Deep Dive into Connect Pro Recordings (Part 2)

Connect Pro has a unique way to create recordings of live session. When played-back they maintain the interactivity of the Flash content, and index the layout changes and any content created in the meeting. Connect Pro recording viewers can download files made available for download during the actual meeting in the same way a meeting participant would have done; viewers can look at an index of the recording and even search on any words that appears on the chat pod, the note pod or in any presentation uploaded in the share pod.

In Part 1, we looked at how Connect Pro recordings worked. In part 2, we will put some of that knowledge into practice and look at ways to modify the recordings that go beyond the out of the box recording editing features of Connect Pro.

Starting Point

For this tutorial, I will be using 2 orginal recordings :

- one that combines a slide show with audio coming from an integrated audio conference from Premiere Global Conferencing: http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p22822710/
- one that combines screen share and VOIP: http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p14313281/

We will attempt the following modifications:

- editing sound coming from an integrated audio conference
- editing video from a screen share
- editing sound from VoIP

Editing sound with integrated audio conference

This modification is the easiest one because it only requires editing an mp3 file which standards program like Adobe Soundbooth provide. Here is the original target recording I am going to use: http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p22822710/

1) First download your recording. Use the /output/recording.zip?download=zip function at the end of the recording url (note that you need to have admin rights on the recording in order to do so). In my example it would look like http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p22822710/output/recording.zip?download=zip

2) Unzip the content of the archive

3) Use a sound editing software (ie. Adobe Soundbooth) to edit the mp3. Replace the original mp3 file with the newly edited one. The name of the mp3 file needs to be kept the same.

4) Re-zip the archive (MAC users, note that you need to zip the archive without the .DS_Store hidden system file that is automatically added on the MAC to every folder)

5) Upload to the content library. Note that you might have a message that says "Your content is currently being processed. Thank you for your patience." Ignore it.

Here is the result of my example. I have added background music to my recording. http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p17529420/

Editing Video from a screen share

This one is a bit more tricky because flv video files can not be easily edited and unfortunately Adobe does not provide any easy to use flv video editor. There are some other tools like Richflv (AIR based App) or Moyea Flv Editor Pro (windows only) that enable you to do some basic editing. In this example I will be using Moyea Flv Editor Pro. Here is the original target recording I am going to use for this example: http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p14313281/

1) First download your recording. Use the /output/recording.zip?download=zip function at the end of the recording url (note that you need to have admin rights on the recording in order to do so). In my example it would look like: http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p14313281/output/recording.zip?download=zip

2) Unzip the content of the archive

3) Locate the video file that contains the screen share. In my example it is called ftcontent4_2.flv. In case of doubt open the file with the Adobe Media Player.

4) Open this flv file with your favorite flv video editor. For my example I am using Flv Editor Pro and I am performing the following step:

-open the ftcontent4_2.flv
-cut the first 24s
-add a watermark
-open another flv (video of a kayaker)
-resize and re-encode it to the settings of ftcontent4_2.flv
-export both flvs and combine them into a single one

5) Replace the screen share flv with the modified one (ensure the name of the flv stays the same)

6) Re-zip the archive and upload to the content library

Here is the result in my example: http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p58209082/

Editing sound from VOIP

This example is similar to the first one, except that you will need to convert the audio flv to mp3 (or any other audio format that can be edited), make your modifications and re-encode to flv. The challenge for the conversion from flv to mp3 is that the audio format used is Nellymoser and few applications enable conversion from Nellymoser. Moyea Flv Editor is an option I will use in my example..

1) First download your recording. Use the /output/recording.zip?download=zip function at the end of the recording url (note that you need to have admin rights on the recording in order to do so). In my example it would look like: http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p14313281/output/recording.zip?download=zip

2) Unzip the content of the archive.

3) Locate the flv file that contains the audio you want to edit. In my example it is called ftvoice1_2.flv. In case of doubt open it with the Adobe Media Player.

4) Transcode the audio flv into an editable audio format like mp3 or wav. In my example I am using Moyea Flv Editor Pro and exporting the file as mp3

5) Edit the audio file with a sound editing software like Adobe Soundbooth

6) Re-encode the file as an flv using Adobe Media Encoder CS4 (Format = FLV|F4V, Preset = FLV - Same As Source (Flash 8 and Higher).

7) Replace the audio flv with the modified one (ensure the name of the flv stays the same)

8) Re-zip the archive and upload to the content library

Here is the result in my example (I have added background noise from a parisian cafe): http://aquo.adobe.acrobat.com/p10727655/

If you want to perform some simple edits on a recording, I strongly advise you use the function provided out of the box by Connect Pro. But in case you are interested to make more advanced editing, Part 1 and Part 2 of this tutorial introduced you to some tips and tricks on how to do so. Have fun!