The College of Education and Communications at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania uses the HuddleCamHD SimplTrack as part of an advanced lecture capture audiovisual system. The University is using Zoom Video Conferencing software to connect their classrooms to the world allowing professors the ability to bring in remote guests and classroom participants. The room has multiple cameras available as video sources in a Zoom call and the main camera is the HuddleCamHD SimplTrack. The SimplTrack automatically follows the professor at the front of the room eliminating the need for a camera operator.“The Zoom room functions flawlessly, the professor doesn’t have to do anything. All they have to do is fire up the computer, log-in, open up a Zoom session, and choose which camera to use” – Chris Barber, AV System Specialist for the College of Education & Communications at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Engaging Presentations: The Simpltrack makes lecture capture and distance learning more engaging by following the professor at the front of the room.
Zoom Video Conferencing: Connecting everything to Zoom Video Conferencing makes life easier for IUP. They use cloud-based recording for easy lecture distribution.
Additional Equipment: Some of the additional equipment used in this room includes PTZOptics Video Conferencing Cameras and Phoenix Audio Spiders (explained in more detail below). Also included in the system is an Inogenie Share 2. This device is able to mix together multiple video signals into a single USB 3.0 connection available as a webcam in Zoom. The professors have a simple touch button system they can use to display picture in picture, side by side and full-screen views of each camera.
“We can control the style the professor wants, whether they want the tracking camera only, whether they want the typical Zoom camera, or the both of them. Pictures side by side, big and small. So, it’s a really flexible system” – Chris Barber, AV System Specialist for the College of Education & Communications at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
One side of the room is equipped with a SimplTrack camera to track the presenter. The other side has a 12X-SDI PTZOptics camera which uses a USB 3.0 capture card to connect to Zoom. This way the professor and the audience are captured for the video conference. Distributed throughout the room are white ceiling mounted Phoenix Audio Spiders. These speakerphones are used as both microphones and speakers in the room. Zoom connects to these audio devices using a USB 2.0 cable.
