Lesson Capture | News
FrontRow Announces New Automated Lesson Capture and Sharing System
FrontRow, a provider of classroom audio solutions, has announced its new Juno digital communications platform at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in San Diego.
Juno is a digital sound system for recording lessons on the fly. FrontRow designed Juno to make it easy for teachers to record lessons while they are in front of the class, not in front of a computer, and without requiring a lot of technical skill or time.
The teacher wears a microphone, which can be controlled through a one-touch button or voice activation and works together with an installation-free digital line array speaker tower. The system can be expanded to include up to six additional speakers, desktop software, and up to four simultaneous pass-around microphones for students.
Juno uses the Echo Lesson Capture System, also from FrontRow, which enables teachers to create videos that incorporate the teacher's and students' voices, media audio, and the computer screen, and then automatically title and save the videos in MP4 format for upload to sites such as Google Apps for Education.
“Having clear audio quality is critical, and the lesson capturing software I was using before produced video in a format that was not compatible with half of my students’ devices," said Juno beta-tester Melissa Spears, a math teacher at Monmouth-Roseville High School in Illinois, in a prepared statement. "Juno’s Echo feature solved this problem. Now, my students can watch lessons on any device they have. An unexpected benefit of Echo is how easy it is to make short videos covering only one or two topics. It is easier to do this since I don’t have to go to my computer and name/save the file every time. I just say ‘finish’ and record again.”
The two main components of the Juno system include:
- Tower receiver and speaker line array; and
- Voice-activated pendant microphone for recording.
Optional components include:
- FrontRow desktop software, which includes the Echo Lesson Capture System;
- Pass-around microphones for students;
- Microphone charger;
- Three-channel expansion module, which enables each tower receiver to support up to three additional microphones;
- Speaker expansion module;
- Page override module, which automatically mutes all audio during school PA-system announcements;
Infrared (IR) speakers; and
- Ceiling speakers.
The Juno system will be available in October. Further information about the product is available at the FrontRow site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.