In the equipped lecture rooms (list below in the FAQs), no additional hardware is required to be able to provide a recording/live stream. The lecturers do not have to make any additional effort on site compared to a (teaching) event without recording. However, the use of the lecture room microphone is necessary!

Unfortunately the existing guide is only available in German for now. Link to Guide. An English version is in the works.

If you need assistance in English please do not hesitate to contact us.

In general, the sound of the speakers, the image of the projection (the slides / the visual parts of the presentations) and a camera image of the speakers are recorded. You can of course specify whether both or only the projection image or the camera image should be recorded. As a rule of thumb, everything you hear via the sound system on location and everything you see via the digital projection will be recorded.
In certain rooms, predefined camera perspectives can be selected during the planning process, which also specifically record the blackboard in the room. If you would like this for your event in another room, please contact us and we will try to find a solution using the camera presets if the presets already available in the media control system are not sufficient.

Recording and simultaneous live streaming is currently possible in the following lecture halls / rooms (last updated April 2025):

Main Building

• Gb. 100 - HS XIII
• Gb. 100 - HS II
• Gb. 100 - Auditorium 1
• Gb. 100 - Auditorium 2

Philosophikum

• Gb. 103 - HS 80 

Lecture Hall Building

• Gb. 105 - HS A1
• Gb. 105 - HS A2
• Gb. 105 - HS B
• Gb. 105 - HS C 

Gyrhofstr. 15 “alte Botanik”

• Gb. 130 - HS XXX 

Faculty of human sciences

• Gb. 211 - HS 111
• Gb. 211 - HS 112
• Gb. 211 - HS 113
• Gb. 211 - HS 114
• Gb. 211 - HS 115
• Gb. 216 - HS 124 

GeoBio Building

• Gb. 310 - HS GeoBio

Physics Buildings

• Gb. 321 - HS 1
• Gb. 321 - HS 2 ¹
• Gb. 321 - HS 3 ²*
• Gb. 321 - SR PH1 *
• Gb. 321 - SR PH2 *
• Gb. 321 - SR THP *
• Gb. 326 - SR 01 *
• Gb. 326 - SR 03 *

Chemistry Building

• Gb. 322 - HS I
• Gb. 322 - HS II
• Gb. 322 - HS III 

¹ Livestreaming or 4K blackboard camera

² Blackboard camera with 4k resolution. Please contact us in advance via our contact form opencast.

* no livestream available

If you would like to arrange a recording in another lecture hall or you need more information, please contact us via the contact form opencast.

Automated recordings of courses are only available to persons in ILIAS with the corresponding course authorisations and roles. Decisions on further processing and releases within ILIAS are subject to the respective course/project administration. All access is only possible within ILIAS. In the case of recordings of special events etc., the decision on further processing and use on the UoC website, in web projects or OER lies with the image rights holders.

This service is not intended to replace face-to-face teaching for students, but rather to be seen as a supplementary added value, for example for follow-up of lectures. Experience has shown that the availability of lecture recordings does not lead to a significant change in the number of students in physical attendance.
Due to the constant increase in digital instructional videos, their direct provision in ILIAS is no longer up-to-date, both for storage reasons and the way they are played as HTML5 videos. As a video management system, Opencast offers the management of the videos outside of ILIAS. Most of the management functions are directly available to you in ILIAS. The following functions are possible:

• Upload videos
• Record videos in the browser ('Opencast Studio' see below)
• Transfer existing videos from Opencast
• Delete video
• Cut videos
• Change metadata
• Put videos on/offline
• Allow students within a course to upload videos themselves

More information on the reasons in favour of digital accessibility can be found under this link. 

If you would like to record a meeting, conference, etc. that is not, or not only, accessible via ILIAS but also via other means (websites, YouTube, etc.), you will find a detailed description of what you need to consider at the following link. For necessary legal reasons, you must also fill out this written declaration of consent (german, PDF, 134 kB) linked here for each lecturer, which you can also send to us via e-mail.

In our experience, our integrated player works more reliably with the Chrome and Firefox browsers, which is why we recommend using them for playback. Furthermore, if you have used the browser for a longer period of time, it may help to restart our browser before playback or to empty the browser cache. Link on the subject of 'clearing the cache': for a collection of browsers.

How to use these functions in ILIAS in general, you can take a look at the ILIAS EduLabs site (german) or follow this link for a short description via video (german).

Further functions can be found in the user interface of the local installation of Opencast.

Under this link you will find instructions on the steps required to provide a public video and use it in TYPO3.

Via the opencast object in ILIAS, you will also find a tool for creating your own videos. 'Opencast Studio' allows the creation of video content in your browser, uncomplicated and without the installation of additional software. It allows you to record your whole screen or the window of a single application (e.B. a presentation), your audio output and the image of your webcam simultaneously. How you combine these possibilities is up to you. Speeches, presentations, instructions or lectures can thus be easily made accessible to students regardless of time and place. See this link for a short video on using Opencast Studio. 

First of all, you should consider the possibility of reusing your own recordings you may have already created. With the help of the object Opencast videos from your courses from previous semesters can easily be integrated into the current semester in ILIAS.
If it is necessary to record your current course or if you would like to hold a hybrid lecture, you can find out more about the various scenarios and their technical requirements on the page of the multimedia section linked here.

The content of this mailing list is aimed at all Opencast users. We provide information about short-term outages or urgent maintenance work. We also want to share relevant information via this mailing list on a regular basis, but no more than once a quarter.

Subscribe via: https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/opencast-users

To summarise, you should note the following for use:

• Automated recording and live streaming is particularly suitable for traditional presence lectures or conference presentations and lecture series. Highly interactive events such as discussions are rather unsuitable use cases.
• Please follow the rule of thumb on site: everything you hear via the sound system and see via the digital projection will be recorded. So use microphones in the rooms where they are handed out by the building management.
• Please note that there is a limited area that the camera records. As a rule, the lecturer's desk/table is recorded unless you specifically select a different camera perspective in the media control.