Category Archives: Audio

Feb 04

Liberating Video From Flash or Silverlight via Quicktime Screen Recorder

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Example Quicktime video made from a embedded flash view

I had a recent situation where some video I need to deal with was locked into Silverlight, Flash or other website embed from the source. I am not advocating you duplicate restricted material with this method. You shouldn’t. This is just a quick guide to generate an editable movie using the default software inside Mac OS X. In the following example, I am just going to snag a clip from an embedded video on my own site.

There are other ways to do this and you can use additional software options from various vendors for video and audio, but my way only uses the following:

1. MacBook Pro with Line In and headphone jack
2. 3.5mm audio cable
3. Mac OS X 10.6.x or Mac OS X 10.7.x
4. Quicktime Player version 10.x (version that ships with Snow Leopard (10.6) or Lion (10.7)

I am running Lion (OS X 10.7) in my example. Here we go.

Step 1: Confirm Audio Settings and Cable setup

You can just trick the audio recording with a simple 3.5mm cable in the headphone and line in jacks. You can get software from Rogue Amoeba or others like SoundFlower, but I have always found quality issues and “stadium” echo sound effects when doing that. A simple audio cable does the trick.

Simple audio cable looped into both ports

 

Simple audio cable looped into both ports

 

Once you have the cable plugged-in, you need to check to be sure your Sound settings are correct. These will probably be set by default, but good thing to check.

OS X Sound Preference Pane Input Setup

OS X Sound Preference Pane Output Setup

Step 2: Position and setup video

In my tests, lowing the resolution down from the very high-res setting makes sense to do. In my tests, I usually cut the resolution to 1200×1024 or even 1024×768. If I am watching the clip in non-fullscreen mode so I don’t generate a huge video file.

Thinking about the setting of the display

Then, you want to go to the video via the web browser or whatever and get it queued up and ready to play. The more you have it setup, the less you will have to trim for the final video.

Prepping location for the video you want to capture

If you have the option, you can decide to record the video in fullscreen mode. Most embedded videos will give you the fullscreen option, but in my example, I am just snagging a fixed size embedded video.

Step 3: Quicktime Player New Screen Recording Prep

If you have the audio setup and the video queued and ready to go, then you can start the Quicktime Player. Inside QT Player, select “New Screen Recording”

File > New Screen Recording

Screen recording functionality is wonderful for training videos on how to walk people through something on the computer. The audio setting is typically the internal mic by default so you can narrate or do a voice-over of what you are doing. You do though have the option to change the audio source. In our case for this, you will change it to Line In.

Use Built-In Input: Line In

I have Soundflower installed, but am not using it. You might have other audio sources available too, but because of the audio cable setup, you will use Line In. Move the Screen Recording controller out of the way of the video location on your screen and get ready to record.

Step 4: Start the recording and play the video

When ready, press the record button. You can leave the volume on this controller down to the minimum. It does not dictate the volume. The Sound prefs do. (step 1 above.) When you trigger the record, you have to select the region of the screen to record.

Starting the Screen Recording

Get as close as you can to the core of the video you want to snag. If you just click, it will record the whole screen, so you probably want to just create a region around the video only. You can do the whole screen and then trigger fullscreen playback on the video, but that may or may not be really necessary depending on what you want from this all.

Selecting the Screen Recording Region

They press the the button to start recording to start the acquisition. Immediately then play the video. You will need to trim the screen recording of you pressing play on the video but that is super simple in Quicktime.

When have recorded the piece of video you require, you can stop recording and stop the video playback. Quicktime Player will open the screen recording capture for you.

Screen recording as a Quicktime Player movie

You can trim that initial part of the recording and you have a viable quicktime movie to export to mp4 or whatever.

Yes, not the most elegent or highest video quality in the world, but it does generate a workable video file with decent audio that came around via the loop cable. Hope this helps if you get caught in a situation that requires something like this.

Sep 26

Great Amplified Classroom Speakers: Epson ELPSP02

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One Epson ELPSP02 On A Classroom Wall

Amplified speakers for classroom use are tough to come by. We have gone through many models. If you get desktop speakers, you need to then get wall mounts. So, you can go cheap, but adding the cost of decent wall mounts and the time involved to install them spikes the price. There unfortunately are very few options out there under $200 that have decent wall mounting kits that come with them and that are really set for use in a classroom setting.

I was able to find the Epson ELPSP02 Active Speakers. They are a pair of speakers that were designed to be wall mounted and ready to go for teachers. They cost around $150 or so from CDWG or another distributor.

The treble and bass adjustments are also a nice touch. It also comes with a mounting bracket for the power adapter which is great for cabling organization. We have a few pairs of these in now, but will be using this as the new standard for classrooms. They are also white in color and the cases are durable, so I feel they will hold-up to the rough environment of the high school classroom.

Couple of points to note: RCA to 3.5 audio connector cables are NOT included, so you need to get those separately. Also, the cable that connects the powered speaker to the non-powered is not standard speaker wire, so you cannot have these more than about 12 feet apart from each other. But, there is plenty of length to put them above or around a standard dry-erase whiteboard.

All and all in our testing, we are finding they are holding-up well and provide decent sound for the rooms. The mounting brackets come with the units, so that is just a huge time-saver on getting third-party mounts from Peerless or something and then having to rig something crazy.

The Epson site product page actually doesn’t even do a decent job of giving you information or pictures of what they really look like so I have added some additional images here. For me, seeing the way the connections are located is super-important. These speakers are designed to hang on the wall so the cabling that comes with it works well with the wall mounted setup.

Apr 19

Using Dock Cleats As Cable Managers In Classrooms

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Powder-Coated Dock Edge Classic™ Cleats

When it comes to computer cabling in classroom environments, no matter what you do for the long runs, you usually a mess on your hands those final few feet to the faculty equipment.

No matter what you do in your school classrooms to handle cabling for faculty, there is that final length of cable for audio and video to projectors, interactive boards and audio that usually is a total cluster. Then, add-in the multiple uses and people in the rooms doing a variety of different types of presentations in different locations in the room and you compound the issue.  In our case, we had long cables running from the projector and speakers and the length connecting to faculty laptops has always been a nightmare to deal with. They sits on the ground and constantly get kicked around, removed, lost and/or damaged. It also just looks bad when you come in and see a pile of cables you need to rely on for a teaching session.

In addition to adding cable management from the projectors and speakers in the room through putting then behind the walls (if you can) or going with cable tracking to conceal and secure cables, you still need some slack to allow teachers to setup in the space in different locations. Because you want to leave some slack, but it can stay unorganized. All strict cable management systems from the usual vendors are really geared to hold the cabling in a fixed position. This doesn’t work for that final few feet from the wall you want for the teacher to be flexible with depending on their material and hardware use.

I found nothing great out there in the cabling vertical market intended to handle this sort of scenario. But, there are many solutions out there for dealing with situations LIKE this on boats with rope, which is why I looked to solutions with rope management and found that dock cleats could be a perfect solution. Different materials and environments, but very similar form and function. After a talk with L-W Visual Arts teacher, Robert Sanborn, who happens to be extremely knowledgeable of boat hardware and interiors, I found out that I should head down to West Marine and see what they have that could work for VGA and other rope-like cabling we deal with in schools.

DockEdge Classic™ Cleat in White Finish

West Marine had many different types of dock cleats but the Dock Edge Classic Cleat models seemed to be the best one to use in my opinion because it was lightweight, sturdy and seemed like our walls could handle it without too much trouble. Going through the check-out, the cashier asked if I had a boat (which we do not.) After briefly explaining I would be using this in a classroom, he smiled pretending to understand and was happy to sell whatever to me for whatever reason. Sidenote: If you have never had the chance to go in and look around store that carry boat supplies, I highly recommend it. There is a lot of really cool equipment and tools for boats but have so many other applications as well.

After We are getting a bunch in and will be installing in every classroom as we can in addition to normalizing the cabling runs with boxes and tracking. The have white and powder-coated models. We will get a mix of both depending what we can continue to acquire from vendors. I prefer 8 1/2 inch model (PN#2508W-F) as it provides enough spacing for decent extra length from the wall to take into the room for a table or desk use presentation.

Besides working quite well to tether the last few feet of a VGA, audio and USB cable, the cleat provides relief on the cable run itself to the rest of the run when it is pulled from the desk or table with the equipment. It stops the pull to the rest of the cabling in the track or behind the wall while still providing organization.

Lastly, it is also pretty fun to say you are getting a piece of equipment for your classrooms of your school from Bass Pro Shops (as they sell this model as well!) But, there are many places on the web you can order them from if you don’t have a local boat shop in your area. Depending on which sizes you get, the pricing ranges from $10-$30 or so.

Boating Dock Cleat in Lick-Wilmerding's Room C

Jan 18

Reasonably Priced Wireless Speaker System

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In looking at replacement for fully-wired speakers in classrooms, I ws finally able to find some speakers that are under $200, wireless and have good sound quality. These speakers are from Cables Unlimited / Audio Unlimited and seem to be a great little solution. The speakers can use batteries or be plugged-in and wall-mounting is simple (no extra brackets, etc.). There are screw holes on the back of the speakers to rest on the wall. Range is good, quality is fine for a classroom to watch a DVD, listen to language lessons and other activities.

In my tests, the speakers have performed great. I would not say these are top of the line audio for audiophiles, but if the goal is to remove cables and have decent quality, these are fine and much better than tethering a teacher to a specific area of the room to hook up their laptop. The other nice aspect is you can add more speakers to the mix. They sell additional speakers w/o senders for just this purpose.

The ONLY drawback is they only provide 2 channels for communication. Which means, if you had systems in rooms next to each other, you really have to watch which channels you are using so you will not have speakers jumping to the wrong source. This could be an issue when you have multiple classrooms side-by-side. I do wish they would allow more than just the 2 channels, but for $150 is a great deal and they operate as expected with great range.

http://www.cablesunlimited.com/products/Prod_Individual3.aspx?groupcode=I3593