Hybrid teaching - online+face-to-face

A note about how the Faculty has made provision in the St Cross Building for alternative modes of lecture/class/seminar during the pandemic. These configurations will also easily be adapted to suit situations where the presenters are themselves not in the room, but online. 

We have installed some high-quality webcams, with built-in microphone arrays that work brilliantly to pick up all the voices in the room (even in the Gulbenkian). Normally the camera will be used to capture the speaker on the stage/at the front, but it has a sufficiently wide-angle lens that it can also be turned to face the the audience (in some rooms).  The units are portable, so can be used in a range of rooms, and they support hybrid teaching with or without the teacher present, with minimal intervention from support staff. These guidance notes are left beside/near the equipment in the rooms, and - once the kit has been put in place - the systems are sufficiently easy to login to and start that they're pretty much DIY after the first run-through.

They were in fairly heavy use throughout MT 2020, and we received positive feedback on the set-up from staff and students alike.

Gulbenkian set-up - from the stage

Gulbenkian Hybrid teaching setup - the key components: laptop, webcam, loudspeaker.

Gulbenkian Hybrid teaching setup - the key components: laptop, webcam, loudspeaker - facing the stage, with perspex screen.

The Cube - hybrid setup: view from the assistant's seat.

Hybrid setup in The Cube: from the presenter's seat

A notice to audience members

The web page shown below

Studio in the White & Case - shot in front of a green screen, to allow the image from the attached laptop (below the main monitor) to appear behind me on the recording.

And here are a few seconds of demo footage: