Ask Slashdot: Recording Business Meeting Audio On an Intranet? 85
dousette writes "I have been tasked with modernizing our company's board room. Replacing the overhead projector with a more modern LCD projector is a no-brainer, speakers are easy enough to wire off of the HDMI projector, but one of the requirements that has me stumped is the recording of minutes. The existing system uses wired microphones connected to a cassette player, and what I would love to replace this with are some sort of Ethernet microphone that could stream directly to a Windows file share. Does such an animal exist? Do you have any other suggestions for the room that I might be missing?" So if you wanted to bypass a stand-alone system, how would you go about dumping audio straight to your network?
BOFH (Score:4, Funny)
Cat5 and newer has an 'extra' twisted pair in each cable.
Just disconnect the extra pair from behind the wall panal and solder a condenser mic across the leads. Do it to all the conference rooms and offices in the executive suite. When you need to hear what they are plotting and planning you go into the wiring closet and listen.
None of the suits will notice their network is only 10Mbps.
Credit where it's due. The BOFH did this many years ago, back when his column was funny.
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Credit where it's due. The BOFH did this many years ago, back when his column was funny.
You forgot weekly as well.
Mini-PC and pulseaudio (Score:4, Interesting)
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just about any version of hooking a PC to the Sound System and having that box flip the file to wherever you need should work
Re:Mini-PC and pulseaudio (Score:5, Interesting)
As far as I know, you could put a linux-box there with pulseaudio and make the input device network-available. You could record then with any pulseaudio-system anywhere.
This, this, this.
Raspberry Pi, anyone?
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Re:Mini-PC and pulseaudio (Score:4, Informative)
Would have suggested that right away but didn't know whether it packs enough bang.
Me either, but I did find a discussion thread where some fellas managed to get pulseaudio running w/ VLC [stackexchange.com] Of course, that's only playback...
Since we're just talking about simple voice recording, surely the hardware requirements would be minimal? I mean, if 12k is good enough for phone conversations...
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I mean, if 12k is good enough for phone conversations...
8k is good enough for phone conversations. The bandpass of a standard phone line is rated at 300-3000Hz. The lowest non-aliasing sample rate would be 6000 samples per second.
The standard digital phone rate was 8000 sps. You'll find this encoded in T1 specs, and various other hardware from the 70s and 80s.
Components (Score:2, Insightful)
For video, I am using an Optoma ML500. I would not use any other laser or lcd projector at this point.
For audio, I use an Olympus digital recorder on a rubber pad. It can record many hours of audio before it fills up. It shows up as a USB stick when you plug it in, and is compatible with Linux. Then, I use Audacity to remove noise, and the quality is really great. Sony has a nice recorder too, but I won't do business with them after the GeoHot fiasco.
Recording to a server is a possiblity, and I use it
Re:Mini-PC and pulseaudio (Score:5, Interesting)
Careful, you might not want the boardroom audio available to all.
The safest path might be to replace the tape deck with a solid state recorder with removable storage. I've hooked ours up to an iPod in the past.
Re:Mini-PC and pulseaudio (Score:4, Interesting)
Careful, you might not want the boardroom audio available to all.
The safest path might be to replace the tape deck with a solid state recorder with removable storage. I've hooked ours up to an iPod in the past.
This. I would suggest keeping the Mics (they probably have good placement and superior audio) and feeding them into a small digital recorder that someone has the responsibility of starting/stopping/uploading. This way only the activity that is supposed to be recorded, retransmitted, etc. is actually done since a human needs to handle the movement of the information. Try to automate it and get it wrong (even on accident,) and you could find yourself looking for a new job at best, and looking out from a jail cell at worst.
My first thought was some sort of remote-controlled mic system that took cues from an Exchange server managing meeting resource events. That way the file would automatically be generated for each meeting that was scheduled, and saved accordingly. That would be awesome until someone scheduled an off the record meeting and found out only later that the whole thing was recorded and stashed on the intranet where who knows who has access to it.
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you could find yourself looking for a new job at best, and looking out from a shallow grave in the middle of nowhere at worst.
FTFY.
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We have a (very nice) audio recorder which is about the size of a walkman and records to SD card in MP3 or WAV formats when the big red button is pressed.
We use it for recordings where qulity is important so have a high end one, (Roland I think the brand is) but actually there are dictaphones which record to SD cards which will probably cover your use.
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If it is mission-critical it would be trivial to split the microphone wire and record through two devices.
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If it is mission critical, buy two. Instructions read "Hit record on both devices" "Hit stop on both devices." Mission critical usually means you have a budget of more than $200.
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Exactly - hell, if it is mission critical you probably want redundant microphones.
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In most states recording a conversation is a felony without the other party knowing and agreeing to it
If by most, you mean "twelve": California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.
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Why ethernet mic? (Score:1)
Use bluetooth, Connect to any networked machine within range. Or if a laptop is there, use its built in mic. You can grab the Audio with Audacity.
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To the googles! (Score:3, Informative)
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=network+audio+recorder [lmgtfy.com]
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I know you were being a smart ass, but that Marantz (result #2) is a nice unit.
Who takes the minutes? (Score:4, Interesting)
Do you just dump the audio archives somewhere for hypothetical later retrieval (which isn't really "minutes"), or is somebody tasked with creating the actual minutes from the recordings after the meeting? Having a person writing up the minutes as the meeting progresses is generally a better idea in my experience. Then it's just normal document editing.
Re:Who takes the minutes? (Score:4, Insightful)
The auto-transcribed document wouldn't be able to identify who is speaking at any given time.
I install that solution all the time. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.amazon.com/Marantz-PMD580-Rack-Mount-CompactFlash-Recorder/dp/B0017OM6JQ [amazon.com]
we install them all the time.
And yes it's the only real solution, if they balk at the price, they really dont want to do what you are asking, hook up a Laptop and press record if they are too cheap to buy the real tool for the job.
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but but but it's rackmounted MARANTZ!! MARANTZ I TELL YOU! you know it'll be perfect when they start recording their company bands tracks in there.
and what they really need and want is just a flash based replacement for the cassette recorder. if it's a company that could do better things with the 1000 bucks they don't need the marantz and if they're big enough for price to not matter they're going to have meetings there that they don't want recorded to the intranet...
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You obviously have no idea about audio, or how to meet requirements. I would love to see the face of your boss when you tell him that you are thinking of replacing a microphone and cassette recorder with a $45,000 solution.
If you had read the actua
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What do you think of using something like a Zoom H4N or R16 instead? They are significantly less expensive, can be moved more easily if needed, and make very nice recordings. No live streaming capability in either, but the audio records to an SD card, and can be uploaded from there or read through a USB interface.
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Because the question asker specifically asked for a network recorder?
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Okay, that's reasonable.
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I came to post this same link. This will automatically save files to a network share or record them on to a removable compact flash card, making it easier to use and more versatile than a home-grown general purpose computer solution. It can be easily wired with remote start/stop and status indication. It can work manually, based on the faceplate controls, remote contact start/stop, or web-based UI, or automatically based on a schedule. It has both consumer and professional, analog and digital audio inpu
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Another vote for the Marantz. I have just arranged a boardroom's AV installation, and this was the only bullet-proof (idiot-proof) system. It's rack-mounted (i.e. invisible), controllable from the AMX touch panel and integrated into the whole system. The secretary can hit 'record' at the start and 'stop' at the end without leaving her seat and it all happens magically. The AV fitout is about $90 000 installed so the Marantz - while not cheap - is just a tiny part of it.
Like the other guy said, if they can't
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AMX compatable? nope. the only HDMI recorder that exists is the CAPTURE-HD from crestron. But it requires a special device in front of it to strip out HDCP so that it does not lock up when a Windows 8 laptop is used and HDCP is enforced.
I really wish a recorder existed that was generic and either Rs232 or Tcp controlled, but right now Crestron holds the bag on that one.
Revolabs (Score:2)
Simple (Score:2)
Why ditch the mics? (Score:2)
We use GoToMeeting (Score:1)
We use GoToMeeting to record this stuff. Mind you, every time we need to record something, we also happen to have stakeholders from other offices calling in for the meeting. If everyone is present in the same room, then G2M would add an extra, unnecessary, layer.
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We use GoToMeeting to record this stuff. Mind you, every time we need to record something, we also happen to have stakeholders from other offices calling in for the meeting. If everyone is present in the same room, then G2M would add an extra, unnecessary, layer.
Yes and no. Depends on what else is going on. A audio or video conferencing solution can be a far better option if you're doing things like showing a PowerPoint or want to record the video as well. I've recorded plenty of meetings where everyone was local just because I wanted to have a digital whiteboard or a slide deck recorded with the audio.
audio is hard video is easy (Score:3)
audio is hard video is easy
There's numerous "security" solutions for recording video including movement detector systems.
disk space is cheap enough you should just record 1 hour chunks constantly and recycle as the disk fills.
Its technically possible but I strongly recommend against the whole idea... You're going to completely freak people out about creepers having nothing to downloading meetings solely to watch the hotties and borderline paranoids who watch too much CSI and 24 are going to think terrorists are going to hack in and destroy everyone or sell all your top secret ideas to the Chinese "Can you believe he went on record in a video file that we use GIT to store our source code? What if the Chinese or terrorists found out?". Wait till the first time a supervisor takes an employee in there for a "private disciplinary discussion" and it gets uploaded to youtube and the company and/or supvr gets sued (perhaps a setup?). Its just a terrible, awful idea full of negative outcome in exchange for basically nothing positive.
The worst part is only two groups are going to really know how it works... the IT guys who don't really want to become the AV guys for wanna be actors, and the bad guys doing something nefarious.
Probably the most intelligent and cheapest idea is anyone who's stuck writing meeting minutes gets to use the record app on their iphone/android phone. For the cost of an exotic security or AV system you could probably buy every admin assistant a smart phone and service for a couple years.
Write & scan (plus the oblig Raspberry Pi comm (Score:4, Informative)
To get the obligatory Raspberry Pi out of the way: Hook up a microphone to a Raspberry Pi, and have that record/dump onto your local network fileshare.
On a more serious note though, it should be the job of someone in the meeting to take the minutes. It'll all well and good to have an automated system recording audio of the thing for future reference, but it is much better to have someone taking down the key points manually. Not only do you have a backup incase of failure of your system, but you also have a summary with the most important points which is much easier to skim over and extract information from.
If you combine handwritten notes with a document scanner in the room you can have a system to scan, archive and distribute a copy of the minutes almost instantly. Alternatively the minutes could be typed onto a netbook/small laptop and that document emailed round.
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Handwriting? Surely you meant typing.
Well, yeah, but I am also taking into account meetings where that may not be practical, such as those involving lots of diagrams/mathematical equations or those which refer to a hard copy document (which could then also be scanned).
Why (Score:2)
An excellent business-type question is what do you expect to accomplish?
Will anyone use the minutes, for anything, ever?
In 20 years I've never used meeting minutes or seen them used by anyone else. For anything. Agendas, yes. Personal "post it note to myself" type stuff, yes. Personal post it notes to follow up with X regarding his assignment, yes. But generic meeting minutes? Never. Not once.
If you're trying to "prove" and document a meeting happened for a bean counting metric of meetings per quarte
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Let me turn that around. If you almost never use detailed minutes of any meeting, but cannot be sure that you won't need them for that one occasion, then recording them is an excellent idea. Per meeting, you get to record and store th
Use Netviewer (Score:2)
Have a laptop running with a decent microphone, which you can pick up from Radio Shack for 20$. Have something running like GoTomeeting or Netviewer
http://www.netviewer.com/en/ [netviewer.com]
Where you can record the audio and video of the meeting directly to a file, which can be saved on your laptop or to a folder on your network. I've done this many times for conference calls. Works great.
Lync Online (Score:2)
if you want it on a torrent, yeah, go for it (Score:4, Insightful)
because if it's on a machine accessable to The Connected Internet, and anybody who wants to punk or bleed you wants it, they'll find a way to it.
there's still such a thing as a microcassette recorder, and such a thing as a digital recorder, that you can start, set next to the conferencing phone, and have a clerk type up. not all technology needs to migrate to the cloud by 5 pm today.
Do you have a phone conferencing system? (Score:2)
Does your company use an audio conferencing (phone) system? Either internally or from an external provider (like webex)? If so just have someone use that facility, plus those can usually record any slides/applications/desktops that are shared in the meeting as well.
Otherwise you'll have a solution that is unique to one room, which seems like nothing more than a glorified tape recorder, and if someone is dialed into the meeting, while everyone else is sitting in the room, that one person's voice won't be r
RecordPad is my choice (Score:2)
I did similar research for nearly-automated audio recording of our church sermons. I wanted to make it super-simple to minimize the added workload on our not-so-computer-savvy Sunday helpers.
I finally settled on using RecordPad from NCH Software, installed on a dedicated and inexpensive laptop, and set to load automatically when Windows launches.
http://www.nch.com.au/recordpad/index.html [nch.com.au]
After using it for about a year, I'm VERY happy.
RecordPad is not too expensive (about $40) and it is VERY easy to use. It
overly complex solutions... (Score:2)
Richard Nixon would approve! (Score:2)
After all, digital audio makes it much easier to erase a few minutes' worth of incriminating evidence, all without having to do the Rose Mary Stretch [wikimedia.org].
Lync (Score:2)
We moved our (50-person) family business over to Office365 and use MS Lync. The meeting organizer creates an "online meeting" in addition to the physical meeting, and runs Lync on his/her laptop. Click the Record button, and it saves all the powerpoints+IMs+audio that comes from the meeting. (this requires the microphones to be plugged in of course). There are options to have to save them on a central facility but I never figured that out -- we just save them locally, and upload to a sharepoint site when ne
Projector? (Score:1)
How quaint.
Our meeting rooms are getting giant flat screen TVs clamped or bolted to the ends of the conference tables. SO much better than squinting at a screen projection from some projector with a bulb way past its prime.
audacity plus USB microphone? (Score:2)
VoIP - leverage your PBX recording facilities (Score:1)
VoIP - leverage your PBX recording facilities.
Asterisk, FreeSwitch, and even the commercial VOIP guys all support recording conversations. Avaya does, as an example.
Heck, your PBX may already be recording every call and storing them for a week.
After all, when was the last time any meeting was held that didn't include a conference bridge for call-in attendees?
One word for you: (Score:2)
Multicast!
Cheap Ethernet webcam would do (Score:2)
Certain Ethernet webcams could do that. They can also be multi-purpose if you want (video conferencing) - streaming is easy, I use VLC from the command line with a small script that breaks it in chunks of 30 minutes on one of the servers to stream video (w/o audio but it could include audio) to a network share.
You do NOT put the recodings on the net (Score:2)
Discussions in a boardroom are supposed to be confidential and available only to those designated. If you put those on a network share they are simply not confidential anymore. Too many sources for error. Too easy to be tempted by others to listen.
Simply replace the cassette recorder with a solid state recorder where the me
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Discussions in a boardroom are supposed to be confidential and available only to those designated. If you put those on a network share they are simply not confidential anymore.
You need to stop giving read privileges to Everyone.
Just and idea.. (Score:2)
More information (Score:3)
We have a requirement that all board meetings have to be recorded for two reasons -- one, so the minutes can be derived from the recording, and two, open records requests by the public to hear the meeting audio. Recordings have to be kept for a certain period, and I was hoping to automate the boxes and boxes of old tapes we have sitting around (by keeping X previous recordings and dropping the oldest ones automatically when their expiration date comes).
Before "let me google that for you" guy Googled it for me I read an article on doing this with Pulseaudio, but I am more in the market for a commercial solution for capturing and streaming the audio. It has to work every time without technical assistance, and while there are some areas where I am comfortable rolling my own solution, this is not one of them. Now, for the receiving piece running on a server in the datacenter I am open to a more customized solution.
I found a product from Barix called the Exstreamer 500 for about $600 at Pro Audio Gear [proaudio.com]. Does anyone have any experience with Barix devices? It appears that it can either stream the audio over a built-in Shoutcast server or record directly to a USB key. If streaming over a private VLAN to a non-internet-connected server is deemed too risky by mgmt, then at the very least the recordings could be uploaded from the USB key (maybe along with the manual transcription and/or minutes) after the meeting.
Thanks again for all your suggestions! I knew someone out there had to have done this before me.