The Visual Lounge lets you find out about TechSmith behind-the-scenes. Watch screencasts and videos from other customers, meet up with your fellow TechSmith users and staff, and get more tips and tricks!

If you're like me, when researching and learning about a new product, I like the combination of seeing the product in action (videos and screencasts) plus some write-ups and reviews to understand it. Sometimes if I'm really lucky, I can get a live demo of the product at a tradeshow or other event.

If you learn like I do, you're in luck. I just got word from the Camtasia Relay team that they're doing live webinars weekly. So, if you would like to see the product in action or have questions for the team, you can attend one live. Details are here. There is one webinar for Presenters and a separate one for Administrators.

I hope you're able to attend! Do you find webinars useful? If so, would you like to see them for our other products?

Call me a nerd, but I love trying and testing new software! I love being able to give feedback and help shape the new product. And, you will never hear me complain about getting an early look at the new software!

With that in mind, I need your help! Help us beta Camtasia Relay. We need 25 committed volunteers to start (we may open it up to more). We do have some special requirements for this beta test. We would need you to have a server at your site. The beta period will consist of conference calls in February and testing in March and April.

Requirements for the beta:
• Test the product for a minimum of 5 to 10 hours a week.
• Install the product within 48 hours of receiving it.
• Complete provided test cases within one (1) week after each beta release is installed.
• Promptly report on defects found during beta testing.
• Regress defects found with product refresh code.
• Participate in conference calls, as scheduled.
• Answer survey questions, as needed.
• Periodically report feedback to development on reliability, stability, and readiness of product for the marketplace.
• Provide feedback regarding product documentation and help systems.
• Participate in the TechSmith Beta Test Program under a formal Non-Disclosure Agreement.
• Provide the required hardware to adequately test the product in a test environment.

Benefits to the beta sites:
• Early access to product code.
• Involvement in development cycle, which includes the ability to influence the final code and submit enhancement requests prior to release.
• Free technical support throughout the duration of the beta test period.
• More stable code due to multiple individuals testing in many environments.
• One-on-one contact with the Development team, Product Management, Marketing, etc., through weekly conference calls.
• Relationship-building opportunities with other beta sites around the world.
• Improved documentation.

It will be painless, I promise. :-) Beta testing sound good to you? If so, please fill out this survey here. The Camtasia Relay Team will review your submission quickly and let you know if you have been accepted. Big thanks! We appreciate it!

Would you like to learn more about Camtasia Relay and see it in action? If you're in London at the end of February, sign up for a Camtasia Relay Boot Camp hosted by Stewart Milton of BlueOrange.

During the boot camp, you'll learn how Relay automates everything and makes it easy to capture and share your knowledge with your colleagues, clients or students.

All attendees receive:

• Free tuition and 30-day Relay trial software.
• Unique opportunity to try Relay at the first UK event to celebrate its launch.
• Personal advice and help from Stewart Milton, Techsmith expert and Business School mentor.
• Opportunity to learn how screen video capture enhances eLearning in a relaxed and fun environment

And, I'm sure Stewart won't make you run laps or do push-ups in this boot camp! Find out more info and sign up here.

I'm happy to share with you that we have a new product in the Camtasia family - Camtasia Relay 1.0 is here!

What is this Camtasia Relay thing? Well, it is an easy and streamlined way for anyone at your organization to record lectures, presentations and meetings. As a presenter, you can walk into the room, select your profile settings and everything from the recording to the formats the recording is produced into to the location where you will publish your files is predetermined. When you're done with your presentation, no need to hang out while your video produces or make technical decisions. You can just leave the room and a central server does all the work for you by automatically processing and publishing your video. Easy, right?

Top features include

• Easy recording on Mac or PC - Yep, you heard me right. Recording on the Mac or PC.
  
• Automatic processing and publishing handled by the server - Predetermined profile settings automate everything from the recording settings, to the formats the recording is produced into, to the destinations where produced files are published.

• Multiple file formats - Produce your recordings in Flash and iPod video (MP4), audio (MP3), Camtasia Studio (CAMREC), Windows Media (WMV), along with others... Plus, you will have the ability to produce one recording into any or all of the formats above.

So, are you wondering how does Camtasia Relay differ from Camtasia Studio? Basically, Camtasia Studio is for individuals who typically edit their recordings and choose how to produce the video and where it should go. Camtasia Relay, on the other hand, is for teams and organizations to do recording. Typically the recording would not need to be edited (note: you can edit your Camtasia Relay content using Camtasia Studio), and production and publishing are handled automatically by a central server.

Here are some additional resources for you to learn more about Camtasia Relay

• Comparison chart: See Camtasia Studio vs Camtasia Relay side by side here.

• Product Tour: Check out our product tour for all that Camtasia Relay has to offer.

• Newsletter: If you'd like ongoing information about Camtasia Relay, you can sign up for the Camtasia Newsletter.

• Licensing: Affordable and flexible licensing - No monthly, annual or per-seat fees. Camtasia Relay can grow with you. As the number of recordings your organization creates increases...so can your server capacity. You can easily upgrade to the next level at any time.

So, how are we using it at TechSmith? We have a mandatory Monday Morning Meeting every week at 8am. In this meeting, we go over company news, product information, new hires and other information that all staff needs to know. And, we've even had marriage proposals in our Monday Morning Meetings! They are not to be missed. But I am often on the road so I end up missing a lot of the meetings. Consequently, I'm often out of the loop. But, we've been eating our own dogfood at TechSmith and and have been using Camtasia Relay to record our Monday Morning Meetings. Now I just subscribe to our feed and I can see what happened at the meeting regardless of where I am in the world! It has been invaluable!

I hope you'll give Camtasia Relay a try and please feel free to share your feedback and input in comments on the blog or via the formal feedback form here.

Hey Blog Readers... I've got some insider news just for you! We've been working hard on a new product called Camtasia Relay. And, it's finally ready for beta testing.

So, what is Camtasia Relay? It is lecture and presentation capture for the masses - perfect for businesses and academia. Say you are a professor and you want to capture and share your lecture. Camtasia Relay makes it easy for you to do this - there is a simple recorder that's easy to use (see pic on the left). Step in the classroom or the boardroom, tell Camtasia Relay to record and deliver your presentation. After you're done recording, Camtasia Relay does all the work for you. You can automatically produce the recording into different formats, name the files and copy the files to different servers. There is an automated distribution system to share your recorded presentations easily.

This is TechSmith's first server-side offering. And, no new hardware is required - Camtasia Relay runs securely on your existing networks, Windows servers, PCs and Macs. The Camtasia Relay recorder runs on the local machine. It records full motion video so you capture exactly what happens during a lecture or presentation.

We've been eating our own dogfood and using Camtasia Relay internally at TechSmith. We've always had a mandatory Monday Morning Meeting for all staff at TechSmith. That's our time to get up to speed on company wide news and events. We've been using Camtasia Relay internally to record the Monday Morning Meeting. That way everyone knows what happened in the meeting. This is perfect for me as I often miss the meeting if I'm traveling. I no longer have to be out of the loop on any news or company wide discussions.

We're having a public beta. Sign-up starts today for 100 qualified people (you must have your own server). You can apply for the beta test here.

You can find more information about Camtaisa Relay here. And, you can watch an intro video and see Camtasia Relay in action here.

Rich Boys, the Product Manager for Camtasia Relay, sat down with me last week to explain what Camtasia Relay is, who it is for and how you can get in on the beta. The video runs about 3 minutes long.

Materials used to create this video:

* Sanyo Xacti HD1000 Camcorder
* Dell Latitude D820
* QuickTime Pro
* Camtasia Studio
* Screencast.com for hosting

Stay tuned - we'll be doing regular screencasts and videos about Camtasia Relay!