About the Part 1 (2020) category

Part 1 (2020)
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why not to create them here on the open part of fastai forums?

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Yes but where? @jeremy, if you think that is possible, could you tell us where. If not, I would understand as the course is not officialy online.

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I can’t see a way to do it here.

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Do you think it will work well to stream video as a screen share via Zoom?

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Hi @pierreguillou, Zoom is a pretty simple & intuitive video conferencing app. All you need to do is download the Desktop application, start a meeting and share the link with participants. It support screen share and live chat, so it’s quite well suited for study groups. Give it a a shot, and let me know if you face any issues during setup, I’d be happy to assist. :slight_smile:

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I’m hoping it should work out fine with a fast internet connection. I will share my experience here after the event (later today).

https://forums.fast.ai/t/bengaluru-india-watch-party-virtual-study-group/65327

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@aakashns I’ll look forward to your update since I’d like to use a similar method for our study group to go virtual.

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Hi @pierreguillou please let me know if you find a Discourse platform we could use for the TWiML Study Group

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Hi @pierreguillou I streamed the live video to our TWiML Study Group over Zoom quite successfully. I monitored the Zoom chat for comments about sound and video quality and there were no problems or complaints. I recorded the meeting on the cloud, so that we can re-stream the video tomorrow night (Jeremy allows re-streaming within 1 or 2 days).

A Note on Sharing: Jeremy has said that we can share the livestream to our study group (but not give out the link to the livestream) , and we can restream to our study group a day or two after the livestream.

Here are some tips for streaming over Zoom:

  • Under Settings: Recording you can set Zoom to record the video to your local machine
  • The paid version also has option to record to the Cloud
  • On Zoom Advanced Sharing Options, set "Who can share" to "Only Host"
  • Turn up the volume
  • Maximize your screen
  • Under the More... tab on the bar with the green Share button: check the boxes for share computer sound and optimize share for full screen videoclip
  • Make sure the navigation bar with the URL is hidden from viewers (else they could provide the link to unauthorized persons)
  • Monitor the chat for complaints about sound/video quality
  • If there are problems with the audio, try changing the options on the Settings:Audio menu: Suppress Persistent Background Noise, Suppress Intermittent Background Noise, Echo cancellation (these controls may be available only in paid version)
  • Controls that are available to you can be found in the Settings:Meetings tab
  • In the Settings: Recording tab, check that Local recording is selected, but if you are re-streaming Jeremy’s lesson to an audience that includes “uninvited” folks, be sure to uncheck the box Hosts can give participants the permission to record locally
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Hi @Jess, we conducted the re-streaming session over Zoom yesterday, and it went perfectly. There were no major issues. We simply started a Zoom webinar (normal video call should also work), and played the YouTube video on full screen on the host laptop.

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@aakashns That’s great news! I’ll use Zoom for the re-streaming then, too.

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@jcatanza What’s the TWiML Study Group schedule? I saw the poll, but not the selected date/time. Maybe I missed it posted here… thanks for the Zoom tips, especially about hiding the URL and audio settings.

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Hi @Jess the study group times are Sundays 8-930AM.

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@jcatanza I must have misunderstood- I thought you streamed it to the study group already. But, you probably meant last night “in real time”.

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Yes. We will re-stream tomorrow night 6:30PM - 9:00PM PST.

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Hi @jcatanza and @aakashns.

Thanks for you messages.
I would like to use Zoom both for recording video on my own and for live class as well.

For theses 2 cases, I would like to:

  1. put my face in the right corner like Jeremy
  2. share my screen
  3. be able to write my own comments on the videos (like putting a link) during the recording or after
  4. authorize or not writing chat during the recording
  5. authorize or not video chat during the recording
  6. put the video on youtube at the end

Do you have any howto guide about that? Thanks.

Note: I am looking for free solutions. I think the most important thing for me so far is to record videos like those of Jeremy and upload them after (or at the same time) on Youtube. Not sure if I need Zoom for that, but an online video editing tool, right? (I have a logitech camera: can that help?)

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Hi @pierreguillou

Not sure if you’re already aware of this, so please do not take offense: please note that under the permissions offered by Jeremy, we can re-stream the lesson video within a day or 2 of the live class, but we cannot disseminate electronic copies of that video to people who haven't received an invite to join the class from Jeremy. I think it’s vitally important that we respect Jeremy’s wishes about the intellectual property that he is graciously sharing with the community.

That said, I think the free version provides most of the features you are looking for, except the “picture-in-picture” window.

The best way to understand what’s available is to sign up for Zoom, then set up a test meeting and spend a few minutes to explore the meeting environment:

  • Controls that are available to you can be found in the Settings:Meetings tab
  • In the Settings: Recording tab, check that Local recording is selected, but if you are re-streaming Jeremy lesson to an audience that includes “uninvited” folks, be sure to uncheck the box Hosts can give participants the permission to record locally
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Hi @jcatanza. You are right to focus on this point from Jeremy’s post:

Please don’t share the video links at all. But if you wish to re-stream to a study group that you are carefully managing, and where people have to sign up for access (so not just anyone can connect any time), then you may do so.

As the course is not officialy released, I understand why we can’t share the video links - even to our local study group - and then, I looked for a simple solution. This is the one I thought about and would like to receive a validation from @Jeremy in order to use it here in Brasilia (thanks in advance):

  1. I download into my local laptop the lesson video from Youtube in mp4 by using for example, SaveFromNet (as an option, you can download the English autogenerated subtitles in srt by using for example, Google2SRT and following this HowToDo guide, or even savesubs which is an online service).
  2. I upload to my Google Drive the mp4 file (as an option, you can associate the subtitles file to the video file by right-clicking on the video file and choosing Manage caption tracks).
  3. I open the Share >> Advanced menu (right-click menu on the mp4 file in Google Drive), select Private and the 2 following options:
    – Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people
    – Disable options to download, print, and copy for commenters and viewersacess by email
  4. Finally, before clicking on Done, I copy/paste emails members of my local group in the Invite field.

Note: Google Drive needs some time in order to process (prepare) the video to be watched (about 10 ou 15 mn).

With this process, only members of my local group can watch the lesson video and nobody of my local group can

  • see the Youtube url of the original lesson video
  • download the lesson video (only watching by streaming can be done)

I think this process follows the rules (Jeremy?) but there is a problem: I need to know all the emails of the members of my local group but I do not (we use Telegram as canal de comunication). Therefore, I would like to use another sharing option in Google Drive (Anyone who has the link can view) and send the link to the members of my local group with the warning: “You are not allowed to share this link with anyone.”.

Is it possible?

Note: I will use Zoom for teaching my own class but I do not need it to re-stream the whole lessons videos I think.

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I’d much prefer you had a scheduled re-streaming time that everyone watched at the same time. It just gets too complicated to manage when saved videos get shared. Thanks for checking!

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… yes but that means that the members of the local group (in my case, the students of the University of Brasilia) will have access only once to each of the video lessons. As we know from previous fastai lessons, watching a video once is not enough.

This is why I looked for a solution (see my howtodo with Google Drive) both to respect your rules (not to share the url of the videos, to make only streaming) and also to satisfy the needs of a university course (to have access to the contents of the course).

I hope there is this possibility (unlimited access in streaming without showing url) to use the videos to local groups. Otherwise, I do not see how to use the fastai course before its official publication in July.