Podcasted lecture today
Laurie and I worked together last Friday to refined the setup for Murray so it is a much easier process. Murray was being very thorough by plugging/unplugging everything every time he'd setup and tear down, but it was creating more work for him, so we streamlined it and turned it into a quick-n-dirty seven-step process.
I set it up for him today, included directions as listed below, and am hoping this setup will make things easier for him in the future. The biggest issue at hand is that having to switch gears from preparing-for-class and being in that mode to podcasting-setup-how-does-this-procedure-go-again, while dealing with students coming up with all sorts of questions, was starting to become a real strain on production. Also, while Murray had asked students if anyone was willing to help him set up the briefcase each time, he didn't get any takers, and his TAs are not usually attending lecture and cannot assist him either. Luckily he's extremely technologically apt and capable of dealing with the briefcase himself, but we just didn't want him to have to downshift all the time when he's focused on the teaching he's about to do.
Here's what we did:
- took the batteries out of all components except for the bodypack
- flipped the power switch on the receiver to on and put tape over it so it was perpetually on
- left all the cables plugged into the units (Marantz XLR to receiver, power supplies connected to receiver and Marantz)
- painted a dot of red on the switchplate on the bodypack so that when it is turned on, it looks to the eye like it's red for 'on' (note earlier entry of strange battery light issue with the bodypack and the confusion that causes)
- taped a note to the front of the bodypack reminding the user to turn the power on
Thus, the process is streamlined into 7 steps:
- PLUG Marantz power supply in
- PLUG receiver power supply in
- HOOK receiver upright onto bag
- HOOK bodypack onto self
- FLIP Marantz power switch on
- FLIP bodypack power switch on
- RECORD!