DebConf Video Team status update

What's the DebConf Video Team?

The annoying people that tell you to stand up and wait for the microphone

Our goals

• Recording Debian-related conference presentations. All of them.
• Allowing remote participation to Debian events through live streaming.
• Having fun working towards a fully Free Software and Hardware conference video stack

Some side-effects

Having tooons of fun watching old DebConf presentations with automatic closed-captioning, while looking for passionate audiences.

Who is the DebConf Video Team?

In alphabetical order…

Many thanks to our sponsors

The DebConf and Debian sponsors at large make our work possible. Thanks!

System overview

Video recording equipment

• Shiny new camcorders: Sony PXW-X70
  • x6: 3 rooms x 2 cameras), 4k with SDI output and SD card recording
• a pair of tripods: E-image AT-7402B
• "serial" tally lights with SUB-D 9 <-> RJ45 adapters
• when needed, other tripods are hired

Audio recording equipment

• has slowly degraded and never got replaced over the last ten years
• one 12-channel mixer that has the bare minimum features we need, one 8-channel mixer we don't use any longer
• two headset microphones, one stick microphone (in use right now!)
• yes, we are looking into replacing it

Presenter laptop capture

• Using the Numato Opsis board in HDMI2USB configuration
• fully open hardware and free firmware… with some bits using a non-free toolchain :(
• currently plugged into one of our old laptops
• toying around with a MinnowBoard Turbot
  • tiny, can be integrated in a 1U case
  • everything racked together with the audio hardware

Live mixing

Live mixing hardware

• big CPU (i7) with hardware encoding acceleration
• enough RAM to run the mixing environment (which keeps playing raw streams for previews)
• also used as a NAT gateway for the internal video network
• two capture cards are BlackMagic DeckLink Micro Recorders: PCI-E cards with SDI and HDMI inputs.

Live mixing software

• voctomix software stack
• developed by the fine folks of the CCC Video Operation Center
• with a set of extra scripts developed by us
• all packaged in Debian
  • https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/voctomix
  • https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/voctomix-outcasts

Live streaming

• main feed pushed using RTMP to a streaming backend
  • can be on-site (DebConf) or off-site (MiniDebConfs)
• streaming backend
  • uses nginx-rtmp-module (also used by FOSDEM and CCC)
  • downscales internally, using ffmpeg, for lower quality streams
  • converts RTMP streams to HLS with adaptive quality
• streaming frontends are plain HTTPS caching proxies, geographically distributed
• all configured in the live.debconf.org DNS zone with a small TTL
• javascript player

Review system

• SReview written by our very own Wouter
• fully automatic pipeline for
  • preview generation
  • review of start and end cut times
  • final cut generation
  • video transcoding
  • archive publication
• also used by FOSDEM

Meetings archive

Ye olde ftp archive

• https://meetings-archive.debian.net
• A big bunch of files on a FTP server (actually a git-annex repo)
• Pretty random mix and match of files: videos, subtitles, slides, …
• New repository with metadata:
  • scans conference websites and the meetings archive for data
  • https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debconf-video/archive-meta.git
  • can be eventually used for a proper frontend
  • supports all the kinds of files we have
• Please surrender your high-quality videos to us if you have them laying around on a dusty server!

Uploads to YouTube

• it turns out that people randomly upload our videos to YouTube
• might as well do it ourselves properly!
• Channel: https://deb.li/dcvideoyt
  • per-event playlists
  • feeds from the archive-meta data
  • generates hilarious automatic closed-captions
• scripts: https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debconf-video/youtube.git

Machine setup and configuration management

• PXE server with Debian Installer preseeding configuration
• everything else (mixing machines, streaming network) configured in ansible
• https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debconf-video/ansible.git

Documentation

• static documentation goes in a sphinx repository
  • https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debconf-video/docs.git
  • built on https://debconf-video.alioth.debian.org/
  • also has the live stream player for MiniConfs
• dynamic documentation on the wiki
  • https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebConf/Video
  • slowly migrating from the DebConf wiki to the Debian wiki

Sprint report

Overview of the sprint

Read Pollo's blog!

Our PR specialist has done a lot of reporting

• https://veronneau.org/debconf-videoteam-sprint-report-day-0.html
• https://veronneau.org/debconf-videoteam-sprint-report-day-1.html
• https://veronneau.org/debconf-videoteam-sprint-report-day-2.html
• https://veronneau.org/debconf-videoteam-sprint-report-day-3.html
• https://veronneau.org/debconf-videoteam-sprint-report-day-4.html
• https://veronneau.org/debconf-videoteam-sprint-report-day-5.html

Setup

Rent a big AirBNB on Queen Edith Way… with a cat (who bites)

Lots of space to setup hardware

Plenty of happy faces

Participants

Remote participants

• Kyle Robbertze (paddatrapper), Capetonian audio expert
• Wouter Verhelst (wouter), SReview-er extraordinaire

Work done during the sprint

• Documentation, documentation, documentation
  • docs infrastructure
  • documentation of the current setup
  • checklists for events
  • documentation of SReview
• Archive metadata
• YouTube uploads

• Better PXE configuration and automated installation
• Ansible refactoring
• Automation of streaming setup
• Hardware specs for shippable kit
• Preparation of the MiniDebConf recording/streaming
• … tons of cooking and baking, and also some drinking

Outlook

Documentation

• we always need better documentation
• finish the migration to the Debian Wiki
• move static documentation to sphinx

Archive

• better collaboration with the subtitles team
• having an actual frontend for watching videos

Software

• even more computer setup automation
• better monitoring
  • for mixing
  • for streams
  • for recordings

Hardware

• new, flightcased audio kit for one full room, to be used at Mini DebConfs around the world
• shippable hardware for MiniConfs
• more reliable slide capture

Help is always welcome

Please come talk to us!

• Subscribe to debconf-video@lists.debian.org
• Volunteer at events so we can get a little rest
• Help the subtitles team make our talks even more accessible