One-Button Studio

The Teaching and Learning Center's One-Button Studio, located in Anderson Hall, is available as a resource to all WCU faculty. While the studio contains professional-grade recording equipment, it has been designed to be as easy as possible to operate: simply insert a USB thumb drive to activate all of the equipment and press one button to start recording. When finished, press the same button again and the video is saved directly onto the thumb drive.

Faculty can use the studio to create three different types of videos:

  1. Standing by yourself in front of the camera
  2. Standing next to a projected slideshow.
  3. Standing in front of a green or blue screen. Later on, the green/blue can be removed and replaced with an image or video of your choice using a video editing software.

A photo of the control center in the one-button studio. Two computers sit on top of a wooden cabinet along with two keyboards, two computer mice, a silver round button, and a camera.

Software

The studio’s projector is connected to an iMac that can project slideshows created with some of the most common presentation programs, including:

  • Apple Keynote
  • Google Slides
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Prezi

Reservations

The studio can be reserved between the hours of 8:30am and 4:00pm (8:30am and 3:30pm during the summer) on weekdays when the Teaching and Learning Center is open. To reserve time, email our Associate Instructional Designers at tlc@wcupa.edu.

FAQ

Can students use this studio?

No, this is a resource for WCU Faculty only.

Will someone show me how to work the equipment?

A staff member from the Teaching and Learning Center is usually available by appointment to give first-time users a brief orientation. Please specify in your reservation email that you will need an orientation to make sure someone is available at that time.

Will someone be able to edit the video for me after recording?

Teaching and Learning Center student workers may be available for video editing assistance with advance notice. Faculty interested in learning how to use video editing software, such as Camtasia, should consult the Faculty and Staff Training (FAST) schedule to register for in-person or online training.

What should I bring with me to a recording session?

Please bring a USB thumb drive that has at least 4GB of free space and is formatted either as Mac OS Extended or exFAT. NTFS formatted drives will not work with the studio’s software.

To determine how your drive is formatted:

  • On a Mac, click the drive to select it, then select File > Get Info from the Finder. In the window that appears, look for Format:.
  • In Windows, right-click the drive and select Properties. In the window that appears, look for File System:.

For instructions on how to reformat a USB drive, select the instructions that are appropriate for your device:

WARNING: Formatting a drive will completely erase it, so backup any files from your drive before starting this process.

If you plan to project a slideshow or use the teleprompter software, you can either bring those files with you on your thumb drive or access them from a cloud-based account (e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, etc.).

Why does the audio and video of my recording appear to be out of sync?

Occasionally, the audio and video of a recording made in the studio will appear out of sync on a Windows-based computer. This is actually a longstanding bug with the video software that is built into Windows, and if you play the recording using third-party software (such as Camtasia or VLC), on another computing platform, or after uploading the file to a streaming service (such as YouTube or Panopto), you should find that the audio and video are in sync.

If you need to play your recording using the built-in player in Windows, please contact your assigned Instructional Designer, or contact the Teaching and Learning Center at tlc@wcupa.edu, and we can convert the file into another format that will play properly.