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Play video embedded in PowerPoint and mix multiple computers and cameras to a GoToWebinar -
Have you ever wanted to play a video embedded in a PowerPoint file through GoToWebinar but can't because the audience sees a jumpy video with a low frame rate?
Or you want to show off a computer program or game that has both audio and video and show that to a GoToWebinar audience.
Do you want to use real cameras with GoToWebinar, not those cheap webcams?
GoTo has a feature to upload five videos to playback during a webinar, but that process is limited to only five videos and the process is a little clunky with too much down time in the webinar while switching to and from the video. And using the GoTo process, not everyone is watching the video at the same time, so some are still watching the video when others have completed.
I have found a solution to this and can now show any video I want, whenever I want, to my GoToWebinar audience. The video can be embedded in a PowerPoint file so you can easily transition from a static slide to a video and back to more slides without having to use the official GoTo video player. You can play any number of videos in a webinar and even seamlessly switch between multiple computers or other video sources.
I just purchased the ATEM Mini from Blackmagic Design. On the surface it appears to be a small four-input camera switcher for $295, but the special feature is that it outputs a webcam signal, which makes full-motion video through GoToWebinar possible.
I am using the ATEM Mini right out of the box. I did not load the additional software that comes with it. Apparently, the extra software contains lots of extra features that you might use in a TV studio environment. Not just video features, but lots of audio features as well. It is all documented in the 100-page PDF manual. (The English part is 100 pages, the other 1100 pages are other languages.)
One trick to this is that you now need two computers to run your GoToWebinar. You will play back the PowerPoint, videos, programs, games, etc. from one computer. The second computer will do nothing but send your signal to the GoToWebinar.
The ATEM Mini has four HDMI inputs. These inputs can be computers, cameras, DVD players, game controllers, or anything else with a HDMI output. Pushing the buttons on the switcher will determine which of these four inputs is sent to the second computer to be sent to the GoToWebinar audience.
I started my test by running the PowerPoint and video from a 10-year old MacBook Pro computer. I have only a VGA dongle for this computer, so I used that for my output, then ran it through a cheap VGA to HDMI converter. After some experimentation, I found that setting the resolution on the computer to 1920x1080 worked the best. I was surprised this old computer had a setting that high.
The second computer is much newer and has only two USB-C connectors. This computer will be sending my program to the GoToWebinar.
The ATEM Mini has two outputs. An HDMI output you can connect to a video monitor, projector, etc. and a USB-C connector that outputs a webcam signal. I connected this USB output to my second computer using a USB-C to USB-C cable.
On the second computer, start up the GoToWebinar like usual, except you never share your screen. You only share your webcam, and in the GoTo webcam preferences you should see the Blackmagicdesigns listed as a webcam.
Now, anything that comes out of the ATEM Mini will be seen by GoTo as a webcam, and your GoTo audience will see full motion video of whatever you send through the switcher.
On the ATEM Mini you can easily switch between four inputs that can be computers, cameras, etc. You can do a hard cut between the inputs, create a short fade/dissolve between the inputs, or do any number of special transitions that you see only on sports programs. If you wish, audio can switch along with the video.
The first input on the ATEM Mini sets the resolution of the video output. The other three inputs will be scaled to match the first input. The optional software lets you set the output resolution independently of the actual source material.
I hooked up my first computer to input 1 and two cameras to inputs 2 and 3. (I have two video camcorders that have mini-HDMI outputs.) I then moved the computer to input 2, camera to input 1, and found it worked well either way.
Now I can run a PowerPoint on the first computer and can have videos embedded in the PowerPoint. The output of that computer goes through the ATEM Mini switcher and is seen by the second computer as a webcam, and seen by the GoTo audience as full-motion video.
This ATEM Mini switcher has a picture-in-picture mode where you can have the main image on the screen and a small image of a different input in one of the four corners. The default is the camera for the small image on input 1, with your computer on any of the other inputs. Unfortunately, the default size of the small image is too small, but the manual says this size can be adjusted in the software that I did not load.
There is a chroma-key feature, like how they do TV weather, but I did not try it. If the camera is on a person standing in front of a green wall, then it could look like they were standing in front of the image on your computer, or other video playback connected to the ATEM Mini. Someday I'll play with that feature.
The optional software will let you upload static images to your ATEM Mini, so that you can switch between the four live inputs or select a stored still image, like your company logo.
I was impressed with the video quality. While it is not exactly full motion video due to the limitations of the GoTo webcam feature, it is good enough for most folks, and night-and-day better from what you get just trying to run a video through GoToWebinar without this extra switcher.
And speaking of audio, the audio from the first computer can pass though the switcher or be switched at the switcher and output to the second computer and appear as the audio from your webcam. Thus, anything your play on the first computer, both audio and video, can be broadcast to the GoTo audience. The switcher will input audio from the four HDMI inputs as well as two additional audio inputs and send them to the second computer and on to the GoToWebinar. The optional software has an extensive array of audio filters to sweeten up the audio.
I then swapped the two computers, so now I have the newer computer playing the PowerPoint into the switcher and the older one running the GoToWebinar.
This required a USB-C to USB-A cable, since the new computer has USB-C input and the old computer has USB-A connectors. The ATEM Mini switcher has a USB-C connector as its output.
The new computer is set to output 1080p resolution and syncs to the switcher just fine. I run the GoToWebinar from the older computer and everything behaves just like the other way around.
I have been monitoring this GoToWebinar test through a desktop Mac computer logged in as an attendee. On both this computer as well as the recording of the webinar, I am quite happy with the results. The only limitation is the frame rate of the GoToWebinar webcam feature, which appears to be a little less than 29 frames per second, but probably won’t be noticed by most of the webinar audience. Maybe GoTo can up that rate in the future.
I think that most people who need to show videos or use better cameras in their GoToWebinars will be happy with the quality of the ATEM Mini. It allows you to up the quality of your webinars giving them a more professional look.
11 Feb Second Update - The desktop apps for GTT and GTM won't work with the ATEM unless you can find an "IT Professional" who can whitelist certain ports in Windows 10 systems to allow them to receive video for GTT and GTM. In other words, unless you want to screw with your registry files in hopes of making GTT or GTM work, you might want to investigate other web conference providers that just treat the ATEM Mini like a webcam. (It looks like Chris was using a Mac, so it looks like Macs don't have this problem)
11 Feb Update - this post was marked as an answer too soon. Got the ATEM Mini, and it works with everything EXCEPT GoToTraining and GoToMeeting. Support is telling me that the ATEM is "too professional" for GoToTraining and it only supports simple webcams. Still trying to make it work, but not looking good. This could be a deal breaker for GTT going forward.
ORIGINAL POST:
Thank you - this is really helpful. I ordered an ATEM Mini earlier this week and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. This device will do a lot to make my GoToTraining sessions a lot more professional. I've been frustrated a long time by the inability to zoom smoothly and control the focus of webcams, and now I can use a real camera to capture my video.
84 Replies
I too have had to modify my usual PPT presentations to remove the videos and upload them to the GoTo viewer. It's clunky changing from PPT to video and back again in GoTo, but it can be done.
My biggest frustration comes when I switch the GoTo presentation to a remote presenter who is showing PowerPoint, and then all of a sudden they are playing a video that I knew nothing about.
I now have to remember to ask a presenter if they are planning to show a video as part of their presentation. Sometimes I am just the GoTo Organizer and someone else has setup and coordinated the meeting. Video has become a normal way of communicating, folks do not understand why they can't use it when presenting a GoToWebinar.
Once I had a presenter who was playing an audio clip as part of their presentation. They asked the audience how the song related to the visual image on the screen, but since nobody heard the song, it became a bit of confusion for everyone. I had to field lots of questions from the Attendees about why they could not hear the music. That also makes it look like I don't know what I'm doing.
Zoom has a button to enable sharing computer audio.
AshC
Chris is correct. Surprisingly, GoTo isn't compatible with one of the most basic, common and widely used business tool...PowerPoint (PPT). My PPT presentations…text…animation…embedded video… is scripted, formatted and orchestrated to achieve a high degree of audience attention, maximize their participation and maximize their learning experience. Unfortunately, embedded videos in my PPT came across as to choppy and negated all of my hard work, effort and significantly reduced learning. I’m exceptional at putting a square peg into a round hole. I am painfully aware of the five video upload capability, but what do you do when your presentation has 15-20 videos? I got around that limitation because I decided to invest 7-8 hours (for all 10 of my presentations)
- Using video editing software that I had to learn on the fly, I combine 5-6 of my videos into one of their five video maximum limit. That was a lot of time and effort and...why only five?
- By combining 5-6 videos (i.e. topics) into one video, I'm now forcing my participants to “track” 5-6 different topics. When the video ends and there is post video discussion, there was always some confusion as to which of the 5-6 videos are we discussing
- Their uploaded video capability only offers play and stop, no rewind for a 2nd or 3rd review…what the hell?
- Their uploaded video capability caused me to jump between the PPT presentation and GoTo's video library. As a result, my presentations grew longer (not a good thing), I had to reduce content (not a good thing) to maintain time and participants learning experience was lowered (definitely not a good thing)
- The most ugliest of all…I had to spent 7-8 hours per presentation (times 10 presentations for a total of about 80 painful hours) to totally redo my presentation format/approach to fit an extremely untenable GoTo business solution
Now that my spring presentation window is over and my summer presentation window isn’t until late June, I’ve decided that GoTo’s business solution won’t work for my business and now is the time to look for a replacement. It’s not that I haven’t given GoTo an opportunity to meet my business needs, I’ve contacted them multiple times and generally get little to no response (arn't they in the business to provide business solutions). Seems my business isn’t that important to them. I can’t repeat what I just went through so I started searching for a replacement….first up is ZOOM. Have an account and started testing. So far, they seem to have a high quality PPT embedded video play capability. Will continue to explore. Hope to be back on track in a couple of months.
Thanks!
gmacnv
I think that what GMACNV is saying is that Zoom has a video playback feature that people have been requesting in GoTo for many years.
gmacnv We just need to be clear about the functionality you are discussing: We do not currently support the audio playback of an embedded or non-embedded video or audio file during a GoTo broadcast.
We do currently support the audio and video stream of pre-loaded video shorts that you may include with scheduled events in advance. You can add up to 5 videos per webinar broadcast right now, and we may expand upon these options in the future.
OK. The majority of my spring presentations are over, it was soooo painfull; now have to get ready for my summer presentations. I haven't heard from LogMeIn wrt LogMeIn solving my PowerPoint embedded video problems and the problems that were spawned from that. LogMwIn said there were working on a "fix" but I've heard anything, even after repeated requests. Time to move on. Checking out other Webinar business solution providers. First up...Zoom. Signed up for an account a few days ago. Started playing around with it and so far it seems like it might work. The biggie....my MAJOR PPT embedded video problem seems to be gone (Great!!). PPT embedded video seems to play well (video and audio). The video is smooth, not choppy.There is an about a one quarter to one half second delay between the presenter and the participant. That's not a big deal to me and is a great trade for improved video quality. Control panel is about the same as LOGMeIn and its intuative enough for an easy and acceptable transition. I thought LogMeIn's response to my problem was terrible and indicative of their lack of interest in keeping their small business Customer base.
GmacNV
OK. The majority of my spring presentations are over; now have to get ready for my summer presentations. I haven't heard from LogMeIn wrt LogMeIn solving my PowerPoint embedded video problems and the problems that were spawned from that. LogMwIn said there were working on a "fix" but I've heard nothing, even after repeated requests. Time to move on. Checking out other Webinar business solution providers. First up...Zoom. Signed up for an account a few days ago. Started playing around with it and so far it seems like it might work. The biggie....my MAJOR PPT embedded video problem seems to be gone (Great!!). PPT embedded video seems to play well (video and audio). The video is smooth, not choppy.There is an about a one quarter to one half second delay between the presenter and the participant. That's not a big deal to me and is a great trade for improved video quality. Control panel is about the same as LOGMeIn and its intuative enough for an easy and acceptable transition. I thought LogMeIn's response to my problem was terrible and indicative of their lack of interest in keeping their small business Customer base.
GmacNV
In all my forum research, the ATEM Mini will only work with GTW or GTM with a Mac, albeit a potentially cropped image.
Blackmagic says all they are doing is providing a signal and it is up to the software to accept that.
Every other service recognizes the ATEM Mini except GTW/GTM.
LogMeIn says it is too "Professional" and say you need to change some settings that most IT teams won't make.
AshC are there any plans for LogMeIn to update the software for GoToWebinar or GoToMeeting to accept what is becoming a wildy popular and powerful piece of equipment?
Please tell us this is in the works... maybe post-pandemic.No fix that I'm aware of. I had to change vendors. I'm not going to promote anyone specific, but every other vendor I tried worked effortlessly with the ATEM.
GoTo support told me I had to go to a professional networking specialist to make changes to Win10 registry files to make my system compatible with GoTo. Switching vendors was a lot easier and cheaper.
Same issue as above regarding the Mini not showing footage, only a spinning wheel as GTW tries to find the feed.
Any luck or updated software from GTW?Somone on that other discussion tried it on Windows and could not get the ATEM Mini to work with GoTo at all.
I'll look at the overscan issue sometime soon.
