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The content is copyrighted material of Aculearn Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise — without prior written permission of Aculearn Pte Ltd.
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AcuLearn version 8 is a major breakthrough in design and functionalities. The focus of version 8 is to address the market’s need for MOOC, Flip Classroom and High Quality video production. There are many innovative designs that will address the users’ need in video production.
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AcuConference is perhaps the most scalable video conference system in the world. AcuConference is OEM to many telecommunication operators to provide high quality Internet conference services. These services are used by enterprises, military, education, healthcare and government institutions. The key strength is not only in its architectural design to ensure high availability and scalability, but in its ability to transmit high quality video and audio with minimum delay.
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Recording/live webcast
AcuStudio is an easy to use and fast video studio recording tool. This software will empower its users to create high quality video content quickly without professional assistance. Organizations can also deploy schedule the recording on the AcuManager for unattended recording of meeting rooms or lecture halls. Key features of AcuStudio:
- Record up to 3 devices at the same time
- Auto detect the point of focus by putting the important video channel into big view
- OCR
- Auto-indexing using motion detection
During recording, you can also live webcast it. Viewers are able to view the live recording on their PCs with browsers, IOS and Android mobile devices that supports HTML 5.
The recorded video can be edited with the tool sets in AcuStudio. Users can trim a portion of the video, re-order the indexes, and replace the document video before publishing to the network.
AcuStudio is specifically designed to address the needs for video content production in schedule mode such as lecture halls or self production. It is an excellent tool for MOOC and Flip Classroom because AcuStudio provides the entire necessary tool set its user to create video content with ease.
Scheduled Recording/Live webcast/ Live Monitor
Recordings can also be schedule on the AcuManager. AcuStudio 8 will download the schedule and start recording according to the schedule. The recording can also be live webcast at the same time. If you are the IT administrator, you can watch these lecture halls, control and override the schedule. Administrator can view up to 6 lecture halls at the same time.
Convert/ Upload
Convert/ Upload is a utility that provides a convenient way to:
convert media files to AcuStudio format (acmx) and upload them
upload multiple acmx files
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As the heart of AcuLearn’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) architecture, AcuManager not only speeds up delivery of multimedia content over a network infrastructure, it also provides automatic live web-cast and access security. The CDN is able to achieve high-performance multimedia delivery because it pushes content closer to the users. Users then access content from devices strategically placed at the network edge (AcuStream), which is faster and less expensive.
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This section lists the recommended requirements for hardware and software.
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Windows Vista and above
Office XP and above
CPU: Intel i5
RAM: 4 GB
Network: Ethernet/ Wifi 802.11 n and above
Ear piece with microphone
Web-Cam that supports at least 320X240 format and above
If video source is analog, hardware capture card is required
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Any Intel-based sever with:
Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
CPU: Pentium Xeon X 2 CPUs
RAM: 64 GB
Fast or Gigabit Ethernet
Note: Storage space depends on the amount of contents in AcuManager/AcuStream. As a
Table of Contents
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Getting Started 10
Installation and Registration 10
Startup Mode 12
Main Menu 13
Settings 13
AcuStudio Menu 14
Limit Gain: 14
Enable OCR on secondary video: 14
Watermark: 14
AcuStudio Interactive: 15
Add devices on motion detect: 15
Select Start from AcuStudio Interactive Menu. 16
AV Wizard 16
Test Profile 18
Summary 18
Recording 19
Start/Pause/Resume Recording 19
Full Screen PowerPoint 19
During Record 20
Record Preview 20
Annotations 21
Accessing Webcast 22
Publish History 23
Dual Monitor (Extended Screen) 24
Scheduled Recording 25
Hyperlinks to live webcast of scheduled recordings 30
Monitor live webcast of scheduled recordings 31
Setting up AcuStudio for Schedule 34
Server 34
Proxy 34
Schedule Recording 35
Convert/ Upload 36
Settings 36
Converting and uploading media files 37
Upload multiple acmx files 42
Click ‘Next’ 44 Opening/Previewing Recordings 46 Editing Recordings 47 Append recording 47 Edit Slide 48 Video Trim 49
Edit Title, Content and Notes 49
Change Index Picture 50
Web Editing – Remove index picture 50
Closed Caption 52
Publish Recordings 53
Getting Started
Installation and Registration
If you want to install AcuConsole to another computer, you need to connect the Internet and uninstall the program. This will release the license key.
Startup Mode
AcuStudio can be set in 2 modes.
When AcuStudio is installed in lecture halls and controlled remotely, set it to Schedule Mode by clicking on Start under Schedule.
When AcuStudio is used for desktop style recording, set it to Interactive Mode. The “Settings” menu will correspond to the respective modes.
Main Menu
Settings
There are common settings and specific setting for AcuConference, AcuStudio and Convert/ Upload.
Select ‘Settings’
Enter the server and proxy information as required by the system.
Obtain this information from your administrator if you do not already have them. It is advisable to change your password if this is the first time logging in.
AcuStudio Menu
AcuStudio General:
Click on AcuStudio Settings and select General Recording tab:
Limit Gain:
When checked, the amplification of the audio will be limited. This will prevent the unwanted background noise to be amplified and sudden loudness when the speaker speaks again. However in the case of where many speakers will be using the system, as in a lecture theatre, the gain should not be limited. For example, if a lecturer speaks very loudly and holds the microphone close to his mouth, the amplification is reduced. The next lecturer speaks softly with the microphone further from his mouth; he will be too soft if the gain limit is enabled. Uncheck “Limit Gain” when AcuStudio is set in lecture hall and many lecturers are expected to use it. Check “Limit Gain” if we are expecting single speaker in a noisy environment.
Enable OCR on secondary video:
If checked, AcuStudio will do an OCR on the secondary video device.
Note: OCR is done on a best effort basis. The main purpose is for better indexing and searching for related content
Watermark:
AcuStudio Interactive:
Select Settings under AcuStudio Interactive.Add devices on motion detect:
When checked, the video will appear once AcuStudio detects movements.
Select Start from AcuStudio Interactive Menu.
Enable Record: Record video according to settings.
Enable Webcast: Webcast your video according to settings. You can select either one or both options.
AV Wizard
Select the sources for audio and video.
For each device, you can select the capture size and color space.
Some hardware support certain fps based on certain color space e.g. 30 fps is supported on MJPG for 1280X720. You may need to fix the setting based on your hardware specifications. For document settings, you can also choose enable or disable motion detect if the device is connected to a document camera. If motion detect is selected and motion detected, AcuStudio will move the channel to big video view.
You can choose the standard template for HD or FHD or customize the profile to your preference. Please note the warning below for certain older devices cannot playback high quality video.
Test Profile
As mentioned above, understanding the settings of webcam and the relationship between color space, fps and source size can be perplexing.
AcuStudio can help you do that job. By clicking on the “Test Profile” button, the system will run through a series of test on your available hardware color space, fps, source size and CPU. If your profile selection is higher than your hardware capabilities, AcuStudio will
automatically configure a more suitable profile for you.
If your profile selection is lower than your hardware capabilities, AcuStudio will use your desired profile and no changes will be made.
Summary
Recording
Start/Pause/Resume Recording
To start recording, click on Start under ‘AcuStudio - Interactive’ or press the shortcut key (Default F6). If you have selected to record 3 devices, your recording user interface will similar to the picture below.
Full Screen PowerPoint
If you would like to record and display full screen PowerPoint with the video panel display on the left, you need to open the PPT using the PPT button and select your PPT slide.
During Record
Once you have clicked on the Record button, AcuStudio will display the production output video on the bottom left corner. Notice that there are different layouts below the output video display.
If you choose Auto layout, the big video channel view will display according to motion detection as follows:
Slide/ Screen: Any motion detected on Slide/ Screen plus 18 seconds cool down Document Camera: Any motion detected on camera plus 18 seconds cool down After cool down period, the video of the presenter will take the big video channel.
If you have turned off Motion Detect on the presenter webcam, the video of the presenter will never take the big video channel.
Document Camera motion detection will take priority over Slide/ Screen. Cool down period starts once no further motion is detected.
Record Preview
If you are recording 3 devices with high quality video settings, you may notice very high CPU utilization. This is perfectly normal.
When CPU reaches 85% over 10 seconds during recording session, the recording preview fps will be reduced to conserve CPU. This will not affect final video production fps.
However, if CPU exceeds 95% within 2 minutes on recording, AcuStudio will stop
Annotations
Annotation Tools are available while you are recording.
Click on the annotation tool button and select your tools.
Close the Annotation Tools window to clear annotations on the screen.
Live Webcast
If you have selected to webcast, AcuStudio will prompt to select webcast session prior to the start of recording. When your account is created, a default webcast room will be created for you. You can create your own webcast room with different description and link external URL to your webcast room. This is useful for embedding 3rd party web chat to your webcast.
Accessing Webcast
In order to invite the participants to your webcast, you can “Copy Link” and email the URL to them. Alternatively, you may also inform your participants to access through:
http://www.acumanagerIP.com/search and enter your userid in the author field.
Publish History
You can access all your publish content by click on ‘Publish History’ button.
There are a couple of things you can do here:
(1) Double click on the content to launch online view (2) Copy Link – Web access link
(3) Delete content
(4) Download your content from the server to local file (Editing purpose)
Dual Monitor (Extended Screen)
When you are connected to another monitor and set it to Extended Screen, AcuStudio will automatically make use of that extended screen to display the output video when your desktop application goes into full screen such as browsers and PowerPoint. This will allow you to see your recording output when the primary monitor shows the full screen application. If you have chosen to record in Full Screen mode, the recorded output will always be
displayed in the Extended Screen.
Scheduled Recording
You can select scheduled recording to set recording based on time schedule. To create recording schedules, you need to set Studio ID on both AcuStudio and
AcuManager Schedule Recording page. AcuStudio will read the schedule from AcuManager, record and publish (default settings) automatically.
Click on Start under AcuStudio Schedule:
Enable Webcast: Check this option if you want to
Webcast your schedule recording
Enable live monitoring
Select A/V Settings and let the wizard takes you through the process of setting up your devices. (Note: A/V settings for Schedule is different from Interactive)
Create Recording Schedule (Web Page)
Here’s how to create a conference session from the web page.
1. Enter the login address of your AcuManager provider into Internet Explorer i.e. (http://AcuManager/login)
2. Enter your Company, Userid and Password (You need to have Scheduler rights. Please contact your system administrator to set your account with Scheduler rights.)
4. To create a new Studio ID, click on “New”.
（You can click on the existing Studio ID to modify.）
7. Click on “New” to create a new course template. （To modify the existing course, click on the course name）. Course template is optional. It pre-fill all the relevant fields in Schedule if available.
10. To create a new schedule, click on “Create Schedule”
11. If you have created Course template, you can select the course from drop down menu and all the fields will automatically be filled. Otherwise, fill in the blanks and then click on “Save”. (If you enter the email address field, the system will send notification email to this email address when his recording is uploaded to
Hyperlinks to live webcast of scheduled recordings
To get the hyperlinks to the live webcast, go to http://AcuManager/search
Select ‘Schedule live’ and enter any key word required and click ‘Search’
This page shows the schedule recordings with live webcast for the coming week.
Monitor live webcast of scheduled recordings
When you install AcuConsole software package, it comes with “Live Monitor”. This software allows you to monitor up to 6 AcuStudio at any one time and allows you to control the
schedule remotely. The control includes delaying the schedule, start record immediately, select layout as well as listening to the selected AcuStudio.
Launch livemonitor.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\aculearn\AcuConsole 8\livemonitor.exe Once you have launched “Live Monitor”, click on Operation and Login with your account. You need either administrator or scheduler rights. The AcuStudio that you want to monitor must also be set to Record and Webcast mode.
Monitor will establish connection to AcuStudio and display the number of devices that are connected to it according to A/V Wizard settings (picture below). You will also see the current and next 2 schedule tasks.
Once the schedule has started, you can also monitor the recording from the webpage through
http://AcuManager/login.
Go to ‘Scheduler Recording’ – ‘View by Day’.
When the live webcast session has started, the status will show recording. ‘Webcast’ is the hyperlink to the live webcast session.
Click on ‘Monitor’ to view the video/audio feed in real time. (AcuStudio client software is required). Monitor is only for real time viewing. No controls are available.
Setting up AcuStudio for Schedule
Select ‘Settings’ under AcuStudio Schedule
Server
Server: Enter the IP address/hostname of the AcuManager Company: Enter your Company ID
Studio ID: Enter the Studio ID that you have created above
Proxy
Schedule Recording
Here you can:
- Specify the folder where you want the recordings to be saved.
- Decide if you want the recordings to be published to the server automatically - Specify the time interval for publishing the recordings to the server
- Specify the numbers of days before the saved recordings on the recording computer are deleted.
- Specify the size of disk space when recording is not allowed.
Convert/ Upload
Convert/ Upload is an utility program that provides a convenient way to:
convert media files to AcuStudio format (acmx) and upload them
upload multiple acmx files
Settings
Select ‘Settings’ under Convert/ Upload.
Converting and uploading media files
Select ‘Import Media Files’ and click ‘Next’
Select the profile that you want to encode and whether you want to convert or convert and also upload to the AcuManager.
*The converted file is saved as acmx in Documents\AcuStudio\autosave (can be configured in ‘Settings’ for ‘Batch Upload)
Enter the required information and determine who can access this recording.
Upload multiple acmx files
Select Batch upload acmx files’ and click ’Next’
Enter the desired information. If the ‘Title is left blank, the file name will be used. If you enter something, the Title will be what you have entered with the file name appended.
Select ‘If available, use original publish setting’ if you want to make use of the
publish setting that is already in the acmx files (Those that have been published before with the information saved and schedule recordings files). The existing content will be replaced if it has been published before.
Click ‘Next’
Editing Recordings
You can edit as follows:- Append recording
- Edit Slide
- Video Trim
- Edit Title, Content, Note and Chapter
- Change Index Picture
- Web editing – remove index picture
- Closed Caption
Append recording
Simply click on the record button to append to current recording. You can use this function to include welcome note or ending comment to the current recording.
Once you have appended a recording, you can move your new recording by right clicking on that video.
Edit Slide
It is common to rectify your slide after video production.
To do that, right click on the slide you want to edit and select Edit Slide. You will be brought to the recording user interface.
Click on PPT button and select your new slide. Click on the record button.
The original video will playback while it replace the old slide with the new one.
Note the ‘Original’ tab on the bottom left. The animations of the slide will also playback to provide you with a guide on the animation timings.
If the slide to be replaced is static page, you may stop the recording after 3seconds. You do not need to wait for the entire playback to stop.
Video Trim
‘Video Trim’ removes unwanted portions of the video. Go to Preview window and select ‘Trim’ tab.
The top section (blue rectangle) represents the position of playback of the entire length of video.
The bottom blue bar shows the length of the current selection.
Click on the Mark in and Mark out to select the section to be trimmed.
You can increase the accuracy by zooming in on the current section by clicking on the magnifying glass on the right.
Edit Title, Content and Notes
Change Index Picture
For non PowerPoint presentation, AcuStudio will automatically determine when and where to place a new index. This is done using motion detection on the document. Sometimes the index picture capture may not be ideal and you can click on the camera button to select a new index picture to replace the default index.
Web Editing – Remove index picture
Administrator and content author can remove index picture in the table of slides (TOS) during playback. In order to access this feature, the user has to login to AcuManager, BlackBoard or Moodle to verify his role. Alternatively, the user can also access the content from Publish History to remove index picture.
Web Editing – Skip Over Time
Schedule recording will automatically skip to the time when audio is detected. With this feature, the viewers will view the playback when the presenter switches on the microphone. However, if you want to manually set the start playback time, you can access the content and click on marker tab “M”.
Closed Caption
Select Closed Caption tab Select Language
Enter Text
Note:
Enter – Insert new line
Publish Recordings
Recordings can be published to ‘Content Distribution Network’, i.e. AcuManager and AcuStream, local hard as HTML file, mp4 video or SCORM package.
Fill in the necessary information as above. Please note the following: - Studio ID
Studio ID is created on the AcuManager for the purpose of schedule recording. If you have AcuStreams installed on your network, you can set policy on the replication of recordings to AcuStreams. Thus if you have set a policy of replication using Studio ID, enter the Studio ID here. If not, it can be left blank
- Expiration Date
You can choose to include an expiration date. This is for information only. The recording will not be deleted or make unavailable to viewers.
- Publish Notes
Check to include the ‘Notes’ that you have added. If you have recorded a PowerPoint slide show, this is the ‘Speaker’s notes’ that you have created in PowerPoint
