On Fri, 30 Mar 2018, Henri Verbeet wrote: [...]
I happen to agree that the recordings have room for improvement, and would like to see us do better there. Budget is definitely a consideration though, and as much as I would like to promise that this year will be better, I don't think I can. I'm curious though, did you have specific equipment in mind that you'd like to recommend?
On a related note I could bring a 360 degree camera (Xiaomi Mi Sphere) and a tripod. I have just ordered the camera but not received it yet, hence the conditional. We could set it up on the tripod in the middle of the room (if it's a typical U-shaped setup). One advantage of a 360 degree camera is that during Q&A sessions the viewers could see who is asking the question (or who's falling asleep during the presentation ;-) ).
Alternatively it's possible to reframe the video as a regular full HD video by picking which direction should be shown at a given time. I have no idea which software supports that though.
It's not going to do anything for sound though. (actually I have no idea how 360 cameras handle sound, presumably they are not going to be directional)
Stefan sometimes left phones on the speaker table to ensure we hear him well (since the camera is usually quite far). Maybe it would be possible to leave 3 or 4 phones or other recording devices around the room and then pick the device with the best sound during video editing?