Bringing online lessons to life with Canon livestreaming cameras

The world of education is changing. Lessons and seminars that used to take place in physical classrooms are now also being broadcast to computers around the world.

The practical challenges of teaching remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic only accelerated that transformation. For educators, the ability to livestream content changed from a nice-to-have to a must-have almost overnight.

Colleges and universities quickly got to grips with the new technologies, though, and the expectation now is that livestreamed events should be controlled and polished. Students are beginning to appreciate the benefits of this way of learning too, not least the chance to be taught by educators on the other side of the world.

A rudimentary setup, Tania explains, involves filming a lecture from three angles – typically, a camera to either side and one straight on, all set to 25fps (frames per second). One of the main aims is to isolate the speaker from the background and prepare close-ups. "The sound can go into the cameras directly through a 3.5mm jack or an XLR, but often when I present, other people record the sound separately."

Lighting is also a key consideration. "Is the viewer's attention being drawn to where you want it to be?" asks Tania. "That can mean avoiding distracting backgrounds or zooming in a bit. You can also help draw attention by turning off the room lights and having just a few lights on the person who is speaking."

After considering backgrounds and sound, you can make more detailed preparations. Canon's PTZ cameras, such as the CR-N500, CR-N350 and CR-N300, can be controlled using pre-set angles that can be defined in advance and prompted while the presentation is ongoing. With a little preparatory work, up to 100 angles can be pre-set for each camera.

"Find a shot where you or the lecturer will be speaking and assign it a number, then pan the camera around to another position – you might zoom in a bit – and assign that shot a different number," Tania explains.

Investing time in creating a series of presets can create a polished demonstration that will maintain viewer interest. "It's a huge benefit from a tiny amount of learning," she says. "Educators ought to be able to control a camera sufficiently so their learners see what they want them to see. In exchange, the educator gets a record of what they've done. It's a worthwhile cost-benefit in terms of time."

Canon's free PTZ software controller enables you to operate up to 20 Canon PTZ cameras from your PC or Windows tablet, nine of which can be shown as a live preview at any one time on the user interface.

To complete the setup, Tania recommends a trial run. "If you can, do it a few minutes before – if you do it the day before, something will have changed."

With cameras in place, presets ready and the right lighting, what influence will a large sensor or a reliable autofocus have? "If you're zoomed in with a Canon PTZ camera, it's easy to get a shallow depth of field, so the subject is in focus but the background isn't,” Tania explains. "And when the light levels in the lecture hall or theatre have been dimmed, these cameras work particularly well."

Canon Europe Product Marketing Specialist Jack Adair says this feature is one on which Canon prides itself. "Our PTZ cameras have very good image quality, especially in low-light conditions, which is due to our sensors."

The Canon CR-N500 features a 1.0-type 4K UHD sensor paired with a DIGIC DV6 processor to deliver 4K UHD/30p image quality as well as upscaled Full HD/60p images. The CR-N350 has a 1/2.3-type CMOS sensor and a powerful, next-generation DIGIC DV7 processor, the same image processing engine as Canon's top-of-the-line CR-N700, delivering detailed 4K UHD/60p via HDMI¹. And to ensure the image remains in focus, Canon's remote cameras rely on autofocus (AF) systems that are as dependable as they are fast.

"For high-end autofocusing, Canon developed Dual Pixel CMOS AF, which is industry renowned for being very sharp and very fast," Jack explains. “You'll find this system on the CR-N700 and CR-N500. There is also a hybrid AF system in the Canon CR-N300.

"The CR-N350 features enhanced Hybrid AF/iTR AF X/Eye AF auto tracking with head detection, which will follow presenters automatically even when they turn away and the face isn't visible. Combined with a new pan/tilt mechanism that enables smoother movement particularly at low speed, this ensures polished, professional results even in poor lighting conditions.

"When you're using these cameras remotely and you want to recompose the image, having a reliable AF system is crucial."

"One thing people usually experience is losing focus, especially if you're using a shallower depth of field," says Tania. "But that's just not a thing with the Canon cameras. The autofocus capabilities of these cameras are just so good."

Jack also highlights the benefits of an extended zoom range for filming in an educational setting. "A good zoom range comes into its own when your cameras are positioned at the back of a large lecture theatre or hall," he says. Isolating the speaker from so far back requires a flexible range, and the CR-N500 offers a 35mm equivalent focal length range of 25.5–382.5mm, the CR-N300 29.3–601mm, and the CR-N350 approximately 30.0–616mm.

Elsewhere in Canon's professional camcorder range, the 4K UHD 1.0-type CMOS sensor in the Canon XA75/XA70 camcorder is partnered with a 15x zoom lens, while the 1/2.3-type CMOS sensor in the Canon XA65/XA60 comes with a high-quality 20x zoom. "The Canon XA75/XA70 and the CR-N500 both have 15x optical zooms," says Jack. "The Canon XA65/XA60, the CR-N300 and the CR-N350 actually have longer zooms because they feature slightly smaller cropped sensors."

While the Canon XA75/XA70 and Canon XA65/XA60 have their DNA firmly in the world of video capture, they have been developed with livestreaming opportunities very much in mind.

While livestreaming might initially seem daunting for some, it also offers a host of possibilities. "When we livestream, we record simultaneously in 4K using an external recorder," says Tania, "That means you can livestream in HD or lower resolution if the bandwidths aren't good enough, and also record in 4K so the material can be edited after the event.

"In my experience, you tend to output in HD in education and very rarely in 4K. But if you want to create a glossy version – effectively a brochure for the university or the educational institution – you can use the 4K footage."

For cameras designed with livestreaming in mind, innovations such as USB-C outputs and OSD recording have further simplified the process. But this is just skimming the surface. The principle of making things simple continues with support for a wide range of control and streaming protocols, including RTMP/RTMPS, NDI|HX², RTP/RTSP, SRT, FreeD and Canon XC protocol, which are provided with each Canon camera. "All of our protocols are included free of charge out of the box as standard," Jack adds.

This package of protocols – the technical processes that facilitate the transfer of video files – also influences how Canon's cameras integrate with other systems. "We include standard protocol, which is what a lot of people use,” Jack explains. "That means Canon cameras can fit into third-party systems, so if a university already has an existing non-Canon system but requires new cameras, it can integrate Canon cameras into its workflow. That workflow element is very important."

With high-quality images, extended zoom ranges and the latest innovations and protocols as standard, Canon's livestreaming cameras are at the forefront of education's venture into a brave new world. It is a venture that could shape the sector for years to come. "Institutions, as well as educators, need to get up to speed on this," Tania concludes. "The institutions of the future, the ones that survive, will be the early adopters of this kind of technology."