Difference between revisions of "EMFBC"

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''Or how to jump the gun by 6 months, and not check for permission first''
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==WTF?==
 +
The aim of the game is to broadcast everything, and be awesome at it. We can expect to broadcast 2 stages live in HD, with graphics. And record clean versions for editing down to stick online later (but not 2 years later!) - like a few hours after the talk has ended. We also expect to be able to do act as an overflow facility - if one stage is full, we can send the video to another stage's A/V system. And for legal reasons, we'll also be able to not broadcast some talks, but instead broadcast a holding slide / other pre-recorded content. Overnight, we'll show a mix of recorded content, EMF on time delay, and possibly have guests in for chats. Essentially, we're aiming for the full works.
  
 +
== System overview==
 +
* We run it all video control/mixing from one location, possibly a caravan, possibly a tent. In there, we house the transmission control, edit PC's, record/playout servers, and push content from here too. It'll be full of screens & generate plenty of warmth!
  
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== Eh What will we aim to provide? ==
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* We put a 'stagebox' in each track tent, and run fibre/coax (distance dependant)  to & from it to the master control room for video & audio. Each stage box will have a small hdmi router, a vision mixer, and some video convertors to take whatever people throw at it - SDI/VGA/DVI/composite from speakers laptops. Each box also outputs to the stage's projector, independently of mixing the broadcast feed. Audio is also taken into the stagebox from the track tent's sound desk. The stagebox will have connections for cameras as well (obviously!) The box will output the clean feed back to master control for broadcast(or not broadcast)/moderation/editing/overflow... Stageboxes will also act as an endpoint for comms, and be controlled remotely.
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Well, A few of us at London Hackspace have been thinking about how we could make the video side of things better. Much better.
 
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We theorize, with past examples in Student TV and Real world TV, that we can reasonably expect to provide:
 
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* HD Live streams for two stages with live graphics on the streams (i.e. ''Jonty - Beeeeeeees''). Overflow capacity (i.e. "Ahh, stage A is full, can we get the pictures & sound to stage B?"). All talks, Q&A sessions available on demand within 2 hours of their finish. Overnight continuity service from our edited talks, and external content from licensed partners (more to follow on this later!). A Cheesy closedown clock, a la BBC style 1am goodnight, hacking forecast, and national anthem (then followed by EMF continuity service).
 
  
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==Too soon?==
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* If people want to provide pre-built content, we'll take it. Anything we can legally broadcast, with science.
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No. Everything will take a lot of planning and work... But we know what we're up-to: We have Broadcast Engineers and Network/Sysadmins.
 
  
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== Can I bikeshed this? ==
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* If people want to provide other live content, even mini-OB's over skype or other transport stream from inside the camp or another camp/conference, as long as there's an out-of-band comms channel.
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* Not quite yet. Bikeshedding will be available later on, for things like controller design, software for automation, gfx control...
 
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* Chat with us, we'll usually be talking about making TV.
 
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* Yes, if your question is along the lines of "I clean up messy wikis, can I namespace this to my heart's content?"
 
  
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== Topology ==
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* If people want to take content live, awesome. We'll give HD/SD-SDI or HDMI. Taking the transport streams may be possible too.
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===Connectivity===
 
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*EMF will likely have 2 or 3 stages, each probably 100 meters or more apart. MCC wil need to be close to either one of (or the middle one of) the stages: we'll use less cable.
 
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*This means we need quite a bit of VIDEO cable:
 
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**Datarate is 1.486Gbps
 
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**Any encoder introduces very bad latencies. And Will clog the network very quickly. Generally not broadcast-reliable either :(
 
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**Fiber may be cheaper
 
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***Russ has a pile of fiber, will there be any spare we could borrow (lc-lc, multimode).
 
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*And networking:
 
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**EMF-NOC will be nearby, short enough for conventional Cat5e/6.
 
  
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=== Master control caravan (MCC) ===
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* If people want files out of us, we'll probably end up providing h.264 & PCM at 48k in an mpeg type container - as that'll likely be the way we send content to video hosting sites. If people want something else, then they can transcode it - we're looking at 20-50Mbps, so the result will still be decent after a heavy transcode.
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From where we'll run the operation. We need a caravan, to be purchased/acquired at roughly T minus 8 months. Approx 4 berth size please. Budget £300 (Hipster knows an outlet of cheap caravans).
 
  
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=== The broom Cupboard ===
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==Acquire these things!==
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A Camera, a set of lights, and 3 mics outside the caravan - good for interviews really. Possible collaboration with radio people?
 
  
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==  MCR / Edit / Playout / Storage Network ==
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Compute resources:
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We're going to get through quite a bit of data over the weekend. Something of the order of around 2 Terabytes.
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*Switch. Managed, Gigabit. Or just multiple dumb Gigabit boxes.
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This will be from the captures of the stages, pre-existing content for playout, the edit process, and the final copies (also for playout).
+
*Control PC
 +
**Reads the schedule, controls the videoservers, possibly controls the remote mixers.
 +
*Edit PC
 +
**Reasonable fast machine to run a video editing program on.
 +
**We'll cut down the chaff from the goings on in the stages, add Titles, Credits & end boards on this.
 +
**We'll upload our content from here too (in the background whilst we edit).
 +
*Storage / record machine
 +
**2TB that can do 200Mb/s. No other purpose.
 +
**Must be something like R10,R51,R60. Basically, quick, reliable.
 +
**Everything apart from the edit scratch disks will be here, so it needs to be nippy!
 +
**posibbly dual NIC (decide later).
 +
**Record the incoming feeds, and clip them at the start (set the clip name) & end(finish file).
  
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To keep costs down, this can all be on:
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*Videoserver(s)
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* One machine with a decent RAID array. It'll be getting quite hammered, have playout and edit running at the same time. - We'll need something along the lines of RAID10. Basically, redundant, and quick...
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**Runs Graphics (fill & key) during the day.
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* We'll also need an edit machine. Just about Anything quad(or more please!)-core with above 6GB of RAM will do the job. This'll be a dual screen thing, to make it easier.
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**Runs videos in the overnight continuity service. Can internally key the graphics for overnight.
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* An encode machine to compile the edits from the project files will take time. Offloading this onto a machine with as much grunt as possible, will make sure we can keep up with the events on site (a quad core phenom II 9650 will work at 4x slower than realtime, so we really need something nippy to keep up with 2 stages that run for ~ half time on average!)
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**This can be one machine per stage/stream, or combined.
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* One playout machine for each stage : each one will produce a key (opacity, or alpha) and a fill (visible video) to the video mixer. This will allow it to provide graphics, and handle the continuity service. With 2 decklink HD extreme 3d (or similar) units (not decklink duo!) we could consolidate these machines into just one machine. This might be a little hairy though.
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* Control PC(s). These will handle connection to the remote mixer(s) from our control panels in MCR, the automation / continuity. They don't need much grunt at all, but will need a few serial ports.
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*Streamer1
 +
**Streams the 1st Stream
 +
*Streamer2
 +
**Streams the 2nd Stream
 +
 
 +
 
 +
On the hardware side:
 +
*Screens (all HDMI 16:9 unless otherwise stated)
 +
**VideoServer Output 1
 +
**VideoServer Output 2
 +
**Multiview A
 +
**Multiview B
 +
**Program A
 +
**Program B
 +
**Edit Left
 +
**Edit Right
 +
**PC1 (optional, any)
 +
**PC2 (optional, any)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
*HDSDI-HDMI convertors (LKV-368 are £30 on amazon/ebay)
 +
** 6 minimum.
 +
** for each stream: playout, multiviewer, program.
 +
 
 +
*Clocks (optional)
 +
**Leitch 1 (big hands clock)
 +
**LED1 (caravan left/front)
 +
**LED2 (caravan right/back)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
General items
 +
*Rack1
 +
*Rack2
 +
*MDU's
 +
*USB Keyboards
 +
*USB Mice
 +
*Phone charger :P
 +
*Network cables
 +
*2 Floodlights
 +
 
 +
 
 +
Outstation items (for each outstation)
 +
* Mini rack/flightcase
 +
* HDMI to HD-SDI convertor
 +
* VGA to HDMI
 +
* HDMI matrix
 +
* Power strip
 +
* 4 20M XLR cables
 +
* video mixer
 +
* ADC (audio)
 +
* Fibre TX/RX set

Latest revision as of 18:41, 5 February 2014

WTF?

The aim of the game is to broadcast everything, and be awesome at it. We can expect to broadcast 2 stages live in HD, with graphics. And record clean versions for editing down to stick online later (but not 2 years later!) - like a few hours after the talk has ended. We also expect to be able to do act as an overflow facility - if one stage is full, we can send the video to another stage's A/V system. And for legal reasons, we'll also be able to not broadcast some talks, but instead broadcast a holding slide / other pre-recorded content. Overnight, we'll show a mix of recorded content, EMF on time delay, and possibly have guests in for chats. Essentially, we're aiming for the full works.

System overview

  • We run it all video control/mixing from one location, possibly a caravan, possibly a tent. In there, we house the transmission control, edit PC's, record/playout servers, and push content from here too. It'll be full of screens & generate plenty of warmth!
  • We put a 'stagebox' in each track tent, and run fibre/coax (distance dependant) to & from it to the master control room for video & audio. Each stage box will have a small hdmi router, a vision mixer, and some video convertors to take whatever people throw at it - SDI/VGA/DVI/composite from speakers laptops. Each box also outputs to the stage's projector, independently of mixing the broadcast feed. Audio is also taken into the stagebox from the track tent's sound desk. The stagebox will have connections for cameras as well (obviously!) The box will output the clean feed back to master control for broadcast(or not broadcast)/moderation/editing/overflow... Stageboxes will also act as an endpoint for comms, and be controlled remotely.
  • If people want to provide pre-built content, we'll take it. Anything we can legally broadcast, with science.
  • If people want to provide other live content, even mini-OB's over skype or other transport stream from inside the camp or another camp/conference, as long as there's an out-of-band comms channel.
  • If people want to take content live, awesome. We'll give HD/SD-SDI or HDMI. Taking the transport streams may be possible too.
  • If people want files out of us, we'll probably end up providing h.264 & PCM at 48k in an mpeg type container - as that'll likely be the way we send content to video hosting sites. If people want something else, then they can transcode it - we're looking at 20-50Mbps, so the result will still be decent after a heavy transcode.

Acquire these things!

Compute resources:

  • Switch. Managed, Gigabit. Or just multiple dumb Gigabit boxes.
  • Control PC
    • Reads the schedule, controls the videoservers, possibly controls the remote mixers.
  • Edit PC
    • Reasonable fast machine to run a video editing program on.
    • We'll cut down the chaff from the goings on in the stages, add Titles, Credits & end boards on this.
    • We'll upload our content from here too (in the background whilst we edit).
  • Storage / record machine
    • 2TB that can do 200Mb/s. No other purpose.
    • Must be something like R10,R51,R60. Basically, quick, reliable.
    • Everything apart from the edit scratch disks will be here, so it needs to be nippy!
    • posibbly dual NIC (decide later).
    • Record the incoming feeds, and clip them at the start (set the clip name) & end(finish file).
  • Videoserver(s)
    • Runs Graphics (fill & key) during the day.
    • Runs videos in the overnight continuity service. Can internally key the graphics for overnight.
    • This can be one machine per stage/stream, or combined.
  • Streamer1
    • Streams the 1st Stream
  • Streamer2
    • Streams the 2nd Stream


On the hardware side:

  • Screens (all HDMI 16:9 unless otherwise stated)
    • VideoServer Output 1
    • VideoServer Output 2
    • Multiview A
    • Multiview B
    • Program A
    • Program B
    • Edit Left
    • Edit Right
    • PC1 (optional, any)
    • PC2 (optional, any)


  • HDSDI-HDMI convertors (LKV-368 are £30 on amazon/ebay)
    • 6 minimum.
    • for each stream: playout, multiviewer, program.
  • Clocks (optional)
    • Leitch 1 (big hands clock)
    • LED1 (caravan left/front)
    • LED2 (caravan right/back)


General items

  • Rack1
  • Rack2
  • MDU's
  • USB Keyboards
  • USB Mice
  • Phone charger :P
  • Network cables
  • 2 Floodlights


Outstation items (for each outstation)

  • Mini rack/flightcase
  • HDMI to HD-SDI convertor
  • VGA to HDMI
  • HDMI matrix
  • Power strip
  • 4 20M XLR cables
  • video mixer
  • ADC (audio)
  • Fibre TX/RX set
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