Welcome to this projects PDF file.

This project is hoping to unite traditional TV-medium with the Internet. TV has always been sort of «analog» and one way communication. There is always an editor that will decide the content of the channel, and the viewers have rarely been 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 publish on the web, then why should they not be able to publish their content on the TV - medium?

Right now there are few solutions, and those that exists are proprietary and based on expensive hardware.

Why not make an open TV channel based on open and free software?

TV should not be controlled by few. It should be possible to make a broadcast system available to all.

How about a computer with a SDI card, and an open media player controlled by the web?

Module based

Backend

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

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

The file server has a watchfolder for the transcoder. After transcoding, meta data will be updated in the scheduler showing that the media is available for broadcast. The transcoded file is stored in a broadcast safe format on the backend. The backend is the hub storing files for other systems. Transcoded files for web is also available on the backend.

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

All the communication will be documented in the servers API.

Scheduler

This is a system that generates a play list, from a web based user interface This platform has a stand alone database and is "controller" for the open playout system. It has a web based interface for video registration, and play list configurator.

"system flow"

Access the web site, and register a video. Upload the video to backend from this site, and publish the content to the monthly scheduler for playout. you can then also access the video in various formats online for viewing purposes, as a community channel

Transcoder

Transcoding solution needs to get "what ever format" from Backend, for transcoding 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 transcoder as a module, it will add it to the system for accelerated transcoding.

Player

The player is the final output of the system, totally controlled by the scheduler system, that tells what to play when. The player should also be able to pass trough live rtsp/http streams for Live broadcasting.

"player"

Gets play list and time from Scheduler and copies the files from backend for direct playout. If the scheduled item is a live source, the feed will be played as a normal item.

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Frikanalen today have working implementations of all these modules, created by the company Never.no using Microsoft technolocy.

The backend is a Windows 2003 server with SAN storage and a tape robot attached. The upload system is based on FileFlow, and the system API is SOAP based and uses a MS SQL database to store meta-data.

The scheduler and the administration interface is implemented using Microsoft Silverlight and talk to the SOAP API in the backend. It presents the content of the video database and allow one to schedule content up to two weeks in advance.

The transcoding system is split in two, one to generate DV-AVI files used for TV broadcasting, and one to generate Windows Media and Ogg Theora files for web publishing. The first uses Adobe Aftereffects, and the second uses Microsoft Expression Encoder 3. Both are quite slow single unit systems which do not handle parallel processing.

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

Since we have a fully operational backend services, some say we do not need to replace them... We want all users of the big Internet to be included into this «party» and that´s why we creating this project.

The project will be creating 3 modules that can be attached to the existing system, talking to the backend system over the SOAP API, and be based on free and open standards. It will also replace the playout unit with a standard PC / MAC with a SDI graphics card.

The subsystem need to be stand alone units, for integration with the other parts. Because of this free and open formats must be used, to make sure all subsystems can work together.

Project one - playout

The playout module is our first priority. The idéa is to listen on the commands from the scheduler, and play out the videoes at the correct time from the scheduler. 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 knowledge of VLC, or a player with similar capabillites
• reverse engineering existing scheduler system, for getting the play list
• Image magic
• general codec knowledge

its preferred with some OpenGL / OpenCL skills is also good to know to communicate with the Video play out card.

Project two - scheduler

This system is the main control system, which connects the Player with the videos, and the Database. it´s design need to be «stand alone» with the possibility to talk to all systems, even the expensive Harris Video server.

This system needs access to the all ready existing Backend system and Schedule system, it needs to be a «clone» of the existing system. but with the possibilities to also work as a stand alone system

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

Then, after the scheduler can be a slave to the master scheduler, the project moves on to be a stand alone scheduler, with upload possibilities, to backend, and control of the transcoding system.

Qualifications:

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

Project three - transcoder

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

There are a lot of open encoders out there, you have the FFMPEG project, which a lot is based on, you have Handbrake, and not to mention 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 specified in the scheduler system.

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

Qualifications:

• Codec knowledge
• Transcoding knowledge
• Video knowledge
• Perl, MySQL/PostgreSQL and PHP
• Network and TCP/UDP knowledge