Castaway Help

Castaway allows you to record streams from any USD classroom with a streaming microphone. It records the stream to your desktop, in a file named after the classroom and the time the recording started. You can drag that file anywhere, or upload it to the Podcast server.

There are five steps to using Castaway.

  1. Choose the correct classroom from the pull-down menu in the upper left.
  2. Press the red Record button on the left to start recording.
  3. Talk.
  4. Press the grey Stop button on the left to stop recording.
  5. Drag the file icon to where you want it to be.

For more information about podcasting, go to Podcasts and large files on the USD web development site.

  1. Choose the correct classroom

    The classroom menu contains all USD classrooms that have a streaming microphone. When you start the application, it automatically checks the network for new streaming microphones. As long as you’re on the network, you should always have an up-to-date list of microphones.

    If you didn’t have a network connection when you opened the application, or if you think a new classroom has just been added, you can choose the “Reload Classrooms” menu item under the “File” menu. This will completely reload the list of classrooms from our central server.

  2. Press the record button

    When you’re not currently recording, the record button will be red and say “Record”. After you press it, it will turn grey and say “Stop”.

  3. Talk

    You’ll need to talk into the microphone (or one of the microphones in some of the classrooms). As the recording grows, you’ll see the green bar at the bottom adjust itself to the rate of the recording, and you’ll see the podcast size grow.

    Note that the green bar is not the amplitude of what you’re saying, it’s the amount of what’s being recorded. That’s not optimal, but it does provide some feedback. We hope to figure out how to display a modulation bar instead, eventually.

  4. Press the stop button

    Once you’re done, press “Stop” to stop the recording. You’ll see the green bars stop moving and drop to nothing, and the podcast size will stop rising. If you look closely, you might also see the file icon turn from grey to solid.

  5. Save your file

    The easiest way to save your file is to drag the file icon to your flash drive, mounted volume, or upload form.

    You can also use the “Save As…” menu item under the “File” menu to save the file to anywhere on the computer. If you have recorded more than one podcast, and the others are still available, you’ll find them under the “Open Recent” submenu, and can save them that way.

    The files are also saved on your computer’s desktop. You can drag them from the desktop as desired. The files are named with the name of the classroom, the date, and the time the recording was started. If you move them or rename them, as long as they’re still available on the system you’ll be able to access them from the “Open Recent” menu.

    The files are mp3 files.