[Video] Current state of the art for conference recording

[Tim Ansell]

Hi Paul,

I'm going to split this email into a bunch of seperate emails.

Tim


On 18 June 2013 05:07, Paul Wayper <paulway at internode.on.net> wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From:
> "Tim Ansell" <mithro at mithis.com>
>
> Sent:
> Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:50:59 +1000
>
>
> So I thought I'd quickly document what the current state is;
>
>    - TwinPac for VGA capture to DV,
>
>    - Firewire based camera for presenter using DV,
>
>    - Going into DVSwitch (pretty much as described by
>    http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/large_meeting/)
>
>    - veypar is used for conferences to allow quick processing of the
>    large amount of video, splitting into talks and uploading to
>    YouTube/pyvideo/other.
>
>    - Going into Flumotion or Icecast for Live Streaming (least tested)
>
>
> The current setup has been well tested and I believe well understood.
>
> More or less.  My experience was that there were a few people who knew
> about this system, but it wasn't well documented online.  The
> documentation, such as the DVswitch page linked above, is terse,
> non-adaptive and mainly handles the working case.  Unfortunately, I wasn't
> able to speak with the people who really know this system - Ryan and Carl -
> and some of the other people who do know it - Tristan, James Iseppi, Matt
> Franklin, Euan, Liam and others - were only able to help educate me to a
> limited extent.
>
> The thing I think is really important in any system we come up with is
> that it's well documented.  I know that's painful, I know that's boring,
> and I know it takes a lot of time.  But it's essential to being able to
> help other conferences and groups.
>
>
> However, the current setup has some limitations;
>
>    - Currently only SD resolution
>
>    - Getting features into DVSwitch is painful
>
>    - TwinPac is End-Of-Life and impossible to purchase new anymore
>
>    - Laptop's no longer have Firewire ports so ExpressCards must be used
>    and have a tendency to pop-out
>
>    - Firewire Cameras are becoming impossible to find
>
>    - Poor ability to integrate with other online systems such as
>    HangOuts, etc
>
>    - Requires significant expert knowledge to run smoothly
>
>    - Requires 2 people per room.
>
>
> Have I missed anything? What do you guys think?
>
>
> I second Euan's observation about Audio, but it does tie in more or less
> with the setup as you've described.  The main limitations I think can be
> added there are:
>
> * Very difficult to get accurate information about what is actually being
> recorded.  You can hear this in the variable audio levels in this year's
> LCA videos.  This is also partly operator training, but a system that gives
> you no idea of how the recording sounds or looks cannot be fixed no matter
> how good the operator is.
>
> * Standard configuration only handles one Twinpact and one camera.  It's
> difficult to change that on the fly.
>
> * Only records the final mixdown.  Premixed recording is possible but it
> does not get the cut information.
>
> On the other hand, I think two people per room is essential.  One person
> to operate the camera, and the other to monitor the feeds, keep the audio
> levels reasonable, switch between video inputs, and mark cut points in the
> recorded video.  I agree with Carl that it also means that if one person
> absolutely has to leave the other can get by in a pinch.
>
> There are many things I'd improve in Veyepar, but OTOH IMO that should be
> discussed separately.
>
> There are also many things that caused problems for us at LCA 2013 that
> were nothing to do with the above setup, so I'm not mentioning them either
> :-)
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Paul
>
>
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