“Connect”ing with Polycom

Adobe Connect is a great solution for web conferencing that maintains a presence for the presenter and their content. Admittedly, Connect was designed for the presenter to be sitting at a desk using a webcam, not in front of a room full of people. So how does one combine a classroom setting with a tool like Adobe Connect? I don’t know of a webcam on the market that does a good job of picking up the voice of a presenter AND the voices of anyone asking questions in the audience.

The Digital Union offers many of their workshops in the Learning Collaboration Studio, or LCS as we like to call it. There is a Polycom VSX 7400e installed in the LCS. For those that are not familiar, the aforementioned Polycom is a standards-based videoconferencing device. It has ceiling-mounted microphones and wall mounted cameras. It is ideal for connecting a classroom full of people to one (or more) other classrooms or individuals. It also happens to be the perfect device for capturing what happens in workshops that occur in the LCS, but gone are the days of the VCR. What do you do with a VHS cassette anyway? What about slides or software demonstrations?

Unfortunately, Adobe has not come up with a way to connect a standards-based system, like the Polycom, into their Connect system. Their suggestion is to install a capture card into your computer and use the VCR connectors on the Polycom to combine systems. This suggestion would not work in the LCS as the Polycom is in one corner and the computer is across the room.

Luckily, about 4 years ago, I stumbled upon a little device called a GrabBee X+ Audio/Video Grabber. This device takes Composite or S-Video and RCA left/right audio and feeds it into a USB cable. The GrabBee and the Polycom combine to make for a really awesome webcam.

Our setup for Digital Union workshops has the presenter run Connect to share their desktop or application and a Digital Union staff member also joins Connect with the GrabBee as the webcam. Click the “record” button in Connect and viola instant archival! If you would like to see an example, check out the Digital Union’s Usability for All: Creating PDF Presentations from PowerPoint workshop.