Press Here to Begin" screen. We do not use any pass-codes or keys. When you touch the "PressHere to Begin" button the system will begin to turn on, and after the warm up period of 10 to 20 seconds, you will see the main page of the touch panel.
At this point, you have the capability to project video and audio information from a selection of devices. These include:
The Laptop source button allows you to connect a laptop or other mobile device to the AV system via an HDMI or USB-C connection. Simply plug the cable into your device, and select the Laptop button. | |
The Podium PC is a computer that is permanently in the room. Its monitor is on the podium, and you'll find a keyboard and mouse in the pullout tray. You can sign into the Podium Computer either with your Grainger Credentials if you have them, or with your NetID@wisc.edu for the username, and your NetID password. | |
The Document Camera allows a user to project non-digital content onto the projector screen. Lift the Document Camera to turn it on, then select this button to project it. This device does not share any kind of audio. | |
The Wireless connection option allows you to connect a laptop or another mobile device to the AV system to project video and audio without a physical connection. These rooms use a system called Wolfvision Cynap, these are universal, so an application is not required on MacOS or Windows to use them. Simply press the Wireless button on the touch panel and directions for using it will be displayed on the projection screen. |
At the bottom of the input selections, there is a "Video Mute" button. This button will temporarily blank the video feed that is going to the projection system. Press it once to activate it, and then press it again to turn it off once you're ready to display your content again.
Along the bottom of the AV touch panel, you will see your volume controls. This will allow you to raise or lower the audio volume coming from your selected input. To increase the volume, press the volume up button on the right side. To decrease the volume, press the volume down button on the left side. The audio mute button is just to the left of the volume down button.
From the Screen page, the user can control the projection screen, side display, and rear displays.
The Projection Screen buttons are fairly self explanatory, you can either send the projection screen up, or bring it down.
The Side Display and Read Displays each have a power state button. They can be either on or off. By default, both are on. This means you get two confidence monitors at the back of the room (Rear Displays) as well as the side display showing one of your two screens at the podium computer, this side display is intended to be used for web-conferences, so remote participants can be displayed in room easily. If you don't want these things, you can simply toggle them to off to shut them down.
The Audio page has a few important controls on it. First, under Conferencing Controls:
Now, under Microphones:
The Cameras page has a few controls to run through. If the auto tracking is off, then you'll see all of the pan, tilt, and zoom controls for the camera. Just tap any of the buttons to get the desired change in the cameras position or zoom level.
Between all of the PTZ directional buttons is the home button. This will return the camera to its home position, a shot of the entire front of the room.
And finally, if you don't want to have to touch the camera or worry about if you move around, you can turn on Auto Tracking. All the other buttons will be removed, and you can wander the front of the room freely, knowing that the camera is following your movements.
The Recording page is where controls for Lecture Capture are. Our Lecture Capture system uses Kaltura, a campus approved video recording/hosting solution. To use the recording page, tap the NetID entry space and an on screen keyboard will appear. Type in your NetID@wisc.edu and confirm it. Now, choose which recording layout you want.
And then at the very bottom you have the recording controls themselves. This will be set to Stop by default. Once you've filled out the NetID field and selected your desired layout, you can press the record button to being the lecture capture. If you want to pause the recording, say for a lunch break, or because you're preparing the next thing and it may take a few minutes, press the pause button. Otherwise, once you are done with your presentation, press the Stop button to end your recording. If you do not press the stop button, or shut down the AV system, the recording will continue.
The issue historically with trying to record content in a classroom is the physical aspect of a class. Sharing notes the instructor writes on the whiteboard, or showing off a physical material such as a paper via a doc cam. Sharing that content in a recording or with remote participants is possible in these rooms. There are just a few steps to get there. And the statement below is the most important thing to remember.
The Camera application on the podium computer allows you to get a video feed of whatever the selected presentation source on the AV touch panel is.
So let's say you wanted to share a physical piece of paper that you have with you with remote participants right away at the start of class. We'll go start to finish with the steps.
At this point, you should see a few things. First, the projection screen in the room will be displaying the document camera. Second, on the podium computer monitor where you put the camera app, you should still see the camera app, but inside its borders will be that same view of the document camera you're seeing on the projector. As a result, because you're sharing that view of the camera app with the remote participants, they are also seeing it in real time.
This process works the exact same way with the HDMI input option, as well as the Wireless Presentation Option. Both can be viewed through the camera app in the same way to allow remote participants to see it.
How to share White-boarding digitally will be outlined below under the "Annotating and White-boarding" section.
The right most monitor on your podium is a Huion Kamvas. This is a monitor that comes with a stylus for the purpose of annotating. The stylus will live in a little holster on the podium just next to the Huion Kamvas. But, you can't just annotate over anything. If you want to use it, you'll need to open an application that supports a writing tablet monitor. The most used examples are PowerPoint, and the Microsoft Whiteboard Application.
PowerPoint: To use the Huion Kamvas to annotate in PowerPoint, open up you're power point slides. Now, put them in presentation mode. Once there, you'll be able to take the stylus to the screen, and annotate over your own slides. When you leave the fullscreen of the PowerPoint, you'll be asked if you want to keep the annotations or not.
Microsoft Whiteboard: In the bottom right hand corner of your screen, you'll see a small pen icon. Click it, and a menu will pop out from it with a Whiteboard option. Click that, and it will quickly download the Microsoft Whiteboard app for you.
Once done, click it one last time, and you'll be prompted to sign in. Use your Campus NetID credentials to do so. Finally, once you've signed in you'll see a full open white-boarding space where you can freely write and draw using the stylus. To share this content with remote participants drag the white-boarding window over to the right most monitor, and then share that monitor out in whatever web-conferencing application you choose to use. This will allow the remote participants, and in room participants (provided the podium computer presentation source is selected), to see the white-boarding the same way in real time. This use case does not require the Camera app.