The DebConf video team is using a large number of programs, some common and some of our own, spread across 20-30 computers. Some may be interested to know what this is.

  • FAI for package installation and configuration on DebConf machines.
  • dvgrab for video grabbing. We are using a variety of DV cameras, but dvgrab works well with almost all of them.
  • dvswitch for switching between multiple cameras and files.
  • ffmpeg2theora for transcoding to Ogg Theora/Vorbis, both for live streams and for the downloadable files slowly appearing on meetings-archive.
  • A small number of scripts for starting the above three programs and recording to files.
  • Icecast 2 for streaming. We are currently using the sarge package rebuilt for etch because the server in the etch package is unstable in our double-relayed configuration. (To limit bandwidth use between DebConf and the Internet, we have an internal server for internal use and an external relay that serves as master for all other relays.)
  • GeoDNS and a monitoring script to resolve streams.video.debconf.org to the nearest working relay server.
  • A newly-developed extension to the Pentabarf conference management system that presents recordings for review. Reviewers match up recordings to events, give the start and end time of the event in the recording so we can cut out extra material, and rate the quality of the recordings and transcoded files.
  • A script to import the details of new recordings into the database ready for review, run as a cron job.
  • A script to transcode recordings into multiple versions using the timing and naming information provided by reviewers. This spreads the work across multiple servers controlled using ssh (again!).

Most of the custom software and configurations should be included in the debconf-video project on Alioth.