Recordings

When watching a talk, the viewer should be able to concentrate on the intellectual content. We encourage individuals and institutions to adopt the following standards for recording live talks. These principles ensure maximum clarity, accessibility, and longevity of the recording.

 Slide talks. If you are recording a live talk accompanied by slides projected to a screen:

• If the slides are being filmed by a camera, ensure that all text and figures on the screen are easily visible in the recording. Filming images from a projector can introduce glare or make thin lines hard to see.
• Whether the slides are filmed or embedded directly into the video, ensure that the speaker’s pointer is part of the video (if one is used). The dot of a laser pointer typically does not show up in a recording of a slide talk.

Self-filmed talks. These may include video recordings, screen images (ipad or slides) with voiceover, or other formats. Please consider the following.

• Phone cameras often produce much higher quality visual recordings than webcams. To record video, consider using either a phone on a tripod, or an external video camera with a tripod.
• Test your microphone and camera setup to make sure the audio and visuals are clear and synchronized (there is no lag between the audio and visuals).
• Wearing a microphone can significantly improve the audio quality of the recording. In this case, we recommend that you consult online tutorials explaining where to wear the mic and how to make sure it is recording optimally.

Board talks

• Ensure the camera resolution is sufficient given the size of board writing, and that there is no glare on the board
• If the speaker switches boards, ensure the camera follows in a timely fashion

Audience questions

• The speaker should paraphrase each audience question before answering it. This ensures the question is audible (but anonymous) on the recording.
• To protect the identity of persons asking questions during a talk, for example in a recording of an online talk where the names of participants are displayed, the video can be edited by replacing the audible question with a static slide showing the question.

Longevity of the recording. To ensure longevity of the talk recording, the recording should be stored in several independent locations. These could include the following:

• An institutional repository.
• YouTube.
• The Internet Archive.