[kwlug-disc] Recording physical events, follow up after OBS+Kdenlive talk

[Mikalai Birukou]

Followup to "physical event on the horizon" with a reminder of past 
post/thoughts, through the prism of two years of recorded virtual events.


Prism of recording:

- Simple recording scene setup is a king.

- Simple post production is a king.

- Backup recording on BBB server is invaluable, when backup is needed.


Hardware:

- I volunteer a 22-nm, Intel Core i7-4702MQ processor (4 cores, 2.20GHz, 
6MB cache), Intel HD Graphics 4600, 8GB, m.2 SATA SSD, ThinkPad E540, 
retro laptop. Initial impression was that 44-nm Phenom retro box would 
do, but there is a freeze attributed to amd graphics, whatever-ish. 
Hence, the laptop.

This form factor necessitates usb connection to peripherals, yet it is 
easier to carry a laptop. It also has vga and hdmi, if needed. VGA/HDMI 
can't consume signal, can they?

- I have a usb webcam to statically setup and record speaker. But any 
webcam will do, I guess.

- Capture of quality sound is needed. Mic, mics? I guess there is 
experience with sound in KWLUG already.

- Capture of video that goes to projector is needed. Referenced below 
past post mentions some ideas.


Process:

- use OBS to combine streams in a scene that is both streamed and recorded.

Questions: Stream how/where? Can a scene be shown on a second monitor 
simultaneously with recording? This second screen can be shared into BBB 
session, making an unconventional streaming. What about sound? I prefer 
streaming to be as local and simple and as possible, under our control.

- Out of town speakers can come via BBB, we can project video and blast 
sound. In this scenario BBB is a stream and recording goes like we have 
been recording during these two years. But for localized talks, if 
streaming setup is a pain, must we do it?

- have a cut-only post-production that generates video files.


Thought? Ideas? Have you had related video-audio experience during this 
time to instruct us here?


Referenced previous post(s):

> Using an OBS machine sounds like an interesting possibility.
>
> Looking for some examples of how other people do this the DebConf video
> team has documented their process/hardware. It is more fancy than we
> would need, but might be useful for guidance to find cheaper solutions.
>
> https://debconf-video-team.pages.debian.net/docs/hardware.html
>
>
> Another option, in the description of the TinyPiolt KVM-over-IP project,
> is a cheap HDMI to USB dongle. Which sounds like it might be a camera
> source that OBS would be able to see.
> https://mtlynch.io/tinypilot/#hdmi-to-usb-dongle
>
> So maybe with the right VGA split that adapter could live between the
> presenters laptop and the projector?
>
>
> Andrew
>
> (P.S.: This kind of topic has been discussed before so I threw up a
> gitlab repo to try and record this kind of information about running a
> virtual or in person group.
> * https://gitlab.com/acant/sig_stack/-/blob/master/README.md
>
> I have started with some links of the top of my head, and I would
> eventually like to turn this into a list documentation+automation. The
> ideas would be to help us run KWLUG, eventually help me with running
> KWRuby, and maybe be useful to other people as well. :)
>
> If anyone has things to add or ideas to consider, please feel free to
> open Merge Requests or issues!
>
> )
>
>
> On 2020-07-07 10:23 a.m., Mikalai Birukou via kwlug-disc wrote:
>> To capture physical meetings, when they resume, can we have a machine
>> that runs OBS with 3-4 inputs?
>>
>>   1) presenter's laptop video out, whatever goes onto projector.
>>
>>   2) presenter's laptop audio out, for those rare instances.
>>
>>   3) presenter's microphone and microphones in the room for questions.
>>
>>   4) some webcam to have little physical presence frame.
>>
>>
>> In a professional setting, I guess, these may be recorded into separate
>> streams, and later synchronized to produce result.
>>
>> For simplicity of our situation, IMHO, the easiest thing is to just have
>> OBS machine producing scene and adjusting it as meeting progresses. The
>> only post-production activity will be cutting some segments, which, for
>> example, I do now with recorded virtual meetings.
>>
>>
>> We want presenters to have their machines as intact as possible. This
>> suggests that may be we want to find way to capture VGA/HDMI that is
>> later sent to projector. Is this possible?
>>
>> Some duckduck-ing:
>>
>> -
>> https://next-hack.com/index.php/2020/06/11/a-20-vga-to-usb-capture-system-and-more/
>>
>>
>> -
>> https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/6jm8fn/best_linux_capture_card/