Extron Electronics has announced that the Extron SMP 351 now integrates with Opencast Media Server to create end-to-end solutions for recording AV presentations, from scheduling to publishing. Opencast is a free, open-source platform for the management of AV media recorded in training and education environments. The Extron SMP 351 Streaming Media Processor serves the role of a “capture agent” in an Opencast system. It combines a presentation source and camera video of the instructor with a background image into flexible layouts, which deliver the live presentation experience.

“Higher education and training environments that record high volumes of presentations require a complete solution to automate and streamline the recording workflow,” says vice president of sales and marketing for Extron Casey Hall. “Operating from an organisation’s IT system, the Extron SMP 351 and Opencast provide a comprehensive solution for the management of AV recordings.”

Organisations use Opencast to schedule, process, and distribute AV recordings to Learning Management Systems – LMS such as Blackboard, Moodle, or Sakai, or Content Management Systems – CMS such as Kaltura, YouTube, or iTunes University. Opencast also provides a video-on-demand server that provides a browser-based player interface to play back recorded media. Recording schedules can be entered and managed directly from Opencast, while the SMP 351 continuously updates schedule data for reliable initiation of recording sessions. The SMP 351 delivers long recordings to Opencast as sequential MP4 files that maintain the complete audio and video program with no gaps, ensuring that events are captured in their entirety.