Thank you for your synopsis Mike. Steve
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael D. Walker Sent: 30 March 2012 17:13 To: Opencast Community Subject: Re: [Opencast] Teradek Cube The Teradek Cube is a good portable encoder. $1500 is inexpensive when compared with Vbrick and Haivision appliances. That also compares well against a high end capture card loaded in a PC or Mac Pro. You may want wireless, but they also have wired. You can spend a lot more on the camcorder, mics, and mixer. It's a portable solution for a camera/webcast team, not to install in every classroom, but it's not really a DL solution. Mike On 3/30/2012 2:25 AM, Stephen Spencer wrote: > Hi Ruben, > > Thanks for your reply, I appreciate that your willing to hear my thoughts on > our ideal setup. Basically what we hope to end up with is a portable ca that > is as light weight and unobtrusive as possible, which we can setup before a > lecture starts. > > It's worth noting that we are a relatively small institution and don't intend > to be turning around 100's or 1000's of hours of video every year. As a > result when I said we have a low budget what I mean is that we can't afford > to kit out all of our teaching areas with static installations for something > that probably won't be in constant use. It's likely that certain lecturers > will want to be involved and want all of their modules to be recorded. This > causes us a problem because the way our timetabling system works means we > can't guarantee that they will be in the same teaching space from day to day > (hence the portable requirement). > > Something that we would like to avoid happening is having trailing cables > running through the classroom which is one of the reasons for thinking about > using these cubes. The other reason is that they will take care of any > transcoding of the video feeds, reducing the spec required for pc element of > the capture agent. We plan to capture audio via Seennheiser ew 100-NEG radio > mics which we already possess and the teaching pc through vga/dvi to hdmi > converters connected to a cube broadcasting an rtp or udp stream back to the > ca. I am also leaning towards using Gallicaster over the standard MCD spec. > > I do realise the these devices are fairly expensive at $1490 a go but I have > to admit I'm having difficulty understanding your cost break down. You said > in your message that Vigo are spending around €3000 per capture agent and > later on "And still, all this stuff is roughly half as much the cost of a > single Cube". A lot of this equipment we already possess so we don't need to > start purchasing everything from scratch. > > Another thing to keep an eye on is whether or not using a cube will become > redundant in about a year. I say this because in the 3rd quarter of last year > the first wireless hd cameras were released but only to the south korean > market, so I would expect to be seeing them in European/American market quite > soon. > > If you have any better ideas that might fit our requirements I would be very > grateful to hear them because we are new to Matterhorn and do appreciate > comments/advice from seasoned users. > > Best Regards > Steve > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rubén > Pérez > Sent: 29 March 2012 21:47 > To: Opencast Community > Subject: Re: [Opencast] Teradek Cube > > Hello, > > Steve, I would really like to know what you have in mind, because I > confess I don't understand all the details. You're saying that you > have a low budget for equipment and thus you don't want to set up a > fixed installation in the classrooms, but at the same time you are > willing to spend almost > $2000 in a single transceiver. > > I'm guessing that you'll still need a camera and a computer to send the video > stream to. You still need to connect the teacher's pc to get the VGA feed, > which I don't know how you want to accomplish, and also how you're going to > get the audio feed. Are you installing cameras in every classroom, or are you > using a mobile camera, too? What about the audio set up? > > I can tell you that we are spending ca. €3000 in Vigo to equip one classroom, > and even though this is a high figure, it includes: > > - An i7-based computer, with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of HD in a RAID-1, for > redundancy > - Please note that this computer is highly over-sized for a simple > capture unit, but we are using this computers at night as Matterhorn > workers. We could easily use much cheaper i3 computers if we were to use > them as capturers only. > - The Epiphan VGA2PCI framegrabber > - An HD Logitech c910 webcam > - A Behringer sound board > - A wearable Revolabs Solo microphone > - A set of two fixed stereo microphones, to work as backup > - An audio gate to control the microphone gain > - A tactile screen > - A VGA splitter > - All the cables and adapters needed for the installation > > All that installed in the classroom in a non-obstructive way and ready to use. > > You can see that we are not installing the cheapest equipment and that we > could do with less (less powerful computers, no microphone array at all, > cheaper frame grabber and/or microphones...), so the price could be much > lower than that. The screen is required because we use Galicaster as our > reference capture agent, but you could spare the screen if you are using the > official Matterhorn Capture Agents. And still, all this stuff is roughly half > as much the cost of a single Cube. > > As an alternative, you could think of having a pre-installation for audio and > video, so that all the cables are installed and conveniently "hidden" > from the public, and you'd only have to plug the VGA, audio, etc. from some > panel next to the teacher's desk. But, again, it depends largely on what is > your intended setup, if there are fixed cameras in each classroom, etc. > > Re. the Galicaster, I'd like to say: > > 1. Olav, thanks for testing and using it. Making something useful for > ourselves, but also for others, was our final goal, and seeing people is > happy with it makes us proud. > 2. You *can* manage Galicaster remotely via VNC. We currently manage all > our Galicaster equipments in such a way. Configuring Ubuntu for providing a > VNC signal without a physical screen attached may be a bit tricky, though, > but it can be done and it works perfectly. > 3. That RTP feature seems very interesting. If you want to share your > developments or concerns regarding that, we are more than happy to hear > them and even contribute to get those functionality on board! There is a > mail list for Galicaster users [1] and you are welcome to subscribe and > share your experiences. > > > I'm willing to hear Stephen's comments on their "ideal" setup, because this > kind of discussions are good for adopters to make better decisions re. > their classroom equipment. > > Best regards > Rubén > > 2012/3/27 Olav Bringedal <[email protected]> > >> On 2012-03-22 16:47, Dr Leslaw Zieleznik wrote: >> >>> Steve, >>> >>> This is an interesting concept, but: >>> >>> 1. in my opinion the cost just for the transmitter is quite high >>> ($1690-$1990) >>> 2. you still need to run some wire between the camera/microphone and >>> the device 3. the question is where you will keep your recordings? >>> on the decoder/receiver which will add another $1600-$1900 to the >>> cost 4. will you have access to recordings on the receiver, such >>> that in a case of lost connection with the core (or missed >>> transmission) this can be recovered. >>> >>> >> I think this might be an interesting product for capturing a screen >> together with an IP-camera. We UiB have looked into solutions where >> we can depend less on a stationary PC in the class room, and rather >> have a virtualised agent. >> >> We have seen that the Galicaster agent is much easier to configure >> for rtp streams than the native MH agent. We are currently working >> with two >> scenarios: >> >> 1: have a device (either epiphan vgabroadcaster or the epiphan MCD) >> capture the screen and stream it to rtp. It is here the Tcube can be >> a replacement. An ip-camera does the same. Then a galicaster agent >> takes these streams as an agent. The drawback here is that the output >> for the galicaster is native, and without a pc in the room, no >> feedback is provided for the lecturer. If galicaster had a web >> interface we would probably go for that right away. >> >> 2. Get the MCD to work and accept the (less than optimal) quality of >> the s-video input. We see that the firmware on the MCD is also quite >> buggy, and are very unsure if it is production worthy. >> >> >> In my only few months experience with the MH system, the best >> solution is >>> to have an autonomous capture device, permanently placed in the >>> lecture room. >>> And so in the case of any problem, recordings can always be uploaded >>> at any time 'by hand' to the core. >>> >>> You would probably be better of if you design a laptop based capture >>> device, but then there is unavoidable hazard when moving laptop >>> around and making every single time connections to the network and >>> to video/audio devices. >>> We did use such idea in the past with MiniMac based Podcast Capture >>> portable device, which we found very unpractical. >>> >>> Anyway, an interesting concept and I wonder what other peoples will say? >>> >>> Best, >>> Leslaw >>> >>> >> -- >> >> Olav Bringedal >> >> Seksjon for integrasjon og applikasjonsutvikling IT-Avdelingen UIB >> >> ______________________________**_________________ >> Community mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.opencastproject.**org/mailman/listinfo/community<http:// >> l ists.opencastproject.org/mailman/listinfo/community> >> >> >> To unsubscribe please email >> community-unsubscribe@**opencastproject.org<community-unsubscribe@ope >> n castproject.org> ______________________________**_________________ >> > _______________________________________________ > Community mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.opencastproject.org/mailman/listinfo/community > > > To unsubscribe please email > [email protected] > _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.opencastproject.org/mailman/listinfo/community To unsubscribe please email [email protected] _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.opencastproject.org/mailman/listinfo/community To unsubscribe please email [email protected] _______________________________________________
