1. Audio
    2. Synchronized Audio
    3. Video
    4. Quality Comparison
    5. Other Campus Work
    6. Tips For Content Creation
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High quality speech audio.

Notice the difference in sound quality from the clips below. The key is the quality of the original aquisition. When a quality voice recording is encoded you can get great results with only a 28.8 kbps stream.
RealMedia Clips Bit Rate Recording Notes
University Day 28.8 Kbps The We got our audio feed from the kind people of UNC Prodction Services. The event was streamed live and simultaneously captured on DAT. The DAT was then cleaned up and converted to Real Media format. This an an hour long presentation.
Charles Kuralt Memorial  28.8 Kbps A clip of the from the Alumni Association pages. The clip was captured from a DAT tape and encoded at 28.8 kbps.  Note that the original aquisition was done by professional sound people from WUNC.
Robert Pinsky 28.8 Kbps This live presentation was captured using a wireless lavalier microphone and a DAT recorder.  Mr Pinsky was gracious enough to wear 2 mics, one for us, and one for the house sound in the Haynes building.
 BME272  28.8 Kbps A session with instructor and fellow SunSITE colleague Pratik Patel. This was captured using a wireless lavalier microphone and a DAT recorder.

 Poor quality audio clips.

The clips were aquired using a shotgun microphone. This setting created a number of problems because the class is encouraged to participate. This doesn't allow for optimum aquisition unless each participant has a dedicated microphone. This illustrates the problems associated with aquisition in a traditional classroom environment.
 
RealMedia Clips Bit Rate Recording Notes
Prof. Bert Dempsey 28.8 Kbps Professor Dempsey speaking on Dilbert cartoon issue involving intellectual property rights.
Prof. Paul Jones 28.8 Kbps Paul speaking about a unique case in Scotland having to do with hyperlinking.

Synchronized Audio.

These clips were aquired using a lavalier microphone attatched to the collar of the subject. The focus here is aquire the best quality of sounds possible. The first clip includes an attempt to raise the audio levels when others are making comments.
RealAudio Clips with synchronized slides Bit Rate Recording Notes
Lolly Gasaway with class questions. 28.8 Kbps A lecture on copyright by Lolly Gasaway with questions.
Lolly Gasaway 28.8 Kbps A lecture on copyright by Lolly Gasaway without questions

 Video

All of these files were catpured from S-VHS tapes.  In order to get the best results it is important to compromise to meet the bandwidth limitations.  If the video needs to be smooth it may be bets to use a small window.  If it needs to be detailed a sharper image withslow frame rate may prove most effective.  The clips were aquired from S-VHS and orginally captured in avi format. The AVI clips were later encoded at various rates for RealVideo. Notice the larger window at 320x240. The trick is to find a compromise that best gets the job done.
 
UNC Rare Book Collection 56 Kbps A look at the UNC  Rare Book Collection from the SILS Info to Go program. (320X240 Window)
Web Class 56 Kbps  Another continuing education oppportunity from the SILS Info to Go program. (320X240 Window)
Music Video 56 Kbps On the lighter side... here's a  at 56kbps that is flying up the charts. It's a happy little song called "The Chia Pet From Hell." (320X240 Window)
Charles House  35 Kbps A small window. 

Quality Comparison

The original video capture is uncompressed AVI at 30 frames per second.  The audio is uncompressed 22.1KHz 8 bit sound.  The capture was about 10 minutes and the file size is 1,054,180KB.
FileName Size Explanation
chancellor1.rm 1641 The original encode at 21Kbps from captured AVI file.
chancellor1.42kbps.rm 3249 The original encode at 42Kbps from captured AVI file..
chancencode21k.rm 3596 This was encoded at 21Kbps while playing a VHS tape directly into the machine and encoding immediately.
chancencode41k.rm 3226 This was encoded at 42Kbps while playing a VHS tape directly into the machine and encoding immediately.
chance21kfract.rm 2532 The original encode using fractal encode at 21Kbps from captured AVI file.
 

Other

 Tips for Content Creation

 
What is Streaming Audio Erica Gramms and Gary Geisler from SILS UNC
Streaming Video ©1997 From SILS students at UNC. 
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Real Audio Guide fro Babylon 6 Copyright © Babylon-6 1997
Real Audio Tutorial for Beginners Virtual Songs
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