TechSmith

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TechSmith Corporation

Type	Private
Industry	Computer software
Founded	1987; 34 years ago (1987)
Headquarters	Okemos, Michigan, US
Key people	William Hamilton
Products	Screen capture, recording, and editing software

TechSmith Corporation is a software company developing screenshooting, screencasting and video editing software, for Windows and macOS, and licensing them to corporations, educational institutions, government agencies and small businesses.^[1] The company was founded in Okemos, Michigan in 1987 by William Hamilton.^[2] In 1990 they created Snagit, their most popular and best-selling product.^{[citation needed]} TechSmith is now helmed by William Hamilton's daughter, Wendy Hamilton.

TechSmith products and services include Snagit, Camtasia, Jing,^[3] Screencast.com, Relay, Morae and Coach's Eye.^[4][5]

Jing[]

Jing allows the user to record video, capture images, edit them, and upload them to various websites.^[6] Possible uses for Jing include sharing a screen snapshot, narrating vacation photos, capturing a computer bug in action, and in the case of a teacher, showing students how to do a task and commenting verbally on a students homework.^[7] It only supports saving to SWF (flash files). Jing is freeware.^[8]

Screencast.com[]

Screencast.com is TechSmith's private image and video hosting service. A person can store their content on the servers for personal or commercial usage at no charge.^[9] The free site offers control over privacy levels, links for content URL's and embed code, content view numbers and allows other users to comment on videos.^[7][10] Free accounts receive 2 GB storage and 2 GB bandwidth, but they may purchase more.^[10]

Snagit[]

Snagit is a screen capture and editing tool. It captures animation, graphics and text in the form of images or videos. The app also allows the user to enhance their images with special effects and multimedia features.^[1] Snagit allows the user to grab the entire desktop, a region, a window, or a scrolling window. Features include the ability to combine images, blur and magnifying effects, arrows, callouts, torn edges, etc. In terms of sharing, the final capture can be saved in various formats, a URL or embed code can be produced, or it can be added to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, MindManager, or Microsoft OneNote directly from the product interface.

Camtasia[]

Camtasia is available for Windows and macOS.^[4] Both are used to record and edit videos for the internet and mobile devices.^[1]

Camtasia can create professional presentations, demonstrations, screencasts and training and marketing videos in HD resolution. Sharing capabilities include Apple portable media devices and video sharing sites including YouTube. and TechSmith's own Screencast.com.^[10]

Relay[]

Relay, (formerly Camtasia Relay, through version 4.4) is a presentation tool designed to streamline the sharing process, especially directed at educators on all levels of education. The recorder used in Relay allows anyone to create content from anywhere, and the server produces and publishes videos in several formats to a desired location.

Camtasia Relay 3 was released November 2010. Enhanced features of this version include captioning abilities and video editing.^[11]

Relay 5 was released February 2015. New features include the ability to record speaker with webcam or other camera and add the recording to the final screencast. Additionally, users other than the speaker or professor who recorded the lecture are now able to caption the video. Direct publishing to YouTube is also available.^[12]

Morae[]

Morae is an app for market research.^[1] It gives businesses, market research firms and academics a chance to do usability, product design, hardware and prototype testing, and focus groups as well as qualitative market and educational research. This app is meant to help in identifying site and application design problems.^[13]

Morae 3.1 was released in June 2009. Some new features include highlight reels in high-quality flash video, sharing and viewing across platforms, and the ability to share findings on Screencast.com.^[11]

The most recent version is Morae 3.3.^[4]

Coach's Eye[]

Coach’s Eye is a mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and many Android devices that enables users to capture, analyze and share video. It is designed with the intent that coaches and parents can record athletes, analyze the playback and share it with others. It enables an instructor to shoot video of an athlete's swing, throw, kick, etc. and then add voice instructions and illustrate the video with simple annotations. Coaches and athletes view the video in slow motion or scrub through the video using the on-screen flywheel, showing precisely what points need to be shown. The finished videos can be uploaded to sharing sites like YouTube, emailed or sent via MMS, giving the instructor several outlets for sharing with athletes or other coaches. It was launched November, 2011.

The Forge[]

TechSmith launched a web show in August 2010. Common topics of conversation include screen capture, screencasting, various tools and techniques. There are normally guests either over Skype or in person. The first guest was Jon Udell, a Microsoft Evangelist and long-time screencaster who helped come up with the term screencasting.^[14] The Forge is hosted on YouTube as well as TechSmith's Visual Lounge (blog site). Matt Pierce hosts the show. The format normally consists of interviews, promotions, and product reviews. Videos created from other users are sometimes featured on the show as well.^[15]

ScreenChamp Awards[]

TechSmith held an awards competition in 2011, looking for the top screencasters around the world. Entries were broken into three categories including education, industry and entertainment. A total of 15 finalists were chosen and the winners were decided by “celebrity judges”.^[16]

The ScreenChamp Awards was aired on The Forge (Episode 15) on January 19, 2012 via TechSmith’s YouTube channel.^[15]

Flipped classroom[]

The flipped classroom is a concept in education (see Flip teaching). Clintondale High School, in Clinton Township, Mich., is the first to fully embrace this concept in 2011 in an effort to raise the school's failing grades. TechSmith products were used as their primary software, and the company also gave the school a grant to start the program. Teachers record lessons online for the students to watch at home and then the students come to class to do their homework. The videos normally consist of an overview of the lesson, the content and concludes with a summary. Voice, video clips, images and annotations can be included via TechSmith products like Camtasia to enhance the lesson. Camtasia and Relay give teachers the ability to share their content on a variety of platforms. Students can view the lessons on any computer or mobile device.^[11] This gives the students more class time with their teachers to work through problems rather than trying to work them out alone at home.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website