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BVE Expo 2018

2 March 2018 Posted in: Articles By: Technology Enhanced Learning Team

With the arrival of our the ELU’s new Video and Multimedia Technologist, Clare Driver, the BVE Expo at the Excel Exhibition Centre was perfectly timed, allowing us to see what new products, services and video technologies are emerging & how they can benefit the staff and students here at QMUL. For me, it was great going with someone who has so much experience in multimedia, identifying vendors & exhibitors which maybe of interest to the ELU, when it can be somewhat of a labyrinth & difficult to determine what each offers without spending too much time there.

As with most expo’s, it’s always best to go through the list of exhibitors in advance, think up a few questions for those which one’s interested in and time your visit around the talks which are advertised. We in the ELU were particularly interested in seeking out the best equipment to enhance the Mile End recording booth and soon to be complete, Whitechapel recording booth (in the Garrod Building).

The expo suffered somewhat from poor turnout, due to the snow, but we found this proved to be to our advantage, allowing us to spend a lot more time with exhibitors as the Excel Centre can sometimes feel somewhat manic.

Exhibitors we were most interested in were:

  • Newtek (recording booth video production unit vendor)
  • Padcaster (personal teleprompt software & hardware vendor)
  • Portaprompt (larger-sized teleprompt manufacturer)
  • Røde (microphone manufacturer)
  • Canford (AV specialists)

The technology which interested us the most was that of teleprompt software and hardware. We found some great self-service solutions for those wishing to record content in their own venues (such as in offices or from home) using tablets, plus got some great advice as to how best support the needs of those wishing to use the recording facilities here. This teleprompter here, demonstrated by Padcaster, proved how effective the software can be when the presentation text is exported from a PowerPoint presentation, saved as a RTF file and then played through the Padcaster app on a smart phone.

The expo proved to be a great opportunity to see everything from video cameras, microphones, video production software & camera tracking technology, but also as a means for us to ask obscure AV and multimedia questions to experts in their very specific fields. I found the ability to be able to pick up a piece of equipment and try it out, listen to an audio output or look at the set-up involved to be an unbeatable experience. The bustling atmosphere and layout of an expo often results in impromptu conversations too, with us briefly stopping to talk to SKY Television and them discuss possibly donating video cameras to the ELU to expand out equipment loan scheme which we run.

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