Webcasting and Presentation Products

What is Desire2Learn® Capture?

The innovative line of Desire2Learn Capture webcasting products gives organizations the ability to effortlessly capture and broadcast rich media presentations (with audio, video, and visual aids) to online audiences, live and on demand. Viewers can search text contained in visual aids and can chat with other audience members.

Why Webcasting?

Webcasting is a robust, one-to-many streaming technology. The Desire2Learn Capture webcasting system thus allows organizations to efficiently broadcast live presentations to an audience of all sizes. Webcasting requires little to no setup for presenters, no software to install for audiences and provides superior picture and audio quality to online meeting products.

Why Rich Media?

Desire2Learn Capture gives online audiences an unparalleled rich media experience of lectures and presentations.

Although plain video is sufficient for concerts and sporting events, other types of presentations, like lectures, rely more on the use of presentation materials and visual aids. In such cases, the use of rich media is essential, so the online audience may both follow the speaker and see a high-resolution version of their visual aids. Rich media allows online audiences to feel a front row sense of presence at the event, even though they may be halfway across the world.

Desire2Learn Capture's use of rich media also allows for additional interactive features, such as a live text chat, question submission, and enhanced on demand viewing with a table of contents, searching within rich media contents and slide selection.

System Overview

To successfully capture and broadcast presentations, Desire2Learn Capture consists of two major components: Capture Station and Capture Portal.

Capture Station

Captures all aspects of an in-room presentation: audio and video of the speaker, along with visual aids, such as the speaker's PowerPoint®, desktop screen, projected screen display, or document camera. In-room presentation capture can be completely automated, with no input from the presenter required.

For presentations on the go, the Capture Station Software can provide the same rich media capture capabilities when installed on a laptop or desktop. Presenters require only a couple intuitive clicks to get started.

Capture Portal

Integrates everything recorded by Desire2Learn Capture into one rich media player, ensuring full synchronization between all elements. The presentation is then re-distributed to the online audience, as a live or on demand webcast. Together, Capture Station and Portal provide your audience with an engaging front-row experience wherever they are.

How Does It Work?

Desire2Learn Capture is typically used in the room where the presentation is recorded. It takes in the feeds from the Audio/Video setup (e.g. cameras and microphones) and Presentation Source (e.g. laptop, document camera, projector), then delivers the synchronized content to the server(s) for live and on demand distribution.

Desire2Learn Capture Station is available in two forms: Capture Station 300, a complete hardware and software solution, or Capture Station software, which can be installed on a desktop or laptop PC. The capture components appropriate for a particular organization depend primarily on the anticipated production scenario.

To learn more, see Desire2Learn Capture Station.

How Is Content Distributed?

Webcast participants navigate to your Capture Portal and watch presentation Rich Media live and on demand. The application provides a control interface for administrators, while also acting as a media content management system (MCMS) and live event calendar.

It is available in two forms: stand-alone server software installed on your own server infrastructure or a cloud application installed on Desire2Learn’s cloud computing infrastructure.

To learn more, see Capture Portal.

What types of support are available?

Desire2Learn Capture Support packages are offered in one-year packages, and include helpdesk and technical support for your administrators and users. Packages can also be customized to your specific needs.

To learn more, see Technical Support.