Comments on: is there such a product?

By: todd sharp

todd sharp — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:32:29 +0000

You could try SlideSix.com. You can record audio/video directly in the site.

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 20:18:46 +0000

Try Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003. It's free.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/producer/prodinfo/overview.mspx

By: Doug WOlfgram

Doug WOlfgram — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 10:38:21 +0000

Presenternet (www.presenternet.com) will do everything you want. Online storage of interactive content, documents, flash, powerpoint. Requires NO downloads. Also supports all of the 'free' VoIP conferencing software such as Skype. With the ASP model, your content is always available and you can present the same content remotely, locally or via your website with all interactions and data collections intact.

By: Jon Alperin

Jon Alperin — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:24:18 +0000

I've found it very easy to simply use you favorite speech recording program, create a .wav file for each slide, and 'insert' the audio clip onto the .ppt page, but put the icon off the page boundaries. (so it doesn't show on the slide itself)

Then set the slide show parameters to play the clip automatically, and let the user manually advance to the next slide.

If you want, you can play around with timings to make builds work, it can be easily done.

By: SeanTek

SeanTek — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 02:13:25 +0000

The most reliable, secure, and cost-effective solution that I can think of is: use Skype for audio (Skype runs on Macs, Windows, Linux, and PocketPC) and ask a real human being to navigate the PowerPoint presentation on the lecture-side. The real human being can be working on Mac or Windows, and should have two screens: one screen for his/her own use, and one output screen (i.e., the monitor). Using any laptop would work fine. The human being running the computer should be familiar with your presentation, but you can communicate to them using the Skype chat window to advance or back up the presentation. He/she can also interrupt you discreetly if an audience member has a question, or if the flow of the presentation needs to be interrupted otherwise. I have used this method in my course at MIT with great success.

Other upswings of this method are that Skype delivers crystal-clear audio to and from the audience (so you can take questions, given the appropriate microphone feeds in the lecture hall), and you support legal P2P technology.

By: Keith

Keith — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 18:22:47 +0000

If it's acceptable to send a self-propelled presentation with a syncronized voice track then I think Apple's Keynote will do the trick. In it's (Keynote 2) documentation it says:

"If you add a sound file to an individual slide, the sound plays when the slide appears and stops when you move to the next slide. You could, for example, record narration for each slide as an MP3 file; this technique is especially useful if you plan to export the slideshow as a self-playing QuickTime movie. ... Note: to ensure that the audio plays on other computers, select "Copy audio and movies into document" in the expanded Save dialog."

Maybe you could add a "talking head" video box on each slide instead, so people could see you talking too.

By: Alek

Alek — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 01:22:17 +0000

I have not noticed this mentioned before, people from Knowledge Media Design Institute at University of Toronto have developed a system called ePresence, which they describe as
"a viable and innovative webcasting system. This includes support for video, audio, and slide broadcasting; slide browsing and review; submitting questions, integrated moderated chat, live software demos and the automated creation of event archives".
I had the opportunity to use it, it is able to stream in real time an audiovideo stream of a person talking and at the same time present slides from a presentation that the speaker can cue at the right moment. It also automatically archives the presentation, which can be later 'browsed' using particular slides as timestamps.

According to the web page they are working on an open source release of the software. There's more on the system at
http://epresence.kmdi.utoronto.ca/

By: Lisa Spangenberg

Lisa Spangenberg — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:29:12 +0000

1. Make your presentation in Keynote or Powerpoint
2.Export the slides as the highest resolution jpeg you can
3. bring the images in to iMovie
4. Arrange the sequence
5. add any visual effects you want
6. Record your narration directly in iMovie
6a record the narration in small bits--this makes it easier to adjust timing

I do this routinely for teaching purposes; it's dead easy. You can also do much the same thing using QuickTime Pro, which is how I used to do it before iMovie

By: Robin Good

Robin Good — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:56:18 +0000

Larry,

it seems that your readers have done an excellent job at making apropriate suggestions. As a user-centered researcher of online colaboration, conferencing and presentation technologies I have to admit that there is anything else that would be able to do this job, as you have described it.

Given your Mac platform and the desire to record your voice over, while mixing in video clips and Powerpoit slides it’s the realm of only a few technologies. At least for now.

My short personal recommendations are accessible for you on my latest post at Kolabora.com (http://tinyurl.com/5ymbs), where I try to make end-user needs and industry vendors meet.

By: Matt Rose

Matt Rose — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:41:50 +0000

Looks like there are quite a few good options available; I plan on investigating iLecture. My university has been piloting Macromedia Breeze, and I have been favorably impressed, with one exception: To my knowledge, Macromedia does not support an Apple plugin for PowerPoint.