Towards automatized studioless audio recording: a smart lecture recorder

Abstract

Webcasting and recording of university lectures has become common practice. While much effort has been put into the development and improvement of formats and codecs, few computer scientist have studied how to improve the quality of the signal before it is digitized. A Lecture hall or a seminar room is not a professional recording studio. Good quality recordings require full-time technicians to setup and monitor the signals. Although often advertised, most current systems cannot yield professional quality recordings just by plugging a microphone into a sound card and starting the lecture. This paper describes a lecture broadcasting system that eases studioless voice recording by automatizing several tasks usually handled by professional audio technicians. The software described here measures the quality of the sound hardware used, monitors possible hardware malfunctions, prevents common user mistakes, and provides gain control and filter mechanisms.