TechFlex remote technology setup

With the rapid shift to online and hybrid learning in Spring 2020 due to covid, we all needed to get set up for remote teaching technology.  Many innovations have been described and written up, but each course type has unique needs. A light board may be ideal for courses that normally would use an in-class chalkboard, but it isn’t easy to incorporate web content, videos, figures, etc. into lectures without post-processing and video editing.

Instead, this page lists the components of an alternative that allows face-to-face viewing, handwriting, video, and other content from websites, software, and document viewer.  Together, these have worked well for live combination of various image sources without any requirement for video editing post production!

Here’s an example live setup, in which I introduce the setup of a take-home electrocardiograph lab:

This was the most complex setup used in class, with 5 video objects:

  • Front-facing camera (for direct interaction)
  • Wide-angle view (for showing electrode placement on arms)
  • Document viewer (to show the circuit and hands-on lab) activity
  • Circuit output window (Processing software, to show live circuit output)
  • PPT presentation (for written notes and circuit annotation)

Most lectures contained at most 2 video objects, such as the instructor and the lecture slide/handwritten notes, like this:

Setup components:

  1. Logitech HD Pro C920 webcam
  2. Huion Kamvas 13 tablet display
  3. IPEVO VZ-R document viewer
  4. Blue Yeti microphone
  5. Elgato Key Light Air
  6. Elgato Stream Deck
  7. GoPro Hero 7
  8. Elgato CamLink 4K (only needed for HDMI output devices, like a SLR camera or GoPro)
  9. Telesin CPL filter (for webcam) and polarizing film (for key light) to block glasses glare
  10. OBS software

Here’s a video showing how it all works together. It’s a good example what not to do also, as when I switch to the GoPro I forgot to turn off its microphone, and you hear a really bad echo from two active mics. Sorry. Also, while I haven’t learned how to video edit properly, I’m not sure this can be fixed. Adobe Premiere does have a DeReverb feature to remove echo, but it can’t work miracles. Apparently, if you separately record your audio tracks in OBS, then you can easily replace them later. But, I didn’t record with this feature on.