Tech Tips For Therapists

Voice Recording of Sessions
How to use the Zoom mic
Preparing Videos to Send
Downloading Video
Concerns and Answers for using Adobe

Voice Recording of Sessions:

Question: Using the Zi8, which you recommend, it seems the built-in microphone doesn’t pick up well enough (particularly my voice when I’m soft, slow, and low). I’ve tried a couple of external mics (Audio-technica models). One didn’t improve the sound at all, the other led to NO sound! I’m either doing something wrong or have a bad mic. The Kodak people online  were of no help. Any ideas?

Answer:  I have the zi8 and I go in to the camera and set the volume to high each time I turn on the camera.  If I do that it picks up just fine even if I speak softly.  Each time the camera is turned off it resets to the mid range, so remember to turn it up to high each time or it won’t pick up the voices well enough.

I also recommend the Zoom mic. It’s pricey, and worth it.  See my product recommendation page for purchase.

How to use the Zoom mic:

1.     Connect one end of the stereo cable into the “microphone” hole on the camera.

2.     Connect the other end of the stereo cable into the “phones/line out” hole on the microphone.

3.     Make sure the microphone has fresh batteries (I never use the A/C power cord for the microphone – batteries last a while).

4.     Power on the microphone

5.     Set the “mic gain” switch to “High” on the microphone (this adjusts the microphone sensitivity)

6.     To activate the microphone, press the red “record” button in the center of the microphone.  The red light under “play/rec” should now be blinking. If you pushed it too many times and it goes solid red, press the “Play/pause” button to start over.

7.     Power on your camera and begin recording video.

Preparing videos to send for supervision:

Question: The process of preparing the videos to send to my supervisor is long
(several hours) and sometimes doesn’t work. I’m not sure whether I’m doing
that correctly, and somehow it seems like it shouldn’t be this hard or
lengthy. Can others share with me how they do that and how long it takes?

Answer:  I used to use pando and then switched to “you send it” which seems to download faster and easier.  The other option I find much easier is to upload the session to icloud (an apple product which used to be mobileme).  I can upload quickly and set a password so my supervisor can watch.

Downloading Video without taking up too much space:

Question:  I download the videos to my laptop in order to get them ready to send,
and they take up enormous space.  This makes it hard to download more,
because I get the prompt that I’m out of space. Any great solutions to that
problem?

Answer:  I use a separate hard drive (they are relatively cheap) and I download my session onto my hard drive and plug that into my computer.  That way it doesn’t take up space on my computer.  It also makes it really easy to organize the sessions.

Thanks to Jean Shirkoff for providing much of this Q/A

Online Meetings with Becca in Adobe

Trouble Shooting

Concern:

I’m having trouble viewing the video. I can hear everything in the meeting room, until the video starts playing, then I just hear choppy pieces and only see a bit of the video   every few seconds, and it seems I’m lagging behind the tape discussion.

I’m missing a lot of the meeting when the video plays.

Answer:

1. Ensure your flash player is the most recent version.
2. Close down the window and reopen it. Make you you allow the add on to be installed.
3. Use an Ethernet cable (hard wire), not WiFi (wireless).
4. Have your internet upgraded to a faster speed.  (do the speed check as recommended above)
5. Call adobe support at the number below for your area:

Trouble connecting, need assistance during a meeting? Call our expert In-Meeting team.