From time to time the EdIT team receives an inquiry about video recording services…
Please note that the Education IT team does not provide on-site video recording services to faculty and staff.
However, video recording services do exist @ Purdue and we list some options below for general reference. One of the most popular solutions for recording a small meeting is to check out a Flip camcorder and tripod from the TRC. Click here to jump to item #4 below for more information about self-recording.
If you need video recording services for a high profile College of Education event or speaker, please consult (in advance of the event) with our Communication Director. Our Communication Director is the definitive source in the College of Education for information about communication resources @ Purdue, including video, social media and public-facing web sites.
Note: the accuracy of the information on this page may change over time. Please contact the respective services below directly for current pricing and information.
1. Video Express
This is a high-quality self-service video recording service that allows faculty and staff to schedule one of the video recording studios on campus and quickly / easily record videos that can be used for classes and other uses.
The service web site can be found here:
https://videoexpress.purdue.edu/Portal/Login
2. Purdue IT Television & Multimedia Production Services
Purdue IT provides high quality video recording services called “Television & Multimedia Production Services”. At minimal cost, they can provide a videographer to record a class or event and then they can help you place the video on an Purdue streaming video server (providing you with a “web link” where computers on the Internet can access the video). Education IT recommends this service for recording most classroom and general events.
To initiate a recording, contact:
Edward J. Dunn, Manager
128 Memorial Mall STEW B-12
West Lafayette, IN 47906-2034
Phone: (765) 494-1043
Email: dunn@purdue.edu
You can also contact Multimedia Production Staff to schedule a camera-person to video record the class or event. They can be contacted at (765) 496-6067. Be prepared to provide ITCR/Multimedia Production Staff with the following information:
- The course number, or title, of the class, or the event title.
- The building and room in which the video recording will take place.
- The day(s) the video recording will be done.
- The time of the video recording with beginning and end.
- The first date to begin video recording.
- The last date of video recording.
- Any dates that do not need to be recorded (exams,etc.).
- Your contact information.
After having this information, staff will make arrangements for the appropriate equipment for video recording your request, and also make arrangements to encode the recording to a streaming media format. A URL can be provided (or posted) once each encoded recording is available for viewing.
3. Academic Technologies Teaching and Learning Group – Multimedia Services for Purdue Instructors
The central Teaching & Learning Technologies (TLT) group provides consulting services to Purdue faculty for multimedia instructional technologies including video editing projects and technologies and integration of video into Brightspace.
The Teaching & Learning Technologies (TLT) group can be found here:
https://www.purdue.edu/innovativelearning/about/team/tlt-team.aspx
4. Hall of Music Video / Multimedia Production Services
The Hall of Music provides professional “Video / Multimedia Production Services”. They work on a case by case basis and will initiate an estimate for services if you contact them. The Hall of Music may be more expensive than Purdue IT video services. To initiate Hall of Music services, contact: Bobby Chastain (fxbob@purdue.edu, 765-494-0431), or reference the following web site:
http://www.housing.purdue.edu/HTML/HallOfMusic/ProductionServices/ProdServ.html
5. Self-Service Video Recording
This option is for those who wish to record an event themselves. An easy way to do this is to check out a digital camcorder (such as a Flip camera) and a tripod from the TRC and have someone who is attending the event, such as a graduate student, record the event. Most small handheld camcorders record in a format that requires some post-processing to make the recording downloadable via the web. In most cases, Education IT (i.e. Bob Evans) can help post-process your video and compress it so it is small enough to be placed on a web server, and we can place it on one of our servers and send you a link.
You can also place your video in the Purdue Mediapsace server, which is similar to YouTube, but designed more specifically for Purdue educational use. Mediaspace is available to all faculty and staff and will do all the post-processing / transcoding for you; you can simply log in and upload your video.
The video and audio quality of most digital camcorders is good. A “Flip” video camcorder (available in the TRC) can record about one hour of video/audio using about one GB of disk space per hour.
Digital camcorders are easy to use:
(1) Just press the record button to start/stop recording video.
(2) Once the video is recorded, it must be imported into a video editing program (such as Windows Movie Maker provided with Windows) and converted to a compressed streaming web format such as MP4 format. MP4 format is compatible with almost all devices (Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.)
(3) Once converted to MP4 or some format, the video file can be placed on a web server for download (or burned to DVD/CD or copied to a portable drive). If the video contains sensitive or restricted content, it must be protected with access controls to prevent unauthorized access.
Self-service video recording is great for general purpose presentations or events, but is not a recommended option for those who need (a) very high quality (tv quality) video/audio, (b) 3rd party assistance, or (c) for those who do not know how to use video editing software such as Windows Movie Maker, Vegas Video or iMovie.
Some Additional Considerations
If you decide to record digital videos yourself, there are a couple of things to consider:
Post-processing the videos
To post-process a video you’ll a couple of things:
1. Video editing software
2. A large storage device where you can save large video files. An external USB hard drive should work well for this.
With almost all digital video, you’ll need to use a video editing program to render videos into a streaming video format (such as .MP4 files) for the web. A 60 minute RAW unprocessed video from a Flip camcorder may use about 1 gigabyte (1000 MB) of disk space. RAW unprocessed video is too large for the web, so post-processing will be needed to compress the video files for web upload/download. This will involve some extra time and knowledge of video editing. A free program such as Handbrake can be used to compress video.
Securing video on a web site
If video includes students or other protected subjects, the video will likely need to be secured so unauthorized users cannot gain access to the videos via the web. Each video file will need to have access controls so only specific people can access specific videos.
–The Education Office of Information Technology, edit@purdue.edu