|
|
Posted: Mon, March 17, 2003
Visual Communicator: Making audiovisual magic a business reality
By Norman Harris
Getting started
Lights, camera, action!
That's a wrap
Have you ever thought of using video for your next product launch or business presentation, distributing it over the Internet, or written
to CD-ROM? If this sounds a bit too complicated, would you be interested if I tell you that you don't need any technical expertise, and
it can be done directly from your desktop?
 Distributed in the UK by Datavision, Visual Communicator is just
the program to turn a video novice into a pro. It needs a fairly modern computer (800MHz or faster) running anything from Windows 98 up
to XP, and works best where the presenter is talking to the camera. So, ideally, you'll also need a camera, such as a webcam that is
DirectShow compatible (most are), or video camera together with a capture card. But the program's flexible enough to use for product
slide-shows, so it can be used without a camera, if need be.
Available at three levels, Visual Communicator costs £79.99; there's also a Plus version at £119.95, and for £279.00 a Pro version. While
the software is identical to the basic package, the Plus version includes a microphone and 5ft x 6ft of reinforced green plastic sheet.
I'll come back to the differences with the Pro version a little later.
Now, that green sheet. It's what is known in Visual Communicator as a V-Screen, or otherwise as a chroma-key background - this gives you
a special effect that is seen almost every day on television. The most obvious example is probably the weather forecast, where the
presenter appears to stand in front of a map. In reality they stand in front of a green or blue screen and a piece of TV gadgetry
replaces the screen with a picture. Using the same technology, you hang the green screen behind you and Visual Communicator will replace
it with a background of your choice.
The program uses wizards to guide you through the process of creating your video, based on the style of presentation, or on the topic.
There are more than a dozen styles to chose from, covering a range from contemporary to high tech, while ready-made topics include
business, personal, school and miscellaneous. For fun, there are also a number of "Instant Hollywood" style productions included, where
you find yourself interviewed by a studio presenter.
 Pick a style and the first job is to create an opening title. The program gives a
choice of backgrounds in your chosen style, on which you can place a simple two-line title. You don't need to get involved in
technicalities like font sizes, as the program will automatically adjust this for you. If you're also appearing on camera, then here's
the place to add your name, and position in the company. This name caption can appear for a few seconds at the bottom of the screen, when
the camera first goes 'live'.
The next stage involves selecting the closing caption, some music and any V-Screen background. You are again given choices to match your
chosen style of production. While there must be hundreds of combinations of backgrounds and music, using the wizard narrows the choice
down to themes that blend well together.
By using the wizard, this section of your video is quickly and easily put together, taking no more than about a minute. The program then
generates the captions for you and moves on to the main interface where you have everything you need for a mini TV studio. This main
interface contains a Preview Monitor window, a Teleprompter, an Action tray, the Content Library, and a Control Panel.
The Teleprompter area displays a script, where it can be read while you appear to look at the camera. For this to look natural you'll
need to position the camera as close as possible to the top of the computer's monitor. I found this is much easier to set up with a
webcam, designed to sit on top of your monitor, than with a camcorder. If using a camcorder, then putting some distance between the
presenter and camcorder should help.
Text can be typed directly into the Teleprompter, or can be cut and pasted from a word processor. One nice touch is that if you used the
Topic wizard, the Teleprompter contains suggestions on the content to put in your script.
The top line of the Teleprompter area is shaded in red, as this is the line that you should be reading as the software scrolls through
your script, keeping your eye-line close to the camera. The Action tray scrolls along with the Teleprompter, synchronising various
Actions to the script. This is the vision mixing area of the program and is where you decide what is seen, and how it looks. You could
for instance just switch between the camera and a graphic, or you can create some quite advanced effects. Within a short time it's
possible to learn how to put a picture over your shoulder while you're talking about it, or create flying captions.
As an example, a sequence of events could be the opening credits with music, switch to a live camera, fade in the name of the presenter
then out again, add an over the shoulder graphic, switch to some pictures, etc. - all this being timed to match your Teleprompter script.
There are loads of graphics, audio clips and transitions included - including a few virtual studios for the really adventurous. There's
not only quantity, but quality in the collection, even if some are a little glitzy. You can, of course, also use your own collection of
clip art.
The Action tray is one area of the program that is worth experimenting with. Using the Action tray, V-Screen backgrounds can be changed,
setting the whole mood of the presentation. So instead of promoting a bonus scheme from your office, you could easily use a backdrop of
some exotic location.
The Control Panel is the director's area in the program. Here you can adjust many of the settings, including the green V-Screen.
Incidentally, you can create your own V-Screen background, and the helpful manual gives you colour swatches, and ideas for suitable
materials. If you wanted to do full length shots you could paint a wall, rather than use the included material which is only large enough
for head-and-shoulder shots. In fact it's a nice change to see an informative and well-written manual included.
 Setting up the V-Screen within the Control Panel is easy.
Just point the camera at the V-Screen, press the Auto-Set key, and everything's automatically calibrated. I didn't have any trouble
setting the screen up using this method, provided the room lighting was fairly bright and even. However, if you do run into problems
there's a full set of manual controls to get the right keying effect.
The Control Panel is also used to modify the input and output levels from your audio card, adjust the colour of the video source, and
finely adjust the transitions. Any imported video files (AVI or MPEG) can be trimmed, and their audio adjusted. Useful for slower systems
is the ability to switch off the V-Screen on the Preview Monitor, to improve performance without it affecting the recording. You can also
launch an Advanced Titler to modify any titles, including those created with the wizards.
Also in the Control Panel you can adjust the scrolling speed of the Teleprompter - something you may need to rehearse a few times before
you get the speed of the script to match your natural speaking voice.
Once you're ready to record the presentation, the Monitor window will count you in, and with one eye on the script, and the other on the
Monitor, you'll see everything triggered at the right time as you record the presentation, live. To make sure there are no mistakes you
are given the opportunity to review the presentation before publishing it.
Thankfully, you can publish the presentation in several formats, without re-recording - useful if you want to use your presentation on
the Internet, CD-ROM or video. Internet presets range from dial-up modems to LAN networks, or as you can save AVI files to the hard
drive. Once again, there's no need to get involved with technicalities. Just pick one of the Internet presets, and away you go.
Now the differences I promised to tell you about the Pro version. This comes with backgrounds in 640x480 pixel resolution, as well as the
320x240 supplied with the other versions. It also has a few minor additional features, and a copy of Pinnacle Expression DVD/CD authoring
software. Possibly the most important difference for business users is its ability to import PowerPoint presentations directly, provided
you have PowerPoint installed. On the negative side, it still needs some work before it's ideal for recording onto PAL DV tape.
Visual Communicator has hundreds of applications, and there's nothing else quite like it. It can brighten up all your presentations, and
is unbelievably quick and easy to use. It's aggressively priced, and is a great way to produce videos for the Internet. Of the three, I'd
recommend the Plus version as being the best value for money
Sample some of the videos yourself at
http://www.seriousmagic.com/vidsamp.cfm
Contacts
Distributed by Datavision UK
Tel: 01525 406 886
Web:
http://www.datavision.co.uk
About the Author
In addition to his freelance writing, Norman Harris runs NH Technology, an audio-visual and multimedia company. He can be contacted
through his website at
http://www.nhtechnology.co.uk .
|
|
|
|
|
Subscribe to