If you were to record a meeting...

[Karen G. Schneider]

I chair a committee that is investigating ways to use new technologies to
facilitate participation on ALA committees.  One of my learning curves for
this committee is how to record a meeting and present it via the Web for
members who are not present.

I would add that my partner, a minister, expects me to come up with this
answer too (since she would like to deliver sermons this way for grad
students who can't make it to services but still want to hear the sermon
[she tapes them the old-fashioned way for older folks]--today I said perhaps
she should apply to be Dot Com Guy's personal chaplain).  I realize this
isn't Web4Church, but hey, you know how it goes.

Anyway, yesterday I was in Times Square, which has gone so hi-tech you have
to sit on a bench and read building walls for half an hour, now that every
other facade is a stream of real-time news or stocks.  Pretty nifty!
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?

If you're doing something like this already, or you have knowledge to share,
I'd love to hear from you.

Karen G. Schneider kgs at bluehighways.com
Assistant Director of Technology
Shenendehowa Public Library, Clifton Park, NY
http://www.shenpublib.org