[PLUG-AV] Swancon Workshop 20160215, was Re: AV Prep meeting

[Nick Bannon]

Swancon A/V Workshop.   20160215 2pm - 7pm at Nick's house.
Attending: Adrian Smith, Andy Hahn, Nick Bannon, Peter Lyons

Plan: to run through setting up the PLUG AV system and check that (a) we
know how to do it, and (b) it suits our needs.

Fallback options include Skype, Hangouts, WebRTC (in-browser) just with
nicer cameras and the audio gear including remote mics and mixer.

Discussion of getting Conventions around the country, including Natcon
every 2nd year, to use our AV system so we're on a common platform.
It can cost $4000/day commercially for a system and service like this,
so it's a big advantage if we can provide to Cons.

Inventory:
  TwinPact100 VGA->VGA with firewire capture
  Power boards, gigabit switch, network cables incl long one,
  Audio - wireless mics: 1 x handheld, 1 x lapel mics; mixer box (XLR ->
    USB capture) but Andy has a bigger one from Artifactory.

Inventory wanted:
  (needed) no single-point-of-failure components
    only have one (1) mixer with USB capture
    only have one (1) spare firewire card
    only have two (2) Canon HV30/HV40 cameras
    only have one (1) Twinpact VGA passthrough+capture, dead 4pin port
  (needed) mixer with USB capture, because the existing one is oversized & flakey
    (turn-on, effects processor). Possibly small Yamaha, as LCA has been using.
  (needed) RCA 6.5 to 3.5 adapters?
  (needed) more AV adapters, cables.  Andy has a box of stuff like this,
    mostly RCA 6.5mm, XLR (3-pin), HDMI.
    Stereo 6.5mm TRS plug to 3.5mm socket for monitor headphones
    RCA plug-plug gender bender
    (standard|mini|micro)(DVI|HDMI|DP|Apple|MHL)
  (needed) HDMI audio splitter (adding a HDMI monitor often diverts
    presenter's laptop audio into the projection system)
  USB mouse
  start building Numato Opsis HDMI2USB ingest, initial target HDMI->DV transcoding
    * Raspberry Pi 2 ingest station!
  start building voctomix setup: HD will need more disc space and copy time!
  Faster avmaster encoder: avmaster is 2011 Intel Core i7 2670QM
  bags/AV transport cases: ingest kit, tripod

Install log:
  Plugged in power boards, switch, laptop (AV master), ethernet to laptop
    2nd laptop, ethernet to 2nd laptop (wired gigabit ethernet over wifi)
  Boot laptops:
    * avmaster laptop: without USB connections
    * ingest laptop(s): with Firewire PCI Expresscard
  Plugged in mixer and remote mic receivers, aerials, connected cables,
disable effects processor, mixer to AV master USB
  Plugged in camera to firewire card on 2nd laptop
  Log in on avmaster laptop  User: av   Password: lca2015
  On avmaster, eventstreamr auto-starts, browse with Chrome to homepage: http://localhost:5001/
    * Click green start button? or /etc/init.d/evstation restart
  Got the video coming in from 2nd laptop into dvswitch

  Then lots of software / driver issues:

  - getting AV master to recognise the mixer?  boots without USB
    sometimes, login to session with dvswitch but no desktop sometimes
  - old kernels -> no PCIExpress hotswap (modprobe shpchp? acpiphp?)
  - had to /etc/init.d/evstation restart
  - trackpad/mouse is a bit funny
  - tail -f /home/av/.eventstreamr/eventstreamr.log   to debug issues
  - we're now rebooting AV master ..
  - might need to log in on 2nd laptop for it to start scripts?
  - eventstreamr frontend UI input does not always take effect without
    /etc/init.d/evstation restart (or reboot)
    test: update room names -> ~/DV/ROOMNAME recording location
    test: update youtube streaming key
    test: update camera/audio ingest sources
  - eventstreamr frontend : test start/restart/stop/reboot UI
  - eventstreamr: display more problem states:
    * configured ingest source hardware or Firewire missing? (still shows green)
    * show machine online/offline pingtime status?
    * show Internet/streaming online/offline pingtime status? (detect link up/down)
    * detect mains charging/battery status
  - eventstreamr frontend UI sometimes refreshes during input interaction?
  - youtube livestream setup is manual, not API driven
    * show YouTube video ID? https://youtu.be/xxxxxxxxx
  - lag on new icecast client connections: 0 to 90 (!) seconds; test:
    time wget -O- http://icecast.plug.org.au:8000/PLUG-live.ogg |xxd |head
  - JTS handheld audience mike has noisy background hiss/muffling
  - Audio on 500Kbps OGG stream lackluster, improved codecs?
  - better lighting
  - Luke's uiowatch?

  - speedup packdown, speculatively encode *.dv -> *.mp4
  - edit list of dv files -> concat .dv -> .mp4?
  - archive, mirror *.dv *.mp4

  - per station checklist: laptop, powerboard, fw card, ethernet cable

  - plugav1-3.local dead battery -> no UPS
  - tally light: show which camera is active
 
Links
  https://www.plug.org.au/projects/video
  https://github.com/plugorgau
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