Tohdai Delivers Online College Prep Courses with AJA HELO to Help Med Students Make the Grade

To pass rigorous university entrance exams, prospective Japanese medical students turn to comprehensive online training courses from Tohdai. The Tokyo-based medical software developer and education provider is a leading resource for students, with web-based courses taught through the company’s Hayabusa college preparatory program.

Seeking a flexible and user-friendly recording solution, Tohdai recently adopted AJA HELO for capturing Hayabusa video classes. HELO is AJA’s powerful and portable H.264 video recording, streaming and delivery device, featuring compatibility with 3G-SDI and HDMI sources and the ability to capture up to 1080p 60. 

Prior to integrating HELO, Hayabusa class footage was recorded onto standard flash memory SxS cards, which proved a less than optimal solution due to lacking versatility and high unit cost. Introducing HELO into Tohdai’s proAV education workflow provides the team with a standalone solution for flexible recording to a variety of affordable media, including SD cards and USB storage drives. 

Hayabusa classes are shot on two Sony PXW-X160 cameras with a TASCAM DR-10L pin microphone tapped for audio recording. Camera and audio sources are input to a Roland video switcher and routed to HELO for recording, which enables the team to switch simultaneously between the two cameras signals throughout video capture. All recording data is copied and transferred onto PCs for final edit via Adobe Premiere Pro.  

“Our team is new to working with proAV equipment and figuring out a streamlined approach for recording our classes was a challenging hurdle for us,” said Tohdai’s Kazuki Aizawa. “HELO’s simple operation and easy-to-use recording features enable us to capture footage from multiple cameras and switch back-and-forth between sources, which saves us valuable time and steps throughout production.”