EchoSystem 5.5 Welcome and FAQs

In this section:

Welcome to EchoSystem 5.5!

Thank you for purchasing and using the EchoSystem for your blended learning and lecture capture needs. We take pride in our product and look forward to improving your institution's learning mission. As part of providing world-class support, we host our manuals here online. There are two ways to find the page you're looking for:

  • Browse the Table of Contents, shown in the left pane of the window. Click the plus sign to the left of a topic to show any sub-topics;
  • Use the Search Box located at the top of the Table of Contents. Enter a term or phrase to search the content of all pages in this documentation space.

You'll find our FAQs for this release below. Not every question we hear is addressed, but the more common ones are.

As a customer, you can consult the Technical Support KB (Knowledge Base) for articles on common support issues.

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Finally, we've also provided convenient downloadable versions of this online documentation. See Printable Version of the Documentation Set.

Technical Support

Echo360 Customer Support is always willing to help and it's easy to contact us:

  • Review and manage your cases.
  • Download the current version of the ESS, patches, and other files.

Support hours differ by region but always exclude Echo360 holidays:

  • North America, South America, Europe: Monday – Friday, 8 AM to  8 PM Eastern Time (ET)

  • England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland: Monday – Friday, 9 AM to 5 pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

  • Australia, New Zealand, Asia: Monday – Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM Western Standard Time (WST)

Frequently Asked Questions

I just got my new appliance. How do I get it ready to capture lectures?

Congratulations on your new appliance! Getting it ready to capture involves these phases:

  1. Get the capture device ready
  2. Get the EchoSystem Server (ESS) ready
  3. Schedule the capture

You may also want to add publishers.

Get the Capture Device Ready

  1. Set up the appliance/device in the venue (typically a classroom, auditorium, or lecture hall).
  2. Configure the appliance.
  3. Add the device to a licensed venue/room.
    1. If the room is not in the system, add the room.
    2. If the room is not licensed, license the room. You can skip this step if you have a site license.
    3. Assign the device to the room.

Get the EchoSystem Server (ESS) Ready

Now the device is ready to record either scheduled lectures or "Ad Hoc" (impromptu) lectures. But we need to make sure the EchoSystem Server (the ESS) is set up and ready.

  1. Make sure that the ESS has Academic Staff members that can do recordings. If not, add users.

  2. Make sure that the ESS has terms, courses, and sections. If not, add them.

Schedule the Capture

Almost there. Now your device is configured and ready to record and the ESS knows the terms, courses, and sections. The final step is to schedule a recording for a specific term, course, and section.

You can schedule a new course in five steps. Once you become familiar with the process and the ESS user interface, this will take you less than five minutes.

  1. If the term does not exist, then add the term.
  2. If the course does not exist, then add the course.
  3. If the section (which is the actual time and date of the lecture), does not exist, then add the section.
  4. Add the draft schedule.
  5. Activate the draft schedule.

Remember to activate draft schedules so your classes will be captured automatically. Draft schedules will not be recorded.

You're good to go and your section will be recorded per your specifications.

One last thing: You might also want to review the publishers we support. Publishing is how the EchoSystem Software announces (via emails, RSS, and learning management systems) the URLs and links to processed content. For a complete list of publishers, please see Publishing.

We strongly recommend setting up the Email and Search indexing publishers. The Email publisher will automatically send emails to the presenter/lecturer when the materials have been processed. The Search indexing publisher allows students to search the text of lecture presentations within the player, a very useful feature.

I am on an older version of EchoSystem Software. How do I upgrade to the newest release?

Congratulations! It is a good idea to upgrade to the current release so you can take advantage of new features and fixed bugs.

Follow the instructions for upgrading to EchoSystem 5. We also highly recommend that you review all of our Release Notes.

What cameras or microphones can I use with EchoSystem?

We have developed a consolidated list of the devices that are compatible with the EchoSystem, including cameras and microphones for use with the SCHD in a classroom, with our Classroom Capture software, and for use by instructors with our Personal Capture software. This list is constantly being reviewed and updated as we and our customers, continue to work with and test new devices.

See our Supported Cameras and Input Devices.

How do I publish to Blackboard?

Blackboard is the most popular of the many publishers Echo360 supports. We support LTI-based publishing in Blackboard.

LTI-based publishing. EchoSystem LTI (Learning Tool Interoperability) allows you to integrate the EchoSystem with a learning management system (LMS). Basic LTI communication consists of a content provider (EchoSystem) and a content consumer (the LMS). You can use LTI-Based publishing if you have Blackboard, version 9.1, Service Pack 9 or higher. For more information on this configuration, please see Blackboard LTI.

How do I publish RSS Feeds?

Follow the instructions for RSS Feeds.

How do I publish to Moodle?

As with Blackboard, we support LTI-based publishing. For more information, please see Moodle LTI.

LTI publishing. EchoSystem LTI (Learning Tool Interoperability) allows you to integrate the EchoSystem with a learning management system (LMS). Basic LTI communication consists of a content provider (EchoSystem) and a content consumer (the LMS). You can use LTI-Based publishing if you have Moodle version 2.7 or higher.

How do I configure LDAP?

We won't tell you otherwise: Configuring LDAP is one of the most complicated processes commonly attempted. However, we have heard from our customers that this is the top priority item for new installations. LDAP provides access to advanced features, including student usage analytics (who's watching what) for faculty.

Follow these tips:

  • Allow plenty of time for the process.
  • Gain a general understanding of the process first. Read through the instructions for LDAP Authentication before you begin. Do not skip the overview.

  • Follow the best practice below.

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Why can't I delete this email notifier?

We know it's frustrating, but if the email notifier has sent an alert (even just once) it cannot be deleted.

See Delete Email Notifiers for details.