Virtual Presentations

This page contains tips and recommendations for making remote presentations for W3C meetings via teleconference. It is a companion to Speaker Resources.

Recording Tips

(This section was heavily taken from Alamo's Colleges "Teaching with Technology")

Recommendations for successful recordings

1. Follow our general speaker guidelines with particular attention to How to Make Your Presentations Accessible to All.
2. Ensure your audio is clear and crisp. This might mean a microphone where you can adjust the placement. (See our headset recommendation.)
3. Use a good quality webcam; HD (1080p) preferable, 720p acceptable. (See our webcam recommendations.)
4. Make sure your face has good lighting.
5. Do not position yourself with a window or lamp in the frame -- and certainly not behind you; the camera should not be pointed at a light source, not even a ceiling lamp.
6. Verify that your face is framed appropriately; generally in the center of your camera image.
7. If you are using screen-sharing, share only your slide application (i.e. web browser), not your entire screen.
8. Announce the slide number each time you change slides; e.g. "Moving to slide 4".
9. Practice and allow enough time for re-take.
10. Position your notes up high, behind the camera, so that you are not looking down at your computer screen or desk.
11. Look and speak into the camera, not into your computer screen.
12. If you are nervous speaking to a camera, do several takes until your nerves dissipate.
13. A trick that helps is to fasten a picture of someone you are comfortable talking to behind your camera so you can talk to that person.

Some tips

• Practice with your technology - Make sure your video and sound are working well. Do a "dry run" with a friend using the same software and hardware you will use for the video.
• Practice looking into the camera - It's tempting to look down at your notes or at the screen, but when you are speaking, you should be looking into the camera.
• Sound check - There's no need to shout into a webcam or microphone. Adjust your sound settings during your practice session so that you can speak naturally.
• Check your background - Make sure your camera is not pointing at a bright open window, mini-blinds or other striped/patterned backgrounds that "dance" on camera, or a less-than-professional background. It's OK if your computer is in your home office, bedroom, living room, etc., but make sure the background is not cluttered or distracting.
• Sssh, please - Put the dog in the yard and ask the kids to play quietly for 20 minutes while you are recording. During this time, you are "at work," so you want to portray that image. Be sure to turn off your cell phone and close your email program to avoid disruptive alerts.
• Try to hold still - Many webcams track the movement of the person in front of them, so be careful not to rock back and forth or twirl in your chair. This may cause the picture to constantly zoom in and out or becoming annoyingly pixelated.

Video Requirements

For W3C Advisory Committee meetings we ask that your recording follows those media requirements:

• Aspect ratio: 16/9 widescreen format
• Resolution: 1080p (1920 x 1080) at 30fps recommended, minimal: 720p (1280 x 720)
• File format: Mpeg4 recommended (other: WebM or MOV)
• Video codec: H.264 MPEG-4-AVC (Part 10) (AVC1) recommended (other: VP8)
• Audio codec: MPEG AAC audio (other: Vorbis)

Recording Tools

Here are some tools to consider to record your video. They are easy to use and should be available by default on your system, they can be configured to match our video requirements.
Please also read our hardware recommendation for webcam and microphone.

Windows

Windows Camera App (Microsoft) (File format: MP4 - H.264 video and AAC audio)

• To find the Camera app, select "Start > Camera"
• If you have multiple cameras click on the "Change Camera" button to select the right one
• Switch to "Video" mode using the up/down arrows
• Now go to "Settings" to change camera options
• Under "Videos" set "Video quality" to "1080p 16:9 30fps" (or "720p 16:9 30fps" if your camera does not support 1080p)
• Click the Record button (camera icon) to start recording. Click it again to stop recording
• The video will be saved automatically (likely under "This PC > Pictures > Camera Roll")

Mac

QuickTime Player (Apple) (File format: MOV - H.264 video and AAC audio)

• Choose "File > New Movie Recording"
• Change the recording settings, click the arrow next to the Record button. Then choose your camera, microphone, and recording quality (set it to “High”)
• Click the Record button to start recording. Click it again to stop recording
• Go to “File > Export As” select “1080p” (or “720p” if unavailable)

Linux

Cheese (Gnome) (File format: WebM - VP8 video and Vorbis audio)

• From your system preference settings under “Sound” select your headset as”Input Device” and adjust the input volume level.
• Launch the "Cheese" application
• Go to "Menu > Preferences"
• "Device" select the proper camera
• "Video resolution" select “1920 x 1080” (or “1280 x 720” if unavailable or if the video is not smooth enough)
• Close the "Preferences" dialog window
• Select "Video" mode
• Click the Record button to start recording. Click it again to stop recording
• The video will be saved automatically in your Videos folder

Alternative tools: Guvcview

Hardware Recommendation

To provide the best audio and video quality for your recording we recommend the use of a headset and an HD webcam.

Headset

Use a USB or Bluetooth headset with a boom mic that extends in front of your mouth if possible.

Do not use your built-in laptop microphone or the webcam microphone as the audio will be of lower quality, sounding distant.

Webcam

Use a good quality HD webcam that can record ideally in 1080p (1920 x 1080) or at least 720p (1280 x 720).

For example: Logitech C922, C920s, C920.