[Linux-aus] LUG Videoing Grants Proposal

[Ryan Verner]

On 11/02/2008, at 11:31 PM, Julien Goodwin wrote:
>> - We let LUGs choose the equipment/approach they want, but point at  
>> existing
>>   suggestions, such as:
>
>>     http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2008-February/016575.html
>>       -- Julien Goodwin voluteers to do transcoding from HDDs or DVDs
> Stuff that. I'll just say that if a LUG gets the talk recorded should
> they request it I commit to working with them to get me source media
> in some format and I'll get it edited, encoded and uploaded.
>
> If all six groups all decide to buy DV cameras and post me tapes  
> then I'll
> just have to go and buy a deck.

More to the point, we should be about distributing knowledge and  
assistance to enable more people to do this, rather than assigning  
tasks to a single person.  Do you honestly really want to take on that  
workload? :-)

I'll put an emphasis on audio, too, if we're talking about grants -  
audio is something often neglected, and the microphones built into  
camcorders often totally suck for recording talks as they're generally  
not hugely directional and pick up tons of ambient noise (which is  
distracting).  As Silvia suggested, ensure cameras have audio in at an  
absolute minimum; investing in some mics would be ideal (there's a ton  
of options here; lapel, handheld, on-desk, shotgun, etc).

I've seen some comments too where people have been scared off the HD  
recording route, I'm assuming due to the technical issues in '05 and  
'06 - I need to do a blog post about all of this, but they've got to  
do more with bleeding edge software rather than the technique being  
flawed.  Recording DV from a camera to a PC is a completely valid  
option, and it's been done tons of times in the past for production- 
grade things with success, but the advantage of the DVD recorder route  
is that it is a simple 'appliance' (less prone to failure) and one can  
easily transport and distribute out the encoded media for transcoding.

R