Recording meeting disscusion

[Guido06]

Situation:

- Department meeting around a table (~10'x15')
- 10-15 staff members,
- Need record of meeting

The discussion is largely technical, so in order to help out a new secretary, it would be nice to have a digital recording for them to listen to.

I envisioned using a laptop and hooking up what is essentially a microphone, though I am concerned about whether a regular microphone can give a good recording if people are sitting ~10' away from it.

Concerns:

1) Clarity : the microphone would be in the middle of the table, how would it handle picking up members talking from across the table?

2) Ease of use: are there any recommended programs for this sort of thing, or will windows sound recorder suffice. The easier the better as the secretary needs easy access.

3) Transcription: while it is not required, I have seen products that offer personal transcription services. With a laptop, it would be easy enough to use a program, if one exists. However, are there any programs designed with a transcription capability for multiple people at a time.

I can also consider standalone devices. I have looked at personal recorders, but as I said above, I am not sure how useful they would be in a meeting to record the entire room.

Any help or input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Jiggz]

If this is my project I will start with a DVD Cam recorder. The one that records directly to DVD. The transcriptionist can watch the thing on her computer or other DVD player while transcribing all the dialogues into a keyboard. By seeing who is talking he/she annotate who is speaking or dialoguing. To make it easier, burn two or three copies of the DVD and divide the load between two or three transcribers. Divide it by time measure, e.g. 1st transcriber will do the first 20 minutes, the 2nd with the 2nd 20 minutes and so forth. Then cut and paste the transcribed dialogues and "kaboom" you have a completed transcription of the meeting in electronic copy. Now email it to all and you're done. With just a mic and a recorder, it will be hard for the transcribers to tell who is who when you play the recording back. Unless, of course they are also in the meeting. But even then it's still hard.