Virtual director: Automating a webcast

This paper presents a system designed to automate the production of webcasts, the Virtual Director. It automates simple tasks such as control of recording equipment, stream broadcasting, and camera control. It also automates content decisions, such as which camera view to broadcast. Directors can specify the content decisions using an automation specification language. The Virtual Director also uses a question monitor service to automatically identify questions and move the cameras to show the audience member asking the question. We discuss the implementation of the Virtual Director and present the results of its use in the production of a university seminar series.