Welcome to this projects PDF file.

This project is hoping to unite traditional TV-medium with the internet. TV has always been sort of «analoge» , and one way comunication. There is always a editor that will decide the content of the channle, and the viewers have never beed able to participate, or contribute to the actual broadcasts. Today we have editing programs on a PC, and we can record, edit and publish right out of the box. Since all people can record edit and publish on the web, then why shuldnt they be able to publish their content on the TV - medium.

Rigth now there are few solutions, and those that exists are properiatory, and based on expencive hardware....

So how about a computer with a SDI card, and VLC....

Module based

Backend

This is where all the media is stored, it's a computer with multiply SAN devices over fiber channel.

When a person is uploading a video, it can be uploaded direct to this server.

The File server then has a watchfolder to the transcoder solution for easy transcoding, and meta data veryfing to the sched uler. this is for easy file acsess to files from other systems.

This system is already created, as well as its sentral database.

All the comunication will be documented in the servers API.

Sceduler

This is a system that generaters a playlist, from a web based user interface This platform has a standalone database and is "controller" for the open playout system. It has a web based interface for video registration, and playlist configurator.

"system flow"

Acsess the web site, and registrer a video. Upload the video to backend from this site, and publish the content to the monthely scheduler for playout. you can then also access the video in various formats online for viewing purpeses, as a comunity channel

Transcoder

Transocding solution needs to get "what ever format" from Backend, for trasncoding to Broadcast, web and open standard formats. Hopefully it can also be network based, so you can connect new modules to accelerate transcoding

"flow"

The system gets a file in a folder, takes the file and transcodes, renames and moves it according to the scheduler database system. if a new computer on the network presents itself to the trascoder as a module, it will add it to the system for accelerated transcoding.

Player

The player is the final output of the system, totaly controled by the schedluresystem, that tells what to play when. The player should aslo be able to pass trough live rtsp/http streams for Live broadcasting.

"player"

Gets playlist and time from Scheduler and copyes the files from backend for direct playout. If the sceduled item is a live source, the feed will be played as a normal item.

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Today we have all of theese modules working, the company Never.no created it, based on microsoft thecnology.

The backend is a full windows 2003 server with a tape robot attached, it also has a uploading system on it called Fileflow. The systems API is based on SOAP witch connects to a Microsoft SQL database.

The Scheduler, and admin interface is based on Microsoft Silverlight thecnology. This is where you have the video database, that connects to the scheduler and you can add content to the scheduler ,

The transcoding system for broadcast is based on Adobe Aftereffects (including format conversion). We also use Microsoft Expression Encoder 3 for transcoding to web formats. Both are single unit system that is quite slow and not optimized for parallell processing.

The playout system is based on a Harris video playout with a CGI module attached.

Since we have a fully operational background services, then we dont need to change it, says some... We want all users of the big internett to be included into this «party» and that´s why we creating this project.

The project will be creation of 3 modules that can be attached to this system, talking to this system over the SOAP API, and be a «none» Silverlight thecnology, it will also replace the playout unit with a standard PC / MAC with a SDI computer card.

The system needs also to be standalone units, for integration with other systems, so use open formats, talk over open formats then all systems can comunicate,

Project one - playout

The playout module is our first priority. The idéa is to lissen on the commands from the scheduler, and play out the videoes at the correct time from the sceduler. When there are none videos to be played. We want «show info» to be shown on the channel, creating a «Whats next» type of poster, with a animated background.

Qualifications:

• basic knowlage of VLC, or a player with similar capebilitys
• reverse enginering existing scheduler system, for getting the playlist
• Image magic
• general codec knowlage

its preffered with Some openGL / openCL skills is also good to know to comunucate with the Video play out card.

Project two - scheduler

This system is the main controll system, witch connects the Player with the videos, and the Database. it´s design need to be «standalone» with the posibility to talk to all systems, even the expensive Harris Video server.

This system needs acsess to the all ready existing Backend system and Scedule system, it needs to be a «clone» of the existing system. but with the posibillytis to also work as a standalone system

First off, today this is a «Slave» sceduler for the Silverlight scheduler, where you,get the information on what to play from.

Then, aftter the scheduler can be a slave to the master scheduler, the project moves on to be a stand alone scheduler, with upload posibilytis, to backend, and controll of the transcoding system.

Qualifications:

• Ajax and general web programing, XML, PHP
• Mysql programing, as a main database
• Basic video knowlage / VLC / Transcoding

Project three - transcoder

To get «Whatever filetype» to known formats, as .dv for the playout system, Ogg Theora for the web system, and the posibilyty for other formats, as MP4, X264, MPEG 2...

There are a lot of open encoders out there, you have te FFMPEG project, witch a lot is based on, you have Handbrake, and not to menton VLC.

This project aims to get a working transcoder to talk to the Scheduler system, and the Backend system.

When a user uploads the file, the Scheduler database system tells the transcoder, «now the file is ready» the transcoder takes the file and transcodes it to various formats as spessyfied in the sheduler system.

If posible, the transcoder system shuld be able to swap feeld orders, normalise the sound volume, check 4*3 VS 16*9, also multiply computers rendering farm.

Qualifications:

• Codec knowlage
• Transcoding knowlage
• Video knowlage
• Pearl , Mysql and PHP
• Network and TCP/UDP knowlage