People said our lecture recording wasn’t working properly. So we checked a thousand recordings. This is what we found:
(Numbers given are out of one thousand and there is a percentage summary table at the end.)
Empty room or blank recording.  |
98 instances where the room was booked and a recording scheduled, but no lecture took place.
On discussion with Timetabling this was not unexpected, it is a legacy issue not related to the recording service. Reasons for this could include a course changing or being cancelled and the room bookings not being removed from the Timetabling system. A room change within one working day would not be able to filter through the services in time. Timetabling had no way to know a course had been cancelled unless course staff told them. The other disadvantage of this is that the room booking remains in place and no one else can book it. We discounted this in the final summary. |
| Microphone not used. | 110 times. This is a user error and makes the recording unusable and obviously impossible to provide captions/transcripts for. |
| Recording stopped in room near start. | 35 times. This is a user action and makes the recording unusable. |
| Recording paused. | 2 times. Using the pause button in the room at the start, making the recording unusable. |
| Microphone temporarily muted. | 24 times. This would be done by the user in the room and would make part of the recording unusable. |
| Audience microphone not used. | 48 times. This can be for a variety of reasons, including logistical ones. It would result in questions/answers from the room not being heard and would make part of the recording unusable. |
| Microphones not used by all speakers. | 4 times. Forgetting to hand over the microphone or the other presenter(s) not wishing to use a microphone could be reasons. In these cases, part of the recording would not be usable. |
| Audio quality poor, audio unclear or static. | 15 occurrences. These are technical faults and have been reported and investigated. |
Results Summary.
This seems to indicate that user error was far more likely to be an issue with the recordings than technical issues with the room.
| Summary of non-technical or timetabling issues. User based issues. | Number | % |
| Mic not used count | 110 | 10.7 |
| Recording stopped or paused. | 37 | 3.6 |
| Partial audio issue from muting, audience or other speakers. | 76 | 7.4 |
| Total checked | 1028 | |
| Total problems | 223 | 21.7 |