Camtasia Relay 2.0 is a software that captures meetings, audio, video recordings and presentations for your educational organization or enterprise.  It lets your team capture important activities at the same time.  As an offsite manager, It makes me adjust to the needs of my growing workforce by providing recorded trainings and new hire orientation coming in left and right.

Being physically present in meetings where important decisions are made is just as challenging, so I attend them virtually by browsing through recorded meetings and conversations, and viewing them at my own convenience, and broadcasting my decisions through the server in the same manner. It leaves me up-to-date with the latest information and providing guidance to my leadership team.

Here’s a snapshot of Camtasia Relay features:

Flexibility - Camtasia Relay is packed with options that are simple and hassle-free.  You can also trim the idle time by using its customizable presets to make well-organized videos and lets you record without the using the internet.

Portability and Compatibility. It supports a wide variety of file formats that you can choose from in saving your videos.  This ensures that you can play it using your iPod, or saving it in a USB and view it in a different media.

Secure. It lets you administer the files that can be posted to avoid the threat of posting unofficial videos.  It also notifies the presenters through email when the processing and publishing of the videos are done.

Cost-Efficient. The full functionality of Camtasia Relay 2 reduces time and effort to get through most of the conference-related tasks and presenta-tions.  This lowers manpower and other equipment costs that impede a business’ development.

The Camtasia Relay 2’s functionality has helped me a lot in coping with the demands of my work, and participating/managing my group.   What’s best is it can also be used by students, faculty, and IT administrators in accessing information when they need it 24/7.

To find out more, visit: Camtasia Relay Lecture Capture and Presentation Recording Software

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( The video is about a security bug in Facebook, but that was beside the point. Yes, this video is brand new, that isn’t beside the point…)

Enjoy

Until next time

Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

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1. Screencasting – What is it

There are several reasons why I think this is important. One is of course the viewer experience is greater when showing your videos on HD. But there is more to it than that.

For one you get the Youtube HD logo on your video, which you will not get otherwise. People also tend to watch videos in full screen mode more and more, and stream videos to their High Definition television sets and for HD TVs it’s great if you have a higher quality of video.

I have included the important take-aways of the video below. My hope is that you can use the list as a quick reference when setting up your Camtasia settings for HD.

The video runs 4:40. OK take it away Bill…

Here are some take-aways from the video.

Before you record

1. Set your recording to save as .avi in your Camtasia Recorder Tools/General Options.
2. Set framerate to 30 (Tools/Options/Inputs)
3. Select area to record to 1280×720

After recording, when editing

1. Select HD in settings and if you don’t have this setting, choose the same size as you are recording in, in this case 1280×720.
2. Edit your video

Producing Video

1. Go to custom production settings
2. Choose other formats MOV
3. Under QuickTime options set H.264.
4. Set your framerate to 30
5. Set Keyframe to Automatic
6. Set Compression to Best
7. Data rate set to Automatic
8. Sound settings for production – Set it to 48.000, 16 bit and set it to Stereo so Youtube can recognize it as a HD file.
9. Check that video size is 1280×720

And then upload it to Youtube. Youtube should recognize it as a HD file.

That’s all there is to it. Now start creating lots of HD Camtasia files! Let me know what you think about this article/video in the comment area below.

Until next time
Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

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Following the feedback from the Mac community, Camtasia for Mac has now its first ever update since the first release, Camtasia for Mac version 1.1. This upgraded version has been updated with the most frequently requested features. The new version includes the following new features:

• Region Capture

A specific area on your screen can now be selected instead of recording the entire screen. You don’t need to crop and zoom anymore as you will be recording only the exact part that you want to capture.

• Audio Enhancements

Noises coming from clicking, typing, fan and other distractions can now be removed. This audio enhancement can also regulate the pitch of your voice and remove the clicking sound when you’re speaking closely to the microphone.

• Monitor Selection

If you have multiple displays on your Macintosh, you can now select which monitor you’d like to record.

• Voice-Only Recording

This feature allows you to capture only the microphone audio without recording the screen video. You can also create and edit a voice-over separate from the screen recording so you can easily make changes in the narration.

• Pause and Resume

If you’re recording a long video, you can now go into “Pause” mode while trying to gather your thoughts or clear your throat. With this feature, unwanted content can be avoided while recording.

Using these new features will surely result in a hassle-free recording experience and high quality projects.

For current users of Camtasia for Mac 1.0, start using these new features now by checking for an update directly in your software then select Install Update on the Software Update window.

Not yet a Camtasia for Mac user? You can learn more about Camtasia for Mac 1.1 here!

Until next time

Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

Related posts:

1. Camtasia for Mac v1 Launced
2. Camtasia for Mac Review

If you are looking to buy Camtasia or upgrade to the new release Camtasia 7, our partnersite, SoftwareCasa offers a number of bonuses.

Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration is a professional blogger and personal technology columnist. The review is published on Digital Inspiration.

Amit says: “If you are already using an older version of Camtasia, the first change that you’ll immediately notice in Camtasia Studio 7 is the revamped UI — they’ve moved from the classic XP like blue design to a black glass-like but non-transparent interface. The vertical task bar is gone and instead, you have a tabbed horizontal bar that gives you quick access to all the various editing tools but you can no longer hide this area.”

Amit goes on to mention the new features of the Library and that finds the new feature cursor effects one of the most useful features. On the negative side Amit mentions: “…the built-in title editor is very basic and there’s absolutely no support for rollovers and closing credits. As a workaround, you can produce title videos in Windows Live Movie Maker and import them into Camtasia Studio.”

T. Michael Testi is software developer, a writer, and a photographer. His review is published on blogcritics.com.

Michael cover the new functionality of Camtasia Studio 7 in depth and I am quoting his final judgement here.

“I think that with all of the improvements to the prior version like the SmartFocus technology and improved recording engine that running Camtasia Studio 7 was very crisp, clean, and had a noticeable improvement in the final video rendering.

Then when you add the new library capabilities, the sketch motion feature, all of the new callouts, the improvement to the audio capabilities, the answer to my initial question is that TechSmith has made the premier video capture program even better. If you are looking for a complete product for creating and editing video casts then I highly recommend Camtasia Studio 7.”

Travis Campbell of Marketingprofessor goes through the seven reasons why he thinks you should upgrade to Camtasia 7. Here is his bottom line: “Software companies often push things out the door without adding enough value add features to justify it for customers. I’m glad to say this is not the case for Camtasia 7.

The huge time savers for me will be:

• YouTube integration
• Media library
• Improved controls for audio editing (background music).

Couple these with the:

• Revamped user interface
• Post recording motion callouts
• Improved screen recorder, and
• Improved cursor effects…

…and this could be the best version released yet.”

Nice review Travis.

And last, but not least, Screencaster Lon Naylor from Screencast profits has done an extensive review and in which he grades all the new features. Lon likes the new interface change although seasoned Camtasia users will have to get used to a few changes. Library, new callouts and keystroke callouts get several thumbs up. Lon hasn’t seen my SuperCallouts yet, I wonder what he will say about those :-0

Lon goes on to comment about getting control of the fading in and fading out audio controls. He loves those but isn’t so keen on noise removal and volume level affect all tracks. That gets the only thumbs down.

And with that I end this Reviews overview.

Happy Screencasting,

Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

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I have been so busy putting the last touch to SuperCallouts because I wanted to have it ready as a bonus for you for the launch of Camtasia 7.

So I have only had a few minutes to play with Camtasia 7

But I have to tell you, my first thought after installing it – it’s just an amazing piece of new software. I find it sleeker, more fluid and filled with lots of great new stuff.

Check out more about Camtasia Studio 7 here!

What’s New in Camtasia Studio 7

Camtasia Studio has always been more than a simple screen recorder.
Now, with Camtasia Studio 7, Techsmith has redesigned and rebuilt
it to help you generate sophisticated, effective screencasts—faster,
easier, and with more consistency.

Library

Save editing time and achieve consistency by storing callouts,
title slides, or an entire intro sequence for later reuse.

Copy and paste

Reuse transitions, zooms, and other effects—just copy and
paste to a different spot on the timeline or add it to the library.

YouTube upload

Get in front of millions! Produce and upload HD-quality videos
to YouTube without leaving Camtasia Studio.

Grab attention with new callouts

Enhanced callouts

Give your screencasts a visual makeover with new callout styles
and an easy way to make your own—now with support for image
transparency!

Keystroke callouts

Make keystrokes visible to viewers! Camtasia Studio takes note
of any keyboard shortcuts used during recording and shows the keys
as a graphic overlay.

Sketch motion callouts

Call attention to the important bits with animated shapes that
appear to be hand-drawn right onto the video.

Enhance with powerful editing

Precision volume controls

Fade the volume of an audio track up and down at any point in your
video, using simple controls built into the timeline.

Editable cursor effects

Help viewers follow along by enlarging the mouse pointer, making
it a spotlight, or visualizing clicks.

Smarter SmartFocus

TechSmith’s SmartFocus technology places smoother, more accurate
zooms and pans so your content always looks sharp —a huge
time-saver!

Check out more about Camtasia Studio 7 here!

Always look amazing

Sleek, new interface

Find and use more of the product’s features…and get
projects done faster.

Optimized screen recorder

Our capture engine now boosts frame rates by up to 50%—for
smoother motion when recording things like 3D design software, real
world video, or Flash animations.

Eye-grabbing media assets

Your library comes stocked with professionally-designed media assets
from Digital Juice …with the possibility to add more.

Check out more about Camtasia Studio 7 here!

Until next time

Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

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But everywhere I looked the images and callouts I found were either outright ugly, of low quality, high priced or all of the above. The sites wanted me to pay a monthly subscription fee and I realized that what looked like a low monthly fee would soon turn into a substantial yearly cost…

I decided to create the callouts I needed for myself instead. To make the images took a lot of work but I have to admit that I was spurred by the friendly comments I got.

People told me “great video”, “cool graphics”, “nice presentation” and stuff like that. More effort went into creating even more callouts for my videos. The idea of sharing this with more people started to grow on me. The idea of SuperCallouts was born.

Now, six months later and after a lot of hard work from my team and myself, SuperCallouts is finally ready.

So what is this package with 365 professionally designed high quality graphics going to cost you? Read on because I think the answer will make you happy.

Knowing what graphic collections like these cost and how much work that went into SuperCallouts we could easily charge over 100 dollars for this product but we won’t. My wish is to share this with a lot of people so I wanted to give great value at a really affordable price.

We have set the price to $47.00 BUT from tomorrow and for about a week onwards I’ll give you a chance to get it as a free bonus…

I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Until then – all the best wishes,

Peter Gillberg – Your Camtasia Guide

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2. Camtasia Callout GiveAway
3. Import Callouts into Camtasia

The video is both informative and funny, well worth spending your next seven minutes on if you work with or are planning to add speech to your Camtasia Studio videos.

I have also included the tips in a summary of the video below.

Without further ado, take it away Chris:

Here is a summary of the video tips and a few bonus tips from me.

Tip 1) Use USB microphone

You can use many different Microphones for recording, but stay away from analog and webcam microphones. You will get better sound quanlity using a USB contact because the USB signal is digital.

Tip 2) “You talk what you eat”

What this somewhat cryptic statement means is that you are affected by what you eat before your recording. Stay away from sugary foods and even more important, drink a lot of water. Very important - drink between takes too to keep on being hydrated.

Tip 3) Stand up and breath

It’s easy to forget to breath when recording your voice overs. Standing up while doing your voice over recording also helps a lot to open your diaphragm.

Tip 4) Talk with your whole body and smile

Talk with your whole body. Gesticulate with your arms and smile, believe it or not people will hear if you smile.

4) Distance to mic

Do you want a close and intimate feeling? Then move up just next to the mic. You want a feeling of speaking more to the group, then move away a bit. Talk louder! A related tip – be in a quiet environment, very important.

5) Use your head voice

You can direct your voice through your lips, throat or now. Chris recommend that you direct your voice out through your head. Let it flow upwards.

My bonus tips

6) Use a script

Write down what you are going to say.

7) Practice makes perfect

Practice your script a couple of times before going live.

That’s all for now, thanks for visiting

Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

PS. Next week we are launching SuperCallouts a new product especially made for Camtasia. Stay tuned and and check out how you can get it for free… More about this on Monday.

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1. Create Better Tips Videos

Because Camtasia Studio 7 is close to the release date, anyone from now on who purchases Camtasia Studio 6 from SoftwareCasa, will be getting a free upgrade to version 7. This upgrade from Camtasia 6 to Camtasia 7 is automatic.

If you would like to buy Camtasia Studio 6 with Free Upgrade to Camtasia Studio 7, please go here.

Until next time

Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

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1. Camtasia 7 is Coming

We have been hard at work creating a new exciting pack of Callouts to be used in Video Production together with Camtasia Studio and other video creation tools.

I have included a video below for you to get a sense of what we are doing. Included in the video are some examples of the Callouts of my design.

So I am calling all Camtasia users and anybody working with video out there for help building this graphics pack. You will be the co-creator so to speak

Check out the video:

I need your help with suggestions of what graphic icons should be included. What graphics do you need for your video productions?

As a thank you gift I will give out a free copy of SuperStamps (197 Images with transparency that you can use in your videos) for every suggestion that’s included in our new SuperCallouts for Video.

Please post your Graphic Icon suggestion in the comment area on this blog (below) or email me your suggestion.

Callouts in videos can be used for many different reasons. A few of the main purpose of Callouts are:

• To create attention
• To draw attention to important areas of your video
• Act as bullet points in lists
• Could be used as watermarks in your videos
• Give meaning by acting as metaphors, for example a clock means time

For your Callout suggestion, please make sure to include:

1. The idea – what Text or Image do you need as callout?
2. What color?
3. What shape should the graphic/icon have?
4. Anything else that may clarify your idea?

I really love to hear your suggestions so please post it below now and if included in the final product you’ll get a free copy of SuperStamps value $20.00!

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1. Import Callouts into Camtasia
2. Introducing SuperCallouts
3. Camtasia Callout GiveAway