[Debconf-video] Fosdem 2008 -- Thoughts

["David Noble" <davidwnoble@gmail.com>]

Hi!

Quite recently, I was watching a few of the videos made at Fosdem 2007
in the Debian room, and was wondering if we could possibly improve on
the quality of those at the 2008 FOSDEM, both soundwise and picturewise.

I propose that if there is interest, we could go for a somewhat basic
two camera setup with some sort of VGA grabbing device, alternatively a
three camera setup with one camera pointed at the projector. As talkback
is not feasible due to the small size of the room, I propose we stick to
a pre-defined shooting plan, something along these lines:

Camera 1 (Main camera, will be recording tape backup):
* Predominantly shooting speaker
* Sound from mixing desk is input into this camera
* Connected directly to the switch machine

Camera 2 (Audience camera):
* Used for audience shots, this avoids messy fast panning, yet gives the
  viewer a perspective on the audience reaction
* Feeds via dvsource to the switch machine

Camera 3 (Slide grabber):
* Some cameras provide an A/V passthrough mode, if we can source a
  camera that supports this, it would be useful, as we could run a
  composite video feed from a cheaply available VGA to composite
  conversion box.
* If it is used in A/V passthrough method, plug into same box as used
  for the audience camera to run dvsource

In terms of computers, this could be handled quite easily by two
computers (I would be able to provide one spare laptop with firewire),
perhaps with a third for on the fly encoding for streaming (more on this
later)

Sound could be improved on by quite simple and achievable methods, using
a portable four channel mixer; with a cardioid condenser pointed in the
general direction of the speaker, and two gated omnidirectional
microphones pointed at the audience for question / response pickup. I
am able to provide all the audio equipment necessary for this.

All in all, the whole setup could be operated by a minimum of one operator,
and could be operated optimally with three operators. Organising people
for this should perhaps also be done a bit better; the optimal number of
volunteers would be nine; allowing a schedule whereby each operator
works one talk, and has the next two slots free.

Streaming is another issue I would like to briefly touch on: as FOSDEM
is not a particularly long event, a lot of people may not be able to
justify travelling to Brussels, hence live streaming may be a valuable
resource for some people. From what I understand, another computer may
be necessary to handle encoding. We would also have to talk to the
network organisers at Debconf to see if we would be allowed to connect
to an off-site Icecast server.

I know this is somewhat premature, but I believe that if there is
interest in a multiple camera and possibly streaming setup, we should
act sooner rather than later. If there is interest in such a setup, I am
more than happy to set up a wiki documenting this a bit better, and
closer to the production date organising the people.

All the best,


Dave Noble (daven)