1. Camera
   Most cheap web cams have a fixed focal length and automatically adjust focus and exposure, resulting in a constantly changing image.  A proper camera should be capable of adjustable focus, zoom, and aperture.  The user needs to be able to set the right zoom range, and lock in the focus and iris so that the image doesn’t change while recording.  Typical consumer or “prosumer” cameras fit this bill.  Examples are the Sony Handycam series, Canon Vixia series, and Panasonic HC-V700 series camera.  Prices range from $300 to $700 typically.  These are all HD cameras, and can be used to feed a signal directly into a computer or encoder for live streaming.  Or they can be used to record footage, which is then edited and uploaded for VOD.  If they are being used for live streaming, and being fed directly into a computer, then usually a video capture device will be required.  Examples are Sabrent USB-AVCPT, BlackMagic Design UltraStudio, or Diamond VC500.  Prices range from $30 to $375.

2. Tripod
   One of the most causes of poor video quality is lack of a stable image.  The camera view wobbles around because somebody is trying to hand-hold the camera.  An inexpensive tripod will solve this problem.  The cameras I have recommended above are all lighter than a 35mm DSLR camera, so any lightweight photographic tripod will work.  Typical prices are $25 to $150.

3. Lighting
   No matter how good the camera is, poor lighting will cause a poor image.  Most people try to record in typical office lighting conditions.  This means all of the light comes from above, resulting in dark shadows in the talent’s eye sockets.  A couple of inexpensive lights positioned slightly above the talent, and at 45 degrees to each side of the talent make a big difference in the final result.  Even better results are obtained when using the industry standard 3-point lighting techniques.  A tutorial on 3-point lighting can be found in this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcMX1RcNRYA

4. Audio
   Audio is usually the forgotten step-child of video.  Typically people use the poor quality microphones on laptops, or the camera mounted microphone.  The problem in these cases is that the microphone is far away from the talent, so it picks up all of the extraneous room noise, and the talent sounds very far away.  It is very important to have a close-coupled microphone on the talent in order to get professional audio results.  By close-coupled, I mean that the microphone is either clipped on to the talent (a lavaliere microphone,) or within 12 inches of their mouth (a boom microphone or a table microphone).  Decent quality microphones can be obtained from sources like Radio Shack for prices ranging from $30 to $300.  These microphones can be connected directly to a computer or encoder for live web casts, or connected to the cameras listed above for recording media to be used later in VOD presentations.

Create Presentations, gauge knowledge using branch-able quizzes and surveys, view detailed analytics and issue evaluation certificates based on reports. Monetize presentations and earn revenues. Silverlight built, web based  platform integrates with LDAP (Active Directory), CDN services, Microsoft SharePoint, Live Meeting, C/XRM, Windows Live ID & all leading LMS including Blackboard, Moodle etc. and is available as on-premises & off-premises (cloud) offering.

VIDIZMO Components

Pre-requisites

First and foremost, you need following before you can even think about installing VIDIZMO for Sharepoint…

1. Sharepoint 2010/MOSS 2007 Standard/Enterprise version installed on machine
2. In case of MOSS 2007, you additionally need Service Pack 2 installed
3. SSO service in case of MOSS 2007 must be installed and configured properly. Check Configure SSO for Sharepoint Server blog to see how you can configure it
4. In case of Sharepoint 2010, Forefront Identity Service (which is equivalent of SSO service in 2007), must be installed and configured
5. SharePoint 2010 should be configured with following services up and running: 1. Profile Service 2. Search Service (Federated Search) 3. Timer Service
6. Since VIDIZMO for Sharepoint interacts with instance of Sharepoint installed, it further needs ‘Windows SharePoint Services Administration’ service running on the server. Go to Administrative Tools > Services and make sure its running before you run setup
7. You’ll need to run setup under a user that has administrative level access to Sharepoint configured and he must have local system administrator rights. He should be added in local system ‘Administrators’ group.
8. And finally, you’ll need a Channel created at VIDIZMO before you begin installing. VIDIZMO for SharePoint utilizes your existing VIDIZMO Channel information and content. If you do not already have VIDIZMO Channel, you can sign up a FREE 30 Day trial by clicking here.
9. Once your channel is set up, you need to add your SharePoint domain to trusted domains on channel.

• Select “Update Channel” page from “Settings” drop down
• Under “Federation” tab there is an text box field name “Trusted Domains”
• Add your SharePoint site in trusted domain, as shown in snapshot below
• 

Let the setup begin…

After making sure everything stated above is in place, lets start the installation procedure.

1. Run the main setup.exe
2. Provide the administrator Login Id and Password for your Channel at VIDIZMO and click ‘Verify Credentials’

3. If there are more than one Channels associated with the login id, a drop down showing all the Channels will appear. Select appropriate Channel from the drop down and Click ‘Next’

4. In the ‘Site Settings’ tab, provide the Sharepoint Site URL, the Name, Title and Description of the ‘Sub Site’ that this setup will create and click ‘Verify’ button on the right side of URL field

Note: Setup will create a new site within Sharepoint Site Collection based on the information provided at this step. For example, in the screenshot above, setup will create a site on http://moss2007.pdomain.com/VIDIZMOSP2007. The new site will automatically be configured with VIDIZMO Channel information provided earlier

5. Go to the ‘Target Application’ tab and provide Login Id and Email address of the Administrator, to let Setup create SSO Application for VIDIZMO for Sharepoint

Note: SSO Application in Sharepoint stores the VIDIZMO login credentials for Sharepoint users. Therefore it shouldn’t be deleted after the installation is complete. Any tampering with SSO Application can stop VIDIZMO for Sharepoint from working properly

6. Go to ‘Site Template’ and select an appropriate Site Template from the list available by clicking on it. Setup shows all the Templates available in the SharePoint environment you chose at the first tab. Once the information has been provided, click on checkbox below to enable NEXT button. Pressing NEXT will take you to the next step.

Note: Though VIDIZMO doesn’t stop you from choosing any template, there are some that have been approved by VIDIZMO for use and hence are recommended.

7. Click on the ‘I have verified all Settings’ check box and click ‘Next’

8. The setup will check for pre-requisites and ensure everything is in order before initiating the installation procedure. Here’s how the next step should look like before moving on to Next step. If setup clears everything, click ‘Next’

Note: In case, setup detects anything missing, such as SSO Service etc. it’ll show error icon in red next to the line item. In such case, you’ll have to resolve the problem and run the setup again.

9. Accept EULA by selecting ‘I accept the terms in the License Agreement’ and click ‘Next’

10. Finally select the Sharepoint Application from the list to start installation and deployment. Setup lists all the available application in the instance whose URL was provided in second step. Select and click ‘Next’

Note: Sharepoint (MOSS 2007 and Sharepoint 2010) both create Web Applications, with Site Collection under them, which contains the actual site. So at this step, you are required to choose appropriate Web Application. Normally it doesn’t make sense to deploy VIDIZMO for Sharepoint on Administrator or SSP applications

11. Setup will start installation of VIDIZMO for Sharepoint as shown below…

12. Finally click ‘Next’ after the setup is complete

13. Press Close button to exit the Installation Setup.

After the installation is complete, go to the site URL provided in second step and start watching Rich Media Presentations published in VIDIZMO channel right from SharePoint environment.

Facing problems in installation, check VIDIZMO for SharePoint troubleshooting section

Want to see how the website will look like, visit VIDIZMO for Sharepoint – a quick glance!

But having separate systems just adds up to cost and maintenance. Wouldn’t it be just great if somehow VIDIZMO could utilize the same portal environment that people already are using for so many things and users don’t have to go to a separate VIDIZMO portal to watch videos!?! Well, now that is possible with VIDIZMO for Sharepoint, an add-on to VIDIZMO that conveniently integrates with Sharepoint (2007 and 2010).

In a nut shell, this is what you get from VIDIZMO for Sharepoint

1. SSO (Single Sign On), which essentially means use same user id/password to access Rich Media on VIDIZMO that users use to access Sharepoint. This leaves administrators from managing separate login ids and for user a blessing, cause they don’t need to remember a separate login id

2. Central User Administration, again a blessing for administrators. Now they don’t have to enable or create new accounts on VIDIZMO separately, instead the account created on AD (which integrates with Sharepoint) are automatically created as user visits Sharepoint setup with VIDIZMO for Sharepoint

3. Central Search – yes! Now users searching for content on Sharepoint would get Rich Media search results in real time from their Channel at VIDIZMO

4. Familiar sharepoint user interface, since you never have to leave Sharepoint to watch Rich media content now. it just serves within!

5. Customize your portal with Sharepoint webparts. Since its all residing inside Sharepoint, you can add more web parts, like document management, comments & feedback etc. to give users a richer experience

Here’s a sneak peak of how VIDIZMO for Sharepoint looks like (snapshots from MOSS 2007)…

Home page on Sharepoint site created by VIDIZMO for Sharepoint

Federated Search bringing results in real time from Channel at VIDIZMO

My Viewing Plan inside Sharepoint

On Demand Playback on Sharepoint

Presentation Detail Page on Sharepoint 

Neat! Isn’t it?

Remember, VIDIZMO’s platform is built around Silverlight, which supports two video formats currently i.e. WMV and MP4 (support for flash video is not there yet). So any streaming or encoding software that can spit a wmv or mp4 video stream can be used with VIDIZMO, including Wirecast!

Before moving on with actual steps, here’s the high-level diagram of how it works

Lets find out how we can setup Wirecast to provide Live stream. Follow the instructions given below,

The pre-requisites for this are, of course,

a.       You must have Wirecast software installed on your windows/mac.You can download the software from

http://www.telestream.net/wire-cast/overview.htm.

b.      You must have VIDIZMO account

c.       You must have Media Server (WMS) for publishing your stream (or if you don’t have one, you can get WMS publishing points from VIDIZMO, please contact VIDIZMO support or sales teams)

Steps:

1.       To use Wirecast, first we’ll have to set its output settings. To do that launch Wirecast software and go to ‘Broadcast’ > ‘Broadcast Settings’

2.       On the settings form (shown below), we’ll set the ‘Encoder Preset’, ‘Destination’ and ‘Push’ Configuration

3.       First, select the ‘Encoder Preset’ as shown below. The ones that have ‘Windows Media 9’ are supported by VIDIZMO

‘LAN – Windows Media 9’ gives you the best video quality (and hence requires good bandwidth, at least 1.4 Mbit connection) while ‘Modem – Windows Media 9’ uses the lowest video quality (only require 45 kbit connection). ‘Multiple Bitrate – Windows Media 9’ should be selected when you want VIDIZMO player to automatically adjust for user’s bandwidth (encodes video on multiple qualities to suit available bandwidth).

Note: If you are an advanced user, you can click ‘Edit’ button and adjust quality as desired

4.       After ‘Encoder Preset’, select ‘Network’ as Destination. This is used to stream video to a streaming server available on LAN/WAN or Internet

5.       Select ‘Push to Server’ and unselect ‘Pull from Server’ checkboxes, and provide appropriate settings as shown below

Provide address of the media streaming server (in this case mediaserver.vidizmo.com, a fake address), a publishing point setup on that streaming server and username/password (if streaming server requires, otherwise its optional).

If you don’t have a media streaming server, you can contact VIDIZMO support/sales team to provide you one. VIDIZMO provides cost effective streaming services that let you stream any quality video to your audience worldwide.

6.       Note/copy the destination URL that appears in the box, shown below

This URL that we obtained above will have the video stream we push out to Windows Streaming server and can be used in two different ways in VIDIZMO.

It can either be streamed via VIDIZMO Player as an uninterrupted video to your audience (who may or may not be anonymous) or can be streamed via VIDIZMO Live Presenter which will require a presenter to run entire session and also audience will have to first register to become part of that session. Downside of using VIDIZMO Player is, you’ll not get features such as enrollment management, presenter sharing slides/documents/quizzes on the live video stream and chat features, which are available with Live Presenter only.

In steps ahead, we’ll only show you how this URL can be used with VIDIZMO Player. To see how it can be used with VIDIZMO Live Presenter, please refer to this link… http://blog.vidizmo.com/live-presenter-recorder/

7.       Assuming URL has already been copied, go to your VIDIZMO Channel and Create a presentation using On-Demand studio

8.       On ‘Content Browser’ appearing on upper right corner of studio, select ‘Video’ tab and press ‘Link Live’ option as shown below

9.       Copy the URL you obtained from Wirecast and press ‘Verify’ button, which will load video stream in player as shown. Once verified click ‘Done’ to import this video in content library.

Note: Video will load only when Wirecast has started to stream video. So to verify, please click on the ‘Broadcast’ button appearing on top left corner of Wirecast software and wait a few seconds before clicking ‘Verify’ button

10.       Now select the video just added and publish the presentation with proper name etc. Do not forget to close ‘Document’ pane in case you decide not to include any documents in your published presentation

11.       After publishing click the ‘Play’ option and enjoy watching your live video stream coming from Wirecast via Windows Media Server

This is how sample Wirecast stream looks like…

Enjoy!

The answer is simple: It depends on what you are trying to achieve.

If you only want to make your videos and presentations available in your SharePoint site, you can accomplish this goal by simply embedding them in your SharePoint site using the embed code. But as soon as your goal starts exceeding, it may only be possible using VIDIZMO for SharePoint.

Following is very high level comparison between the two approaches of making your videos & presentations available in SharePoint.

As you can see, there are many advantages to using VIDIZMO for SharePoint over embedding videos using embed code.

Conclusion:
If you only have a handful of videos/presentations, all of them allow anonymous access and you do not need to track/identify individual viewer, then simply embedding the videos & presentations should work out just fine for you.

If, however, you have a lot of videos/presentations, do not want to apply extra effort every time you publish a new one, want to provide a unified Single Sign On experience to all your SharePoint users  or want to be able to track/identify them individually, VIDIZMO for SharePoint will do it all for you.

Having a separate streaming hardware offloads these tasks to a streaming hardware , this can be a VBRICK, Digital Rapids, Windows Media Streaming Server or any other streaming appliance.

You may want to visit these URLS for details….

Live Presenter Recorder

How to setup a live profile

How to setup vbrick with VIDIZMO

How to conduct a live classroom

http://www.vidizmo.com/ProductsAndServices/VBrick.aspx?link=ProductsAndServices

Using an appliance is easier than using a Windows Computer for streaming. These appliances come with built-in hard disk and VIDIZMO Controls these appliances automatically as presenter navigates , starts, stops presentations, recordings from these appliances is automatically uploaded to Cloud ( if you are using VIDIZMO Channel) and presentation is automatically assembled in few min after live.

A VBRICK can be installed in every room or on a recording trolley with a vbrick & camera, wireless headset and wireless router to move around as needed. Each streaming hardware is Profile is created in VIDIZMO and when creating presentation, you select vbrick profile to be used for live.

For example, Conference room 1 or class room Y are two profiles. You can create a schedule within VIDIZMO to start broadcasting (and recording) live event in classroom Y  every day or week on 1pm!!!!

Benefits of installing VIDIZMO for SharePoint:

• Private, local access to your online in-the-cloud VIDIZMO Channel.
• No need for local viewers to register.
• Single Sign On experience with existing Directory Services
• No need to maintain multiple accounts or password fatigue
• Familiar SharePoint Interface
• Interface Customization (Optional)

With VIDIZMO for SharePoint, VIDIZMO Channel administrators can:

1. CREATE and SCHEDULE knowledgeable presentations for live or on-demand Webcast,
2. SHARE presentation previews or INVITE intended audience
3. Provide instant SEARCH facility to the users based on keywords relevance, category or author
4. Allow PLAYBACK of interactive rich media Webcasts while interacting with the audience through:

• Live Chat (For Live Webcast only!)
• Embedded Quizzes and Survey Forms
• Discussion Forums or Comments

5.  View individual or group REPORTS based on:

• Attendance  (Invited vs. Participated)
• Content Effectiveness (Completion level, frequency of views, audience feedback, etc.)
• Performance (Quiz results, number of attempts for each quiz, outliers, improvement areas, etc.)
• Bandwidth utilization

VIDIZMO for SharePoint works with both Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 setups.

For details visit,

Install VIDIZMO for SharePoint 2010

Uninstall VIDIZMO for SharePoint

VIDIZMO is offering an easy way to embed/add video presentations in SharePoint and does not require installation. Simply copy the code from Presentation playback page and paste it in Content Editor web part. You do not need to install VIDIZMO software to embed VIDIZMO presentations.

Learn how you can embed VIDIZMO video presentations in SharePoint 2010.

Copy the code and paste it into your page HTML. You can change resolution of player to fit your need by entering custom width or height in the boxes as shown below

Let me show you an example. I copy the embed code as described above and embed the presentation code in my blog page under HTML tab at blogger site. See below

after publishing the page the presentation will be available to view.

If the author(who created the presentation) update the presentation and make some changes to it, the embedded  presentation will automatically get updated too and you do not need to repeat the process again.