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Recording your lectures using
Camtasia Relay®
(Screencasting)
Camtasia Relay is the software name for a simple tool for
recording lectures, Powerpoint presentations, or anything that
appears on your computer screen, as well as audio (if you have
a microphone or a webcam with a built in microphone).
It consists of a piece of ‘client’ software that is installed on your
computer -this handles the actual screen and audio recording –
and the Camtasia Relay website, which is hosted on a
university server where the recording you make are saved and
stored.
This document looks at how you could use Camtasia Relay in
your Learning and Teaching.
This document and other Information Services documents are
held online on our website: https://staff.brighton.ac.uk/is
Last updated
By Adam Bailey, Marion
Curdy, Fion MacNeil
On April 2013
University of Brighton Information Services
Contents
What is Screencasting? ................................................................................... 3
What is Camtasia Relay? ................................................................................. 3
Additional technology you might need .............................................................. 3
Preparation Tips............................................................................................... 4
Downloading the Recorder to your own computer ............................................ 4
Logging-in and Setting up ................................................................................ 4
Making a recording .......................................................................................... 9
Recording your Lecture in PowerPoint (PC only) ............................................10
Preview and Edit your recording .....................................................................11
Publish your recording .................................................................................12
Deleting a recording ....................................................................................15
Using Captions ............................................................................................16
What are Captions? .................................................................................16
Search in captioned videos ......................................................................18
Getting your recording online .......................................................................18
Using Guest Presenters ..............................................................................20
Using the Portable Recorder .......................................................................21
How to Install the Portable Recorder
........................................................21
Recording with the Portable Recorder .........................................................22
Uploading Your Offline Recording ...............................................................23
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Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay® (Screencasting)
What is Screencasting?
In its simplest form it is a video recording of a computer screen that captures
onscreen activity in real-time and usually includes a voiceover narration to help
guide the viewer.
Screencasts are usually used for demonstration and presentation purposes but can
be used for a wide range of teaching and learning applications, e.g.:




Delivering online lectures
Providing feedback
Software instruction
Induction/welcome information
What is Camtasia Relay?
Camtasia Relay is the software name for a simple tool for recording lectures,
PowerPoint presentations, or anything that appears on your computer screen, as
well as audio (if you have a microphone or a webcam with a built in microphone).
It consists of a piece of ‘client’ software that is installed on your computer - this
handles the actual screen and audio recording – and the Camtasia Relay website,
which is hosted on a university server where the recording you make are uploaded
and streamed.
The recordings are converted into several different formats that are suitable various
forms of delivery by either the web or mobile device.
You can visit the website to find and use the web links that have been generated for
your recordings. These links can be copied and used to let others view your
recordings.
It now has a companion mobile app called Fuse which is free from your appropriate
app store (Android and Apple). This works from your phone or tablet and also
stores the recordings on the University server. It records from the camera of your
device so is slightly different. An explanatory document can be found in the
eLearning blog https://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning/
Additional technology you might need
1. Many laptops have a built in camera and/or microphone but if you’re using a
desktop computer you may need some/all of the following.
2. WebCam or Audio Input device – we recommend using the Microsoft
LifeCam although other webcams or microphones will do. We would
recommend you use one with a USB connector. JISC Digital Media have
written a useful guide on choosing a USB Microphone, see:
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/audio/advice/usb-microphones-for-voice
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Preparation Tips
Here are some practical hints and tips to think about before you start recording.





Find a quiet space and time to record. Make sure you won’t get disturbed.
(Put a sign on the door.)
Take the phone off the hook and turn your mobile phone to silent
Close down any applications you don’t want to see in the screen capture.
E.g. Email.
Write down some notes to plan what you want to say and record.
Break down a long presentation in to smaller chunks; look to make them
into short easy to record sections, so you don’t have to start a recording from
the beginning if something goes wrong. Short ‘bite-sized’ recordings are
easier for students to view online and grasp.
Downloading the Recorder to your own computer
If you want to use Camtasia Relay on a University computer please contact the
Service Desk [email protected] to request this software is installed.
As a member of the University you can download and use Camtasia Relay on your
own personal computer at home.
Camtasia Relay can be used on both PC and MAC.
To install it on a home computer go to https://interact.brighton.ac.uk/relay, log-in
and click on Download Camtasia Relay Recorders. Choose the option from the
list that matches your computer. Use the files that are downloaded to your computer
to install the software as appropriate.
Logging-in and Setting up
1
Locate the Camtasia Relay icon on the desktop
2
Double click the icon to open Relay
3
Enter your university username and password
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4
Click Log In.
5
You simply need to speak into your computer / microphone to check your audio
level – by default this is the built-in microphone on your computer. If you have
attached a microphone, you might need to select it
6
To select an alternative audio input click Audio from the menu and the audio
options will be listed for you to choose from
7
The Auto button should be green – which means that the audio volume is
adjusting automatically – you’ll notice the indicator bar moving from green to red
as you speak
1.
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8
If you have more than one screen attached to your computer, you can use the
Display option to choose which one you want to record
9
By default, the camera is set to "do not record”. If you want to record yourself
as well as the screen, click Camera and select the appropriate device
10 The camera option gives the ability to include a ‘talking head’ in the recording.
This could be useful if the recording is for students who are out on placement
and you wish to maintain contact or simply so that the students can ‘see’ the
tutor when delivering a lecture
Your ‘talking head’ will appear
on the screen alongside the
recording
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Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay® (Screencasting)
11 The Hotkey button allows you to customise shortcut keys for pause, restarting
and stopping the recording. We recommend you choose F9 for Record/Pause
and F10 for Stop since these keys are rarely used in other applications. Click
OK to save your settings
12 It is preferable to test everything out to make sure
your settings are appropriate so click the blue test
button
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13 This gives you a 10 second test clip which allows you to check your audio
levels, screen and camera
14 If you’re happy with the test recording you are set to go
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Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay® (Screencasting)
Making a recording
1
Select a ‘Profile’ based on what you want to use the recordings for. The
options are gives

All formats – Web and mobile recordings

Quick web format – single recording at Medium size suitable for web
and mobile.

Camtasia studio recording – for downloading and editing in Camtasia
Studio software.

With captions (All formats) – recordings with text captions added.

Upload and decide later – allows you to chose profile after recording.
2
Camtasia Relay also has the ability to automatically interpret your dialogue and
convert this into text captions. If you’d like to try this feature choose the ‘With
captions (all formats)’ profile. Note : this may take a long time to process
and you will have to edit them (explained in Section 7 below)
3
Give your recording a Title. This becomes part of the final URL so make sure
you use a web friendly, short and meaningful name with no spaces etc. e.g.
Week1Lecture
4
You may also want to include a Description. This is for you (it is not shown in
the final recording) so could be the date you recorded the presentation, the
intended audience and a summary of content
5
Click the red rec button to start capturing the screen and record your
presentation
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6
Note: There is a 3 second countdown before the recording begins and when
the recoding begins the Camtasia Relay dialogue box is automatically
minimised to the tray (PC) or Dock (MAC) as an icon.
7
During your recording you can Pause using the appropriate Hotkey (e.g. F9) or
stop when you have completed your recording using F10 or the hotkey you
selected
Recording your Lecture in PowerPoint (PC only)
Camtasia Relay can record straight from PowerPoint capturing each slide along
with what you say with them in a presentation.
Once installed, Camtasia Relay interacts with PowerPoint and you’ll be prompted to
record each time you run your presentation as a SlideShow.
1
Open PowerPoint and under Add-Ins make sure the Auto record with
Camtasia Relay option is highlighted. (Click to select it if it isn’t highlighted.)
2
Bring up your PowerPoint presentation as a Slideshow on your computer. A
pop up box will appear asking you if you want to make a recording of the
slideshow
3
When you’re ready to go, click Record Slide Show or press the appropriate
hotkey
4
You’ll see a 3 second countdown
and then you will start your
recording as above
5
Note: As above, you can pause to
take a break during recording which
could be useful should you want to
change what is being displayed on
your screen, e.g open a web
browser
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6
Click through the presentation and talk into
the microphone.
7
When you get to the end of the presentation
click Yes to Stop Recording.
8
You will then be returned to Camtasia
Relay where you can preview your recorded
lecture before sending it to the website for
publishing to the web.
Preview and Edit your recording
Editing options are limited in Camtasia Relay. If you have a shaky start or end
you can remove this from the recording using the Trimming button.
When you’ve just finished, your recording is shown in a preview window with
playback controls and a timeline to indicate the position in the recording.
1
Preview your recording by clicking the Play button.
2
Pause the recording using the Pause button
button again.
restart by clicking the play
3
Click the Trimming
button to show the editing
buttons and use these to cut
out the unwanted recording
Use the Trimming function
to trim the start and end
of your video
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4
Click on either:

The left hand Set Presentation Start
button, to highlight in red, the part
of the recording on the timeline you want to remove up to the point you paused
in the preview,

Or the right hand Set Presentation End
button, to highlight in red, the
part of the recording on the timeline you want to remove after the point you
paused in the preview.

Click the Cancel Trim button
want to edit.
if you’ve made a mistake to and don’t
Note, you can click the Discard button if need to rerecord. The recording is
deleted and cannot be recovered.
Publish your recording
1
Once you are happy with the recording, click ‘Submit’.
There are two ways of retrieving your work, the easiest option is to wait for the
various emails which will arrive, and each will include a URL that accesses your
recording, one sent for each format.
You also have a web based area that lets you retrieve the recordings. The
following instructions guide you through this.
Important Note: It is not possible to edit the Title and Description of the recording
once it has been uploaded to the website and published.
2
At the bottom of the Relay window you’ll see a link that gives you access to the
website, click that link or go to https://interact.brighton.ac.uk/relay to access the
website directly
3
A browser window will open and you should now see the Relay page. You will
need to login to access your video. Use your University username and
password.
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4
You’ll now see a list of your most Recent Presentations on the opening page
and clicking on the Presentations tab will show all of your recordings
5
Click on the title of a presentation to see the details and find out if it has been
processed. This will show you links to the finished video in its various formats
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Video
s
6
If your presentation is still being processed you see a blue processing icon
next to the title of your recording. When the presentation has
successfully been processed a green tick icon is shown
Note: You will receive an email to your University account to inform you when
the processing of your recording has been completed. The web links to the
different video formats are available in this email
7
The profile you choose to record with produces the following file formats:
8
All formats.
9

MP4 with Smart Player (Medium) – This format is suitable for playing
on mobile devices and desktop computers.

MP3 (Audio only) - Is the sound track of the recording.

MP4 (Original size) – This is not suitable for mobile devices.
Camtasia Studio editing.

Camtasia for MAC recording – file format for downloading and using
with the desktop editing software Camtasia Studio on a MAC.

Camtaisa Studio recording - file format for downloading and using
with the desktop editing software Camtasia Studio on a PC.
10 Quick Web format.

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MP4 with Smart Player (Medium) – This format is suitable for playing
on mobile devices and desktop computers.
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Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay® (Screencasting)
11 With captions (All formats).

Produces a recording with the same file formats as ‘All formats’ inserts
a text version of the audio narration on screen for accessibility.
12 Click the (View…) link next to a format to open and view the presentation on
screen
13 The video will open in a new browser window. To test the video, click the Play
button in the middle of the preview.
14 The web address in the browser Address Bar can be placed on the Internet or
studentcentral or sent to people you want to see the presentation video
Deleting a recording
To delete a recording go into the University Camtasia Relay website:
https://interact.brighton.ac.uk/relay/
Go to Presentation List and click on the presentation you want to delete.
In the right hand side panel with the recording details, click the ‘Remove from List’
button
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Using Captions
What are Captions?
Captions are essentially subtitles. They are the textual version of the audio
narration and run in time with a recording. These can be helpful to assist
accessibility for students and allow viewers to search the recording by keyword and
jump to the place in the recording.
Note: Testing has shown that the voice recognition does not accurately interpret the
presenter’s voice and that the captions require substantial editing.
Enabling captioning when recording can be useful where you’d like to include brief
notes with your recording that reflect what is happening on screen or the audio
narration given. These notes would need to be added after the recording and the
inaccurate automatically generated captions removed.
When your recording is uploaded to the website, processing your videos is put on
hold until you have checked and approved the captions. To do this:
1
Go to the Camtasia Relay website
2
Click the Presentations tab and find your captioned recording
3
You will see a message that your uploaded recording is being held for
captioning. (Note: you may have to wait a short while for this to appear if you
have just uploaded a recording). Click on the Edit Captions button to launch
the Caption Editor
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4
The server has attempted to convert the audio in your recording to text and has
placed these captions where they occur in the recording. These will invariably
be wrong, (and often amusing) but at least they will be in the right place
5
Scroll along the time line (by dragging the slider circled in red) to find your
captions
6
An editing box appears where you can type in your corrected caption.
Edit your
captions here
7
To change the point in the recording where the caption first appears, roll the
cursor over the left edge of the small caption icon below the timeline, then click
and drag to the left to edit the point where the caption appears. Do the same for
the end point to edit how long it stays on screen
8
Note: You can add further captions or delete existing ones by using the caption
toolbar at the bottom of the screen
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Once you have edited all your captions, click
on the Preview and Submit tab to confirm that you have finished. You will see
a preview of your movie with the captions. You can further edit the captions at
this stage
1
9
Clicking Save will save what you have been doing but gives you the opportunity
to continue editing later
10 When you are finished, click the Publish button
11 The other formats now start to process
Search in captioned videos
The addition of caption text allows a viewer to search a video for a particular word
or phrase. If a searched for keyword is found, the video will jump to that point in the
timeline where the word/phrase occurs. The search box appears on the left hand
side of the screen when viewing a recording and results are listed below it. Click on
a result to go to that point in the video.
Getting your recording online
1
Open studentcentral and go to the content area in which you want to add your
video
2
To create a link to the Relay movie click Build Content > URL
3
In 1 : URL Information, type an appropriate ‘friendly’ name for the movie
4
Copy the URL (CTRL + C) from the format /formats you want the students to be
able to access
5
If you just want the web format we recommend using the Flash (Medium)
format option on the presentation page in the Relay website
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6
Return to studentcentral and paste this link into the URL box (CTRL + V)
7
In the Text area you may want to include a description and instructions for your
students
8
In 3 : Options, click Yes for ‘Open in New Window’
9
Click Submit
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Using Guest Presenters
Guest Presenter can be used where the person who needs to record does not have
a University account.
To use the Guest Presenter account:
1
At the Relay log-in window, click on Guest
2
Your Name – Enter the name of the person who is recording.
3
Guest of - Enter the email address of the member of University staff the
recording should be associated with. (Use their University email address.)
4
Click Submit.
5
The Relay recorder can now be used as normal.
Note: The recording will then show up in their account when they next log-in to the
Relay website. They will also receive and email when the recording has been
submitted to the website.
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Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay® (Screencasting)
Using the Portable Recorder
The portable recorder can be downloaded and installed from the website at
https://interact.brighton.ac.uk/relay. It can be used on a mobile storage device, such
as a USB flash drive.
The portable recorder is useful when:

You need to record on a computer where you do not have permission to
install applications.
You need to record on a computer that has limited or no network access.
You want to record several presentations and upload them collectively at a
later time.


Student use:
Your students can only make use of the Portable Recorder if:


They can install the desktop version of Camtasia Relay on a personally
owned computer
They have access to a pool room computer with the desktop version of
Camtasia Relay installed (not installed as standard).
Please note: installing the software on a mobile storage device does not
provide a standalone software solution, a computer with the software installed
and an Internet connection is required for upload of video recordings.
How to Install the Portable Recorder
In order to use the Portable Recorder from a mobile storage device with your Camtasia
Relay login credentials you will need access to a computer, which already has the
desktop version of Camtasia Relay installed. Please refer to the installation instructions
on page 5. If you want to use Camtasia Relay on a University computer please contact
the Service Desk [email protected] to request this software.
1
Ensure that the computer which you are working on already has the desktop
version of Camtasia Relay installed in the local applications folder. The
computer must also have an active Internet connection.
2
Plug in a mobile storage device (such as a USB flash drive) and format the
device as FAT32. Follow the instructions at the website eHow – How to format
a flash drive http://www.ehow.com/how_2006214_format-flash-drive.html
3
Click Download Portable Recorder and save the PortableCamtasiaRelay.zip
file to your computer.
4
Locate the .zip file then right-click on it and select Extract All….
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5
Copy the resulting uncompressed file (now unzipped) onto the mobile storage
device. The complete file needs to be copied to the root of the device. After the
copy process is complete you may delete the .zip file and the uncompressed file
from your desktop.
6
Navigate to the new file, “PortableCamtasiaRelay” on your mobile storage
device and double-click on the application called “PC Camtasia Relay”. This will
launch the application. When prompted, log in with your University of Brighton
user credentials. This initial launch of the application stores your login
credentials for later offline use.
7
You may now safely eject the mobile storage device and use the Portable
Recorder offline or from another computer. To use the Portable Recorder from
another computer, connect the mobile storage device to the computer and then
launch the application as outlined in step 7.
8
For a video tutorial go to the Camtasia Relay help site
http://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia-relay-portable-recorder.html
Recording with the Portable Recorder
1
Launch the Portable Recorder application from your
mobile storage device.
2
Log in with your University user credentials (if you see
an error message, refer to troubleshooting section).
3
Start and stop your recording as outlined on page 10
of this document. You will not have an option to select
a profile; it will show as Upload and Decide Later.
4
Once you have added a title and a description and you
are happy with your recording select the Save button
on the right-hand side (flash drive icon). This will save
your recording to your mobile storage device so that
you can upload it to the Camtasia Relay website later;
details of the upload process are included below.
5
Confirmation message when saving to a mobile storage device.
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Troubleshooting
If you did not complete step 5 during the installation process, when you try to login
to the Portable Recorder you will receive an error message (show below). In this
case you can still use the Recorder but you will need to use Guest access as
outlined on page 23, except in this case it is you must leave the Guest of field blank
and then click Submit. The recording and saving process will then be the same as
outlined above.
Uploading Your Offline Recording
1
Plug your mobile storage device into a computer with and an Internet
connection and the desktop version of Camtasia Relay installed.
2
Launch the Portable Recorder application from your mobile storage device and
it should automatically reconnect to the Camtasia Relay server and show you a
prompt to let you know that Saved Presentations Found [SIC].
3
If you are ready, you can select Submit All or if you would like to review your
recordings first, select View Saved Presentations.
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4
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Within the Saved Presentations area you can edit the title and description,
upload your recording or delete.
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