Preparing a presentation in the portal (Oslo)
In order to have presenters in Oslo looking in the right direction for both for the Trondheim and the Oslo audience, we moved the Polycom camera to the left-back of the Portal room in Oslo. Lacking proper mountings, we used the means we had at our hands and set up an improvised solution; connecting two different clamp-devices. It worked well and the camera is now mounted in the rig, facing the presenter (and the big frontal screen).
The projector screen will show the audience in Trondheim. This will mean the speaker can look at the audience as they see the speaker through camera 1 (C1). The aspect is not quite perfect, i.e. the angle of the camera will be slightly different to the projected screen – but it shall help the speaker connect with the audience in Trondheim more naturally.
Camera 2 (C2) will be used for everyday classes, directed at the tables and the students. The primary screen at the back of the room can be used for whatever is needed of the session – shared screen or a needed camera angle from Trondheim.
When using only zoom for visual connection over the portal – at time of writing they do not have a function to have full screen for 2 screens at a time. This means with only zoom it is not possible to have a full screen audience shown on the projector and a full screen (screen share for example) on the main monitor. Hopefully a later update may solve this, or instead use another streaming technology like TICO.
Secondly only one camera from one system can be used at one time on zoom. If many cameras are needed at the same time, then multiple systems are needed.
Whilst we were setting up the portal, the Huddley camera was placed on a small stand beside the MIDAS mixer, so that we, during e.g. gain staging we can send video to Trondheim, comparing setting, etc. This was very useful, there are many faders and levels that make up the signal chain between sites – this allowed us to troubleshoot with Trondheim with visibility to the Midas mixer and Lola at the same time.
Written by Espen & Sam