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Lightweight Lecture Capture Guide

Welcome to the Lightweight Lecture Capture program.

There are now 39 classrooms at MIT set up to automatically livestream and record lectures. The list of classrooms can be found here.

This service is largely automated, only the audio equipment need be turned on and connected.
Signup is now done via the Atlas App! See more below!

If you are teaching a course this semester and do not see the "Lecture Capture" tile in the Atlas App, please update to the latest version via your OS's app store.

Lecture Capture in the Atlas App

Signup for Lightweight Lecture Capture is now done via the Atlas app. The typical procedure is documented below.

Set Up Scheduled Recordings for Supported Rooms

Only the primary lecturer or officially listed course staff* will be able to request recordings for a their course.

* As indicated by their role in Canvas: Course Admin, Teacher, TA, Grader
  • Log into the Atlas app on your Android or iOS device.

  • Tap the Lecture Capture tile.



  • You will be brought to a page with the courses you have access to AND have a room which is available for Lecture Capture; in this example we're looking at 18.022.

  • Tap the course to see the relevant schedule and enable recurring recordings for desired days.



  • From this page you can select which days to record each week.



  • Note that in this example the recitations are held in a different room which does not support Lightweight Lecture Capture, and thus is not available to be recorded. In this case you can request those rooms be set up for future semesters.

  • From this page you can also add additional course staff under "Administrators."

  • To schedule recordings, check all the days you wish recorded, decide if you want the lecture recordings to be linked from your Canvas page, and hit save.



  • You are now set up! You will get weekly emails with the upcoming lecture schedule and links to the livestream/recording, in addition to email notifications 1 hour prior to each lecture.


Add Additional Lecture Staff as Administrators

To add additional teaching staff as administrators on your LWLC setup you can grant them the appropriate role in Canvas (specifically Course Admin, Teacher, TA, or Grader), and wait for LWLC to sync overnight.

You can also manually add them in the Atlas app, like so:

  • Open the Atlas app, tap Lecture Capture, tap the course you wish to add administrators to.
  • Under "Preferences" tap "Administrators"



  • To add a new administrator, search for their name, kerb of MIT ID number in the search box.

  • Tap the desired person's result.



  • You are all set! This new person can now make changes to the Lecture Capture setup via the Atlas app.

Request Equipment

If you are in a Saramonic mic room (see below) you will need a Saramonic mic kit to record audio. Current course lecturers and any faculty can acquire this equipment via the vending machines around campus.

Instructions are linked within the app, and information can also be found here.


Request Expansion of Program

If your course's assigned room is not yet supported by LWLC, you can either:

  1. Contact the registrar at schedules@mit.edu to request that you be moved to a supported classroom. For reference, the presently supported classrooms are enumerated here.

  2. Request the room in question be built out for future semesters by opening a ticket with us here.

Audio

IS&T-Provided Microphone Solution

Quick Start

Procedure
  1. Press and HOLD the power buttons on each component of the microphone kit. Lights will turn solid blue when they are on and paired. Note that they do not have to be pressed simultaneously.

  2. Connect the receiver component to the pink port (marked "IN") on the audio interface, using the standard patch cable (the cable with two 90-degree-angled terminators, see istcontrib:diagram below.)

  3. Open the link to the livestream to check to see that audio is being streamed correctly. Note: there will be a ~30 second delay behind real time.

That's it! The livestream and subsequent recording are all set and ready to use.

Notes

The microphone kits hold about 5 hours of charge. Make sure to charge them after each recording session.

The Saramonic mic kits are paired one transmitter/mic to one receiver, and CANNOT be mixed and matched. Be sure to keep your microphone and receiver pair together to avoid accidentally picking up components from someone else's kit.

If voice reinforcement is also needed, a second microphone will be provided.

See also Adjust Input Levels of Saramonic Blink500 Transmitter.

Diagram



Above is a copy of the laminated diagram handed out with the microphone kits.

Equipment

Component Notes
Microphone/Transmitter Records and transmits audio signal.
Identifiable by a small metal grate on top over the microphone.
Receiver Receives audio signal and outputs it via 3.5mm headphone cable. Identifiable by the red power button.
Audio Interface (or "Audio Injector") Small white plastic device on the wall, which routes the audio signal into the lecture capture system.
Accessory Notes
Standard 3.5mm Patch Cable Identifiable by the 90-degree-angled terminators on each end, with 3 segments on the pin. This is the one we use for Lightweight Lecture Capture.
TRRS 3.5mm Patch Cable Has one 90-degree-angled terminator and one straight terminator. End with straight terminator has 4 segments. This is for use in modern combo audio ports, e.g. those on cellphones and tablets. This is NOT for use with the audio interface.
2x USB-C to USB-A charging cables Used to charge the microphone and receiver.
Lapel Microphone Attachment This can be used for a more professional look, where the transmitter is clipped on a belt or waistband, and the label microphone clipped up by the speaker's mouth.

"One Microphone" Solution

Select rooms now have a "one microphone" setup for both voice reinforcement and lecture capture (Updated 2023-02-06):

Building 1
   -  1-190

Building 2
   -  2-105

Building 3
   -  3-270
   -  3-333
   -  3-370

Building 4
   -  4-163
   -  4-231
   -  4-237
   -  4-270
   -  4-370

Building 9
   -  9-354

Building 26
   -  26-100

Building 32
   -  32-141
   -  32-155

Building 37
   -  37-212

Building 56
   -  56-114

Upon request (support paths listed here) a technician will come by at the start of the first lecture to demonstrate the use of the Shure wireless microphone. This microphone will be patched into BOTH the Lightweight Lecture Capture system as well as the house speakers to amplify the lecturer's voice throughout the room. This Shure mic will stay in the classroom, in its charging cradle, between lectures.

The technician will also test the levels on the livestream/recording; nothing is required of the lecturer and their staff.

NOTE: If you alternate between projection and lecturing, do not shut the projector down. Use the Projector Mute function on the Crestron touch panel instead. Shutting the projector down will cause the system to stop sending signal to be recorded; using the Projector Mute function will pause projecting while leaving the system on and passing signal to the lecture capture system.

Video

The video recording is all handled automatically. Starting and stopping manually is NOT required nor possible.

Schedule

The recording will start and stop exactly on the schedule provided by the Registrar. Notably, this includes the first and last 5 minutes of the lecture.

Links to Videos

Once a week, a digest email will be sent containing a summary of and link to each scheduled recording for that week.

One hour before each lecture, an email will be sent with a summary of and link to the coming lecture.

The links to lecture captures are ONLY sent to the lecturer, and to teaching staff if requested. The lecturer and their staff can distribute these links to whomever needs access, e.g. via an email to an ill student, or via a Canvas course page.

Viewing of Videos

Video is livestreamed by and stored in Panopto.

There are 1-5 cameras in each room with different angles of the board and stage, viewers of the livestream and recording will see one main view, and thumbnails of the other available views. Viewers can switch between which view they prefer by clicking on the thumbnail.

More information about the Panopto player and how to use it can be found here.

Default Permissions

By default the videos and course folders in Panopto are viewable by anyone at MIT with the corresponding link. These links, folders, and videos are NOT discoverable by default, so access is controlled entirely by distribution of links by the teaching staff.

To more tightly control access to videos, one possibility to set your course folder to "Restricted," then explicitly add particular students as Viewers on the lecture recording intended to be shared. This Viewer role can then be revoked later, when their need has concluded. Using this strategy, students will be unable to share the videos amongst themselves.

In order to add a student as a viewer on a video, they will need to have logged into Panopto via Touchstone at least once.

Making Recordings Available on Canvas

Automatic Method

Setup

LWLC offers the option to make lecture recordings available in Canvas by default.

This can be accomplished via the Lecture Capture settings in the Atlas app.

  • Go to the Atlas app, tap Lecture Capture, tap the course number you wish to enable Canvas integration for.
  • Under "Preferences," toggle "Enable Canvas Integration."
  • Scroll down and tap "Save."
  • NOTE: This adds a link to the course's Canvas navigation bar, which opens the associated LWLC Panopto folder. This link allows anyone at MIT to view this folder.

    LWLC link in Canvas course navigation bar.



    Once nav link is clicked, the following is displayed.


Permissions

The course administrators (lecturer, TA's, etc.) will be granted Creator roles.

Otherwise anyone who clicks the link, and has a Touchstone-capable MIT account, can view the folder and videos contained within.

Manual Method

If the Panopto tab is enabled on the Canvas page for a particular course, it will have created a special folder in Panopto in which to store video files.

For example, here is the location of the Canvas panopto folder for course 3.044:

Canvas/
  ??  3 - Department of Materials Science and Engineering/
      ??   Spring Term (AY 2021-2022) (3 - Department of Materials Science and Engineering)/
          ??  3.044 Materials Processing/

Lightweight Lecture Capture recordings are created and stored in a different directory in panopto, for example the corresponding LWLC folder for 3.044 is here:

 Lightweight Lecture Capture/
  ??  Course 3 - Materials Science and Engineering/
      ??   2023FA/
          ??  3.044/

In order to render lecture recordings accessible via Canvas, we recommend making a reference copy of the video from the latter folder into the former.

In panopto:

  1. Navigate to the lecture capture directory for the relevant course, described above.
  2. Hover over an individual video, click on Settings
  3. Go to the Manage tab on the left.
  4. Under Copy Video, change the destination under "Copy video to" to the Canvas directory described above.
  5. Click Create Reference Copy

This will create a reference copy of the video in the relevant Canvas folder. This copy isn't a separate file, but rather points to the original, less some meta data, so e.g. any comments posted on the original will not be present on the copy.

This will need to be done on each new video as they get created in the lightweight lecture capture folder.

FAQ

What if I have a session I want to keep private?

The links to recordings are ONLY sent to the lecturer and teaching staff. Recordings that should be kept private will not be viewable unless the link is given out.

Recordings can also be deleted via Panopto, in the relevant course directory.

It is also possible to restrict availability of the videos in Panopto. This means you can still distribute the links to said videos, but control whether or not the video can be viewed. See section 2 in this document.

It is also possible to restrict access to videos by default, and only allow access on a per-user basis, see our notes about permissions above.

My classroom is not yet part of the program, what can I do?

You may contact the Registrar to request your class be moved to a supported classroom, please see below.

You may also submit a request to have your desired classroom added to the LWLC program in future expansions.

How do I notify and inform students about classroom recordings?

A detailed procedure is provided by the Teaching & Learning Lab here, under "Notifying & Informing Students abut Classroom Recordings"

Note that the recordings are by default only accessible to members of the MIT community, and the cameras are generally angled such that only the lecturer, stage, and boards are viewable. In cases where the camera angles do capture students, a privacy filter can be requested.

I have mixed up or lost a component of my microphone kit, can I get another one?

Please send an email to lwlc-support@mit.edu and we can provide a replacement.

I want voice reinforcement in addition to lecture capture, do I have to use two mics?

There are istcontrib:several classrooms equipped with a "one microphone" solution. All other rooms require the use of two microphones to use voice reinforcement and lecture capture simultaneously.

Where are my lecture recordings stored in Panopto?

The recordings are populated in a course specific folder in Panopto. The naming convention for the directory structure is as follows:

 Lightweight Lecture Capture/
  ??  Course <Dept. No.> - <Dept. Name>/
      ??   <Term Code>/
          ??  <Course No.>/

For a specific example, the LWLC Panopto folder for 3.044 can be found here:

 Lightweight Lecture Capture/
  ??  Course 3 - Materials Science and Engineering/
      ??   2023FA/
          ??  3.044/

How long are my recordings available for? Do they get deleted after the end of the semester?

The service used to store LWLC videos, Panopto, offers unlimited video storage. As such, videos will never be deleted.

A video will get archived after 13 months of no viewing activity, but they can be restored via the Panopto interface. Restoration may take up to 48 hours.

Classrooms without Lecture Capture

If your assigned classroom does not support LWLC, you can contact the registrar at schedules@mit.edu to request that you be moved to a supported classroom. For reference, the presently supported classrooms are enumerated here.

Request Expansion of Program

To request that the Lightweight Lecture Capture program be expanded to a new classroom, please open a ticket with us and specify the desired classroom.

Support

Support can be requested by emailing lwlc-support@mit.edu or by calling 617-32-HELP-U (617-324-3578).

IS&T Contributions

Documentation and information provided by IS&T staff members


Last Modified:

September 22, 2023

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