Distance Education Technology and Services, University of Maryland

Faculty Guide to DETS Classroom Equipment

The information below is for people that will be presenting in one of the DETS classrooms. It is intended to familiarize you, the user, with the features of, and technology behind the DETS classrooms. DETS currently operates 5 distance education classrooms and while they differ in appearance and layout their functions are identical.

The Technical Director's Role
The equipment and functions associated with a DETS classroom—cameras, video switching, audio levels, connection to distance viewers, etc.—are controlled by your Technical Director (TD). The technical director is assigned to you, and it is his or her job is to present your class to students at remote locations. You are encouraged to talk to them about any preferences or concerns you may have with the way your class is being presented.

Cameras
camera A typical DETS studio classroom is equipped with 3 cameras. There is one camera located in the back of the room that follows you and picks up written material from the white board. There is a second camera located above your desk refered to as a document camera, that can pick up any text or other items that you place on the desk. There is a third camera located near the front of the room that is set to pick up a view of the audience.

Audio
audio board Your audio is picked up with a wireless microphone. The microphone will be given to you or will already be in the classroom on your desk. The microphone portion clips on your shirt, tie, jacket etc. about six inches down from your chin and the body pack clips on your pants, belt, etc. Student questions and comments are picked up with ceiling microphones. Your Classroom audio and other audio sources are controlled by your Technical Director.

The Instructor PC
There is a PC at your desk for such things as PowerPoint graphics, software demonstrations and internet access. As in the computer labs, the user name is student and there is no password, simply hit return. The computer will typically display the student logon prompt if it is not already logged on. The output of the computer is sent to a video projector for your in class students and is also sent to the control room as a video source for your distant students. The audio from this computer is also sent to the control room. If you wish to use audio from this computer please mention it to your technical director as this audio source is normally left turned down. There are tablet computers available that allow you to annotate PowerPoint graphics or to use as a virtual whiteboard. You are encouraged to take advantage of these. For security reasons the tablet computers are not left in the classrooms. The tablet computer's internet connection is via wireless and requires no logon. Let Katie Truedson or your TD know if you want to use one for the semester. You can also bring in your own laptop. There is a VGA cable at your desk that the tablet computer or your laptop will be connected to. The signal from your computer is fed to a switch that automatically selects whatever is plugged into the VGA cable (as opposed to the desk mounted computer).

The campus wireless network is available in our classrooms.

Video and Projector Presentation
The control rooms are equipped with VHS and DVD players that allow you to integrate copyright free content into your presentations.

There are two video monitors directed at you. One displays the signal that your distant students are seeing (what you are doing), and the other displays your live distant students that are equipped for two way video. Your in-class students also have monitors that show what you are doing. This is especially important when you are using the document camera.

As previously mentioned there is a video projector that displays the output of the computer if you are using one. Your Technical Director controls the projector and can turn it on and off. The screen is manually raised and lowered via a switch located on the wall near the projector screen. It’s a 3 position switch. Should you need to raise or lower the screen during your class simply push it up or down as needed, it stops automatically, you do not have to turn the switch off. Audio from live distant viewers as well as other relevant audio is fed into classroom speakers.

The various methods that are used to distribute your classes are outlined below:

Video teleconferencing: Video teleconferencing equipment is integrated into each classroom. Video teleconferencing provides fully interactive video and audio between the classroom and distant audiences. The equipment, referred to as a CODEC, compresses and packages the signal for delivery over the internet in a format referred to as video over IP. In addition to video over IP one of our facilities is equipped to provide teleconferencing via ISDN (high bandwidth phone circuits). The manufacturer of our CODECs is Polycom.

We can support connection speeds of up to 1024Kbps for video over IP and 384Kbps for ISDN.

Microwave: DETS distributes its programming to some of our more local customers over the air using microwave transmission equipment. This provides live audio and video to the distant viewer. Questions and comments from the distant viewer are handled by telephone as is done in radio and TV call in shows.

Streaming: The majority of our classes are captured (to computer/server) and packaged for streaming or download over the internet. Classes are usually online within 24 hours. Students are able to view their classes using their Blackbord account. Each control room has two machines dedicated to it for video capture.

One machine captures in Windows media format and is an off the shelf PC equipped with a high end video capture card. The online student views the video of the class on their PC. The Windows Media format is available for high bandwidth streaming. Content can also be downloaded directly to a viewers PC. Content is captured and encoded on the dedicated machine and then uploaded to our server.

The other machine is designed to deliver what is referred to as rich media, and is manufactured by a company called Mediasite. This is a dedicated machine designed to capture both the classroom video and the computer graphics being displayed in the classroom. This online viewer sees an image of the presentation along side a high resolution image of the computer graphics being used in the class (PowerPoint, software demonstration etc.) This is the best format to view classes that use computer graphics. A high bandwidth connection to the internet is required for this format. Downloads of the rich media format are not available at this time. Content is captured and encoded on the dedicated machine and then uploaded to our server.

Hard Media: Classes can be put on media on an as needed basis. We can burn classes to CD in Windows Media format. We also have the capacity, on a limited basis, to record content to DVC Pro, VHS and DVD.

If you would like a more in depth explanation of our technology or if you would like to discuss or apply a technology not covered please contact us. We would be more than happy to work with you. We are here to provide you with the resources you need to deliver the best possible presentation to your out of classroom students. It is our goal to make the technology transparent to you and your students and allow you to deliver the same quality of education to both your in room and out room students.