## Notes on AV recording for ZKTP

*Last updated 2024-01-08*

Some notes on AV recording of events. Note that I'm not an expert, these are just some notes of experience throughout the years.

See [ZK Taipei](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCja8tmM4LQO6wuqKMF9Oc6A) for latest. (Note that audio isn't great, which was due to cascading failures with audio recording and not having a backup. This highlights that a lot of things can go wrong and we need practice and backups.)

## Why?
We want to create good AV recordings of events. The goal is to create an artifact that is useful to people after the event.

This has many positive side effects:
- People can use it for learning things after event
- Speaker is happy and motivated to do a great talk
- It strengthens the awareness and brand of the event, making it easier to invite high quality speakers

## What?
Based on previous experience, these are the main things we want:

- Good video recording of person presenting
- Good screen recording of presentation
- Good audio capture of person presenting
- A video uploaded to YouTube that's in sync
- Ideally good audio capture of 2nd person for host/Q&A
- Backup audio recording

As well as:
- Ideally: live monitor of sound and video quality (helps guard against inevitable failures)
- Bonus: livestream

Common failure modes:
- A video recording without screen recording is often not useful because you can't really see what person is talking about
- Audio needs to be high-quality and ideally monitored, as bad audio makes recording useless
- Monitoring and backup are very useful as a lot of things can go wrong

## How?

I'll separate this into three levels, basic, good and great.

Note that all of these require trial and error and a lot of things can go wrong.

OK is the minimum necessary and can be done with zero equipment. Good is what we should aim for, and can be done with some additional equipment (that Oskar already has). Great includes extra nice to have that requires a bit more to make good.

OK:
- Use phone to record video on small tripod
- Use one mic for speaker and pass it around
- Extra phone to record audio next to speaker
- OBS for screen recording on presenter's computer

Good:
- Tripod and Camera setup:
- Dedicated camera for better quality (EOS Canon)
- High tripod for best angle (~1.5m)
- Audio setup:
- Rode Wireless Go (lavalier or reporter)
- Make sure it records and to do sound check
- One mic for speaker and one for host/QA
- Backup phone for record audio next to speaker
- OBS Screen Recording
- Clicker for presentations

Great is same as good but with enhancements:
- ATEM Mini Pro and Feelworld Monitor
- Live monitor of audio and video
- Allows speaker to use own computer w/o OBS
- This requires a good HDMI splitter (TODO)
- Also allows for changing scenes and live streaming

## Equipment

Good:
- **EOS Canon Camera** with necessary lens and power source.
- **Rode Wireless Go** with lavalier mic and reporter mic.
- Necessary cables (Micro-HDMI, HDMI, USB-C, etc.) and adapters (USB-C, etc).
- Clicker for presentations.
- Backup phone for audio recording

Great:
- **ATEM Mini Pro** with power source.
- **Feelworld monitor** with power source.
- **HDMI splitter** with power source (battery pack).
- **Mac computer** with installed OBS software. (or Windows but never tried)
- **Headphones** with cable.

(For great Oskar needs to find a better HDMI splitter)

## Learning

Google and YouTube is your friend. Can also contact Oskar.

## TODO

- Try and make sure recording and saving of audio works
- Upskill at least one more person in Good
- Find better HDMI splitter that works for different resolutions
- Structure as playbook
- Find bag to put gear in for handover