Lockers & Study Rooms

What is the Presentation Practice Room?

• The PPR is a space designed for practicing presentations that utilizes The One Button Studio app from Penn State. One Button is a simplified video recording setup that can be used without any previous video production experience. You only need to bring your flash drive with you and push a single button.

How do I access the Presentation Practice Room?

• The Presentation Practice Room is located on the second floor of the library near the Media stacks.
• To reserve the Presentation Practice Room, please use this form.
  • Reservations require a minimum of 8 hours advanced notice.
  • This space can be reserved via the Library Kiosks (select "Specialty Rooms" as the location).
• For more information about Study Rooms please visit, http://lib.guides.umbc.edu/c.php?g=24914&p=151749.

Who do I report problems to?

• Problems with the room should be reported to the Circulation staff and/or a ticket should be submitted to Library IT.

How do I contact Library IT Staff?

• To contact Library IT staff you can:
  • Call: 410-455-3040 or
  • Submit a ticket: https://rt.umbc.edu/SelfService/Create.html?Queue=1132  or
  • Speak to someone at the Check Out Desk

Can I reposition the camera?

• The camera is positioned to capture the front of the room including the podium and TV. If the camera is not correctly positioned, please let the circulation staff know about it and/or put in a ticket with Library IT.

Can the room be used for other performances?

• The Presentation Practice room is intended for practicing and recording speech. This could include presentations, speeches, stories, dialogs, etc. It is not intended for musical performances or dance.

Can I check out recording equipment to use elsewhere?

• The Digital Media Lab has audio and video recording equipment available for checkout. You can find more information about that here: https://library.umbc.edu/media/dml.php

Are there other recording spaces in the library?

• Yes. For doing more sophisticated video projects, you should try the Library’s Digital Media Lab. The Digital Media Lab provides all UMBC students, faculty and staff with tools to create and edit new and re-use existing audio, video and graphic design objects. For more information about the DML and their hours, check here: https://library.umbc.edu/media/dml.php

Presentation Materials

If you have a slide show or other visual material that you would like to have in the background of your presentation, open that material on the computer at the front of the room. If you only have one USB drive, copy the presentation material to the computer at the front of the room first.

To turn on the TV, the power button is on the right side of the screen at the bottom. The image from the iMac should be displayed there automatically once both are on.

Recording

To begin recording a presentation, plug a USB drive into the USB hub at the back of the room.

The screen should change to a display of the camera output.

When you are ready to begin recording press the button. You will receive a 5 second count down before the recording begins.

While recording your presentation, the display at the back of the room will have significant lag but don't worry, this will not be in the recording. 

When you are ready to end your recording press the button again. Finalizing the recording will take a few seconds. The screen will notify you when the recording has been completed and it is safe to unplug your USB drive.

Viewing/Editing

If you wish to view your recording, you can open it on the computer at the front of the room or elsewhere. The output format is mp4, and filenames will begin with "obs_recorded_"

Contacting Library IT Staff

• To contact Library IT staff you can:
  • Call: 410-455-3040 or
  • Submit a ticket: https://rt.umbc.edu/SelfService/Create.html?Queue=1132  or
  • Speak to someone at the Circulation Desk (where you got the key to the room!)

If the One Button Studio application closes unexpectedly:

• Close any pop ups that have appeared and click on the One Button icon on the desktop. A pop up will say "Please open the Volumes folder". Make sure that Volumes* is highlighted and click Open. Next click the arrows in the top right corner of the blue box. One Button should now be ready for students to use.

*If you do not see Volumes, try clicking on the drop down in the top center of the popup - it should be under Recent. If you cannot find Volumes, please let library IT staff know.

If the recording computer is off:

• The computer is mounted underneath the back left corner of the table. The power button is at that corner. After powering on, the One Button app should start automatically. Follow the instructions above beginning with "Please open the Volumes folder".
• If this does not resolve the problem, please let library IT staff know.

If the button is not working:

• If there is no blue light from the button or it is otherwise not working, try unplugging it from the white usb hub and replugging it. If this does not fix the problem, try restarting the computer (the mouse is hidden behind the monitor). If this does not fix the problem, please let library IT staff know.

If the clicker is not working:

• If the clicker (the small remote on the podium for advancing slideshows) is not working, try unplugging the dongle plugged into the keyboard and replugging it. If the dongle is missing, let Library IT staff know. Please don’t steal the dongle or the clicker!