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Guidelines for recording your presentation

The figure above illustrates the media you need to collect to create a presentation using Presto.

Record a video of your presenter with one camera and a video of the projection screen with another camera.  It is also highly desirable that you record the audio of the presentation on both cameras so that you can use PluralEyes to synchronize them later. It is usually adequate to record audio at the camera, especially if you are able to also record higher quality audio on a separate recorder such as the Zoom H4N.

 Be sure to check out the sample project for an example of a typical event recording. You can download a complete set of sample media to use to experiment with Presto.

Presenter video

Presto tracks the presenter for you, so unless the presenter moves around a lot, it is typically not necessary to manually track the presenter. Tracking the presenter manually may also introduce undesirable motion in Presto's tracked video. However, if you find you need to pan the camera to keep the presenter in frame, try to keep your panning motions smooth.

The presenter should be facing in the general direction of the camera, plus or minus about 45 degrees.  Presto may have greater difficulty tracking the presenter if the camera is capturing a side view of the presenter's face.

It is preferable that the projection screen is not visible in the presenter video because the brightness of the projection screen can result in the presenter appearing too dark.

Use an HD (high definition) video camera if possible. Keep the shot reasonably wide. That way, you will not need to do much manual tracking if the presenter moves around. (Manual tracking can easily introduce jerky motion due to camera shake if you are not using a fluid head on your tripod.)

Screen video

A separate recording of the projection screen is required. Here's why: If you try to record both the presenter and their projection screen in the same shot, the screen will typically be washed out, making it difficult for Presto (or even a person) to correctly determine which slide was visible at any given time. (For a more complete explanation of the benefits of this two camera approach, see this Presto forum posting "Why use two cameras for recording a presentation?")

An SD (standard definition) video camera is adequate for most presentations, because Presto will replace the screen video with the original slide images and does not require a high definition image to match these slide images with the screen video.  

The camera must be locked down for the shot of the projection screen.  If the camera is moved during the recording, this is likely to cause problems later when Presto is trying to analyze the screen video. Slide synchronization is able to run faster when Presto can assume that the screen is not moving.

The view of the screen should nearly fill the frame, and all four corners of the slide must be visible. It is OK if the camera is off to the side of the screen, as in the example on the right, but it is preferable if the screen can be shot head on.

Audio

For the best quality sound, it is best to have at least one camera take its audio input from the presenter's microphone (e.g. via the sound board), or use an independent audio recorder such as the Zoom H4N placed close to the presenter.

Presentation file

Don't forget to get the PowerPoint or Keynote presentation file(s) from the presenter(s)!  The next section explains how to easily generate the image files from the presentation that Presto needs as input.

 

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