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Robert N. Phillips
CEO, Lasotell Pty Ltd.
www.lasotell.com.au
How often do you hear people who are trying to provide
documentation make that cry? Let me tell you about one of
the most underused tools on our Lasotell computers, Lotus
ScreenCam.
Lotus ScreenCam has to be one of the easiest tools to
use—start the application, press the record button, then
speak and demonstrate what you want to explain, press stop.
Save the file as a standalone executable or as a screencam
file that you can view with the free SCPlayer.
Microsoft also provides a camcorder application that makes
AVI files. We have seen a series of training programs
provided as .mov files, but our experience is that the Lotus
ScreenCam movies have better frame rates.
The quality of the sound in the movie is controlled (in this
order) by
- The sampling frequency you choose—the higher the
frequency and the more bits, the better the sound but the
larger the file.
- Your sound card—lower performance cards can be
compensated for, to some extent, by using the highest
sampling frequency they support, but you cannot beat
having a good quality sound card. (And it does not have to
be the top of the range—for example, a Creative Vibra 128
does a very reasonable job.)
- Your microphone—head-mounted noise-reducing microphones
are not expensive. Buy one.
Obviously, movies can be linked and accessed from CD or
across the intranet or Internet. ScreenCam movies tend to be
quite large so Internet distribution is not practical unless
you know the customers have broadband access.
But remember, like any other document, the movie content
needs to be planned, which means an Information Plan, a
Content Specification, and so on. If you do not plan the
content, do not be surprised if the users do not understand
the demonstration either.
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