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[Equipment | Basic instructions ]


**These instructions provide the basic steps necessary to setup the equipment to run a study. Not all steps and choices are detailed in this document.

User Room

  • Turn on the stations you want to use.
  • If you are using a laptop computer, you will need to connect a recording VGA cable from one of the stations to the laptop. There are five of these cables in the room, one at each station. Also, you must set the laptop to projector mode (e.g. Fn + F7).
  • Set up the tripod cameras your are planning to use

Control Room

  • Turn on the Rack located under the desk.
  • Turn on the OVO Computer and monitors.

Configuring the Rack

There are two parts to configuring the rack, the video capture sources and the screen recording sources. This process involves mapping the sources (stations and cameras) to their outputs (monitors and "recording sources"). First, determine how many cameras you want to use and how many screens you will record.

  1. For each video camera you want to use, it should be mapped to a monitor in the control room, as well as to a "recording source".
    • On the rack, in the video rec. section, press the button for the monitor you want to use for the first camera (e.g. M1). Then select the camera you are using (e.g W1 for wall camera 1).
    • Next, select the "recording source" you want to use (e.g R1) and select the same camera (e.g W1).
    • Repeat this process for each of the other cameras.
    • See also "Configuring Monitors" for more information
  2. For each of the screen recording sources you want to use, it should also be mapped to a monitor and a "recording source".
    • On the rack, in the screen rec. section, press the button for the monitor you want to use (e.g. M2), then select the station you want to record from (e.g. S1). For the stations, the lights will glow green if a signal is being received by the rack.
    • Next, select the recording source you want (e.g. R2) and select the same computer (e.g. S1). Note, the R buttons used for screen mapping do not conflict with those used for video mapping. Hence, it is ok to use the same numbers.

Configuring the OVO Computer

  1. Once the OVO Computer is on, start the OVO Logger 6.0 software.
  2. Create or open a project. (Location: My Documents/usability lab studies/)
  3. Select >Tools > Configure Video/Screen Capture Sources.
  4. Add the appropriate video and screen captures sources. (How many cameras do you want to use? How many screens do you want to record? - There is a maximum of four sources, with at most two being used for screen recording.)
  5. For each source, set the type of capture (e.g. “Camera, scan converter, or webcam”) and encoding profile. For screen recording, ensure that the resolution of the computer you are going to record matches the encoding profile. Additional profiles can be created, if the resolution required is not present.
    • Video recording standard: Video_Input*_320x240.wme
    • Screen recording standard: VGA_1024x768_Input 1.wme
  6. Preview each of the sources.

Configuring the Monitors

  1. The monitors in the control room need to be set to VGA to display screen capture sources, and to Composite to display camera sources. To do this, use the left-most button on the monitor front panel (button shows a screen with an arrow icon). Note that if the monitor is currently set to VGA, the monitor must be mapped to a computer using the rack controls, as explained above, before you can switch modes.

Adjusting the Video Cameras

  1. In the OVO Logger menu, select Window > Lab Hardware Controls
  2. Wait patiently for control window to appear.
  3. In the lower dialog pane, select the wall camera you want to adjust.
  4. Use the arrows and zooming button to position the camera appropriately.
  5. The window can be left open to allow for adjustments during session recording. Note: cameras make noise as they move, which can distract study participants.
  6. Note 2: Tripod cameras can only be adjusted manually.

Preparing to Record

You may want to configure the User IDs, Task IDs, etc. Once you are ready, you can begin recording.

Questions?

Please contact the Usability Lab Support person in ECS 542 Maleh Hernandez (maleh2 at uvic (dot) ca) or Phil Gunther at phil@ovostudios.com.

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