Overview

• The self-service studios empower staff to record high quality video and audio content for teaching purposes.
• Find information on how to prepare for your studio session, how to record and advice on post-production.
• Book a studio by contacting the relevant staff member on your campus.
• ACU Studios can offer custom production assistance as required.

On this page

Why use the self-service studios?

There is a wide variety of research on the value to students of high-quality, chunked videos for learning, that makes strong use of multimedia design principles. A summary of the application of these design principles has been produced, along with a broader range of information from ACU’s INSPIRE team.

The self-service studios empower staff to record with clear video and audio, using simple controls to switch between video of the presenter and the relevant slides. This helps presenters engage with their audience through the video, and eliminates the issues of recording from home or the office, such as poor lighting, low video quality, or muffled audio.

What facilities are available?

The studios feature simple control panels that allow you to switch between multiple views, as shown below.

Presenter view, which allows for ‘eye contact’ with the students.	Slide view, to focus students attention on the slides as needed.	Picture-in-picture view, which can be used if gestures or body language are important to help explain the content of the slides.

The desks are height-adjustable, so presenters can sit or stand depending on your preference, and a computer is provided to display presentations or other material. Staff can also bring their own laptop to present from if prefered (not available in Canberra or Ballarat campuses).

View a 360 tour of the Melbourne studio below

The Brisbane, Melbourne, and Canberra campuses also have lightboards, which allow presenters to write on the glass as they would a regular whiteboard, while maintaining eye contact with the students during the recording. For more information on using the lightboards, please contact LXD@acu.edu.au before making a booking.

How to use the studios
Preparing for your session	Prepare your content using the provided PowerPoint template. Note that older 4:3 PowerPoint files will not work in the self-service studio. Try wherever possible to keep your videos short (6-10 minutes), focused, and make full use of multimedia design principles. Chat to your learning designer or ACU Studios staff if you need assistance. You will need to bring an empty ExFAT formatted USB drive (instructions for PC and Mac), with approximately 4GB of space per hour of recording. NOTE: As this is a greenscreen studio, avoid wearing any green-ish colours. The video will be mirrored, so any logos or branding will be flipped in the recording. Ideally, wear plain dark clothes with solid colours.
Recording	Each time you press the record button, a new file will be created with the current date and time. If you’re recording multiple videos, you may want to start each video with a relevant title slide so you can easily sort through them later. Don’t worry if you make small mistakes, students like to know that you’re human. If you want to start again, you can stop and start a new recording, or trim the recording later using Echo360. Engage with the camera as much as possible, it is your audience! Avoid reading directly from your slides or your notes, smile, and enjoy yourself.
Post-production	The video files the studios record can be uploaded straight to Echo360. We highly recommend setting a custom thumbnail for your videos, so they are immediately distinguishable in LEO. This should be the same as your title slide from the PowerPoint template. You can easily trim your videos in Echo360 to remove dead time at the start and end, or to remove small sections from the middle.