If you were to record a meeting..

[Leo Robert Klein]

First I'd avoid the camera stores around Times Square--that in and of
itself would remove a major hurdle.

Second, for audio, any good cassette recorder will fit the bill--plus a
good mike.  Before I went with the Sony unit, I'd like to know whether it
produced CD quality sound (44 mhz, 16 bit) and for how long.  Here at the
library we've got a mini DV camera.  I simply keep the lens cap on and
record with it, again with a mike.

You'll need a sound card with RCA jacks on your computer.  Then some kind
of application that can convert the audio signal into a wav file.  I forget
exactly how large the file will be--something like 25 megs per minute of
CD-quality sound.  It'll be half that for mono files.

Once you've got this, grab a copy of the RealProducer Basic
<http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/index.html>.  You'll need
this to encode the wav file into RealAudio.  This RealAudio encoding, by
the way, will greatly reduce the size of the original file.

You do need a special server to pump out the file--it's not something that
a web server can do.  This is kind of critical since otherwise the file
won't stream. You can put the file on a web server but then it's a case of
downloading it, not streaming it.  To stream the file, you can use the
RealServer Basic
<http://www.realnetworks.com/products/basicserver/index.html>.  The
streaming server, often affectionately known as a "media" server, needs to
be on a networked computer for your users to connect to it.

This is the basic framework.  Naturally there are a whole lot of details
which you'll find out about soon enough--things like compression schemes,
bit depths, frequencies, etc.

Good Luck.

LEO

P.S. RealJuteBox is a playback machine for mp3 files.


On Sun, 9 Jan 2000, Karen G. Schneider wrote:

>Anyway, I walked into one of the myriad camera stores in Manhattan and asked
>a man what I would use if I wanted to record a small-group meeting.  He
>pulled out a Sony MZR 55 digital recorder, which he said was very typical of
>the tool I was looking for.  It had optical disks and included an upload
>cable.  We chatted for a while, and he warmed up to me and showed me a few
>other gadgets, even though I told him I wasn't buying.  It was fun.
>
>So tell me.  Are you providing any kind of audio files?  How would you do
>this?  Am I on the right track if I'm assuming that for small-group
>recording (small group meaning 10 or so people) I would need in the ballpark
>of...
>
>1. A digital recorder, something like the Sony I saw
>2.  A PC powerful enough to hold and process the files--probably a P266/64
>or higher?
>3.  Software such as RealJukebox to encode the file (I'm unclear what format
>the file would be in at this point... .wav?)
>4.  A server capable of serving this kind of file?
>
>On the last, I have really not had the time to pore over the various
>documents I have downloaded, but I have a hunch that providing a static file
>is much simpler than live audio streaming.  Is a special server required to
>serve up a realaudio file?


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Leo Robert Klein                     17 Lexington Ave, Box H0520
Web Coordinator &                    New York, NY. 10010
Digital Resources Developer          tel: (212) 802-2373
Newman Library/Baruch College        fax: (212) 802-2360
http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu        email: Leo_Klein at baruch.cuny.edu
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