DrupalConDC 2009 Video Recording Project

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ronaldmulero's picture

Announcements Sat, 2009-02-28:

All the paid video positions have been filled.

"Thank you" to everyone who signed up. :)

Still want to help out?

If you are already coming to DrupalCon DC 2009 and would still like to help out with video project without getting paid, you are, of course, more than welcome. :)

Bring your camera anyway!

Just because we're video recording DrupalCon DC 2009 doesn't mean that you can't too. :)

Original Post:

Do you have a DV camcorder, a USB/FireWire, and a lot of hard-drive space?
Then sign-up online to video-record and upload DrupalConDC sessions and we will...

Give you CA$H!

:o)

That's right, cold hard cabbage. We will be paying people just like you to video-record 5 of the 7 rooms of DrupalconDC.

For each verified session-hour that you upload to archive.org you will earn about $28.57. If you sign up for one room for all 3 days, this comes out to $600. For each of these videos that you upload within 24 hours, you will also earn $20 bonus cash. If you miss the 24-hour turnaround deadline, you can still earn $10 in bonus cash if you get the video uploaded within 48 hours. All payment and bonuses will be awarded on the last day of the conference. All total, that's a potential $1320 you could take home by committing to one room for all 3 days and uploading each video within 24 hours.

But ya gotta sign-up online to get paid.

If you're interested in finding out what rooms will contain which sessions, the first 5 columns of the schedule at http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/schedule correspond to the 5 rooms that we will be recording. It would be great if you could just sign-up to record one room for all three days (that would make it a whole lot easier on you and us), but if you would rather just cherry-pick shifts, that'd be OK too.

But ya gotta sign-up online to get paid:

To sign-up for shifts please visit the sign-up links at:
http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/video.

Each room has it's own shift sign-up page. Just fill-out your name, check the boxes for the times you'd like to record, then click on "Save". Then send an email to changetheworld@ronaldmulero.com that includes your cellphone number (so that we all can coordinate on-site) and your twitter username if you have one (so we can notify the greater d.o. community as soon as specific videos become available).

Recommended recording formats:

  • h.264/mp4
    • minimum: 25fps, 500kbps data rate, 320x240 resolution, 32kHz AAC audio
    • needed storage: A modest h.264/mp4 format requires about 250MB/hour, about 1.75 GB/seven-hour-day, and about 5.25 GB for all 3 days.
  • rawDV
    • needed storage: rawDV requires about 13GB/hour, 91GB/seven-hour-day, and about 273GB for all 3 days

Recommended direct-to-disk capture hardware and software configurations:

  • h.264/mp4:
    • A camcorder hooked up via FireWire to a MacBook Pro running Quicktime Pro at its "Best" capture setting
    • Whatever you got that can record a decent h.264/mp4 directly to disk or memory card :o)
  • rawDV:
    • A camcorder hooked up via FireWire to a computer running:
      • OS X
        • Quicktime Pro at its "Device Native" capture setting
      • GNU/Linux
        • Kino
      • Windows
        • Windows Media Encoder
        • Wubi (and therefore, Kino on Ubuntu)
    • Whatever you got that can record rawDV directly to disk or memory card :o)

No fancy post-production work is necessary on the videos. Just record the sessions, upload them to archive.org as soon as you can, and notify the greater d.o community that they're available.

You'll need to supply all the necessary hardware/software to capture and upload the videos, including the video camera, tripod, mic, recording media, computer, portable external drive(s), cables, cords, whatever-you-like. A consumer-level DV camcorder is fine. No need for an 1080i HD camera. (But hey, if you have one and are up for it, have at it.) DrupalCon will provide you with access to a power outlet and an area in the center of each room for you to set up equipment. The rest is up to you. (Bring snacks.)

For uploading videos, Drupalcon will also provide a video-uploading room having an ethernet connection to the Internet. If you'll be recording a lot of videos in raw DV format, especially if only on MiniDV tape, it's recommended that you also arrange for an alternate Internet connection in DC for uploading your videos so that you aren't chained to the convention center for three days and nights. C'mon, you got parties to go to! (see http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/news/let-there-be-rock-first-decree-king)

Recommended Reading:

More questions? Know a better way? Willing to share some of your audio/video equipment at DrupalCon? Please post comments.

Comments

How do room numbers map to room names?

nadavoid's picture

I'd like to sign up to video, but I don't know which rooms are which...

On the signup, there are only room numbers: 1 through 5. How do they map to room names? (I'll list the room names here for convenience.)

  • Acquia Room, Code + Development 1
  • Trellon Room, Code + Development 2
  • CommonPlaces Room, Design + Usability
  • OpenCalais Room, Showcase + Strategy
  • Torvalds Room
  • Lerdorf Room
  • Berners-Lee Room

Which one is Room 3, Room 4?

I see now

nadavoid's picture

I finally really read this sentence, instead of just skimming:

the first 5 columns of the schedule at http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/schedule correspond to the 5 rooms that we will be recording

So, question answered.

How do I get involved?

enginpost's picture

I am not signed up to go to Drupalcon, but I do have a nice camera (XHA1 HD) and would love to sneak in, video/attend sessions, and get paid to do so. Can I still get involved? I have to clear this at work (I live in Crystal City) but I think maybe I could make it and record if I can do that, get paid and get in for freeeeee.

Please let me know... directly! steve at enginpost dot com

thanks--

Tell you what...

ronaldmulero's picture

There are only 8 sessions remaining that need to be covered: four in the afternoon on Wednesday and four in the afternoon on Thursday, both in Room 5, the "Torvalds Room".

If you video & upload all of these sessions, we'll give you a free ticket, free snacks, and pay you between $200 and $360.

That sound about right? :)

But ya gotta sign-up for all the remaining 8 shifts to get the deal. And you better be quick: this offer is open to everyone in the d.o. community.

And we'll even give readers of this discussion thread a half-hour head start before posting this offer on Twitter. :)

Announcements Sat, 2009-02-28:

ronaldmulero's picture

All the paid video positions have been filled.
"Thank you" to everyone who signed up. :)

Still want to help out?
If you are already coming to DrupalCon DC 2009 and would still like to help out with video project without getting paid, you are, of course, more than welcome. :)

Bring your camera anyway!
Just because we're video recording DrupalCon DC 2009 doesn't mean that you can't too. :)

I'd like to help..

sidwilroy's picture

I have a couple of SATA2 USB2 or eSATA 1TB empty drives that we can use...
I just got back in town, is anyone meeting tomorrow?

May I borrow a drive?

nadavoid's picture

That's great that you have some empty drives. Could I borrow one? One would be plenty for the sessions I'm recording.

That would be great if we

ronaldmulero's picture

That would be great if we could use your hard drives. I will be in town tomorrow afternoon. Maybe you could bring them by Development Seed Headquarters. I'm sure there will be other people there too.

How to Get to Supplies in DC

ronaldmulero's picture

Downtown DC Map - Staples, Apple Store, and other points of interest
Metrorail Map - DrupalCon is at the "Mt Vernon Sq/7th St - Convention Center" stop of the Green Line and Yellow Line

What to Bring?

ronaldmulero's picture

camera
tripod
3-days worth of recording media
DVD-RW
extra batteries
power cords
extension cord
power strip
IEEE1394 cables and adapters
computer
pens, paper (to document session info)
power bars / beverages
cooling fans or trays
business cards
Duct tape
Emergen C

Anything else?

Dang I wish I'd seen this

MacRonin's picture

Dang I wish I'd seen this sooner, Now I'm really disappointed that work kept me from going. This could have covered my expenses. :-)

Still going to read the provides recording docs I hadn't seen before. Might be some good info in there for future reference.

Conference Layout:

ronaldmulero's picture

Conference Layout:

Floor Plan - http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/news/register-drupalcon-dc-tuesday-less-line...

Schedule - http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/schedule
 

Room Layouts for Video Crew:

Acquia Room, Code + Development 1 (Rm 147 B Theater)
Video Crew: Marc Tan
Shifts: http://www.doodle.com/9e5m5vharumzi4d3
Layout: http://www.dcconvention.com/pdfs/WCC-100%20level/RM-%20147.pdf

Trellon Room, Code + Development 2 (Rm 147 A Theater)
Video Crew: March Espedido, Alan Doucette
Shifts: http://www.doodle.com/cpahid6wuddqwrpz
Layout: http://www.dcconvention.com/pdfs/WCC-100%20level/RM-%20147.pdf

CommonPlaces Room, Design + Usability (Rm 145 B Theater)
Video Crew: Chris Rowe, David Lanier, March Espedido
Shifts: http://www.doodle.com/p77zuueezxyafwcc
Layout: http://www.dcconvention.com/pdfs/WCC-100%20level/RM-145.pdf

OpenCalais Room, Showcase + Strategy (Rm 145 A Theater)
Video Crew: Robert N Vance
Shifts: http://www.doodle.com/8f8fam72dv45h4v2
Layout: http://www.dcconvention.com/pdfs/WCC-100%20level/RM-145.pdf

Torvalds Room (Rm 146 C Theater)
Video Crew: David Lanier
Shifts: http://www.doodle.com/cf4iesptkrcqtip8
Layout: http://www.dcconvention.com/pdfs/WCC-100%20level/RM-146.pdf

Lerdorf Room (Rm 146 B Theater)
Video Crew:
Shifts:
Layout: http://www.dcconvention.com/pdfs/WCC-100%20level/RM-146.pdf

Berners-Lee Room (Rm 146 A Theater)
Video Crew:
Shifts:
Layout: http://www.dcconvention.com/pdfs/WCC-100%20level/RM-146.pdf

KEYNOTE (Rm 146 ABC Theater)
Video Crew:
Shifts:
Layout: http://www.dcconvention.com/pdfs/WCC-100%20level/RM-146.pdf
 

Other info:

Rooms 147A, 147B, 145A, and 145B are approximately 40'x80' each
Rooms 146A, 146B, and 146C are approximately 50'x80' each
Each room will be provided with one power outlet for video crew use and one 6'x8' riser in the center area for video crew use.
 

Utilities and Services:

ELECTRICAL
100 amp/208 volt 3ph; 400 amp/208 volt 3ph

TELEPHONE/DATA
RJ45 Voice and Data Connectors; Single Mode and Multimode Fiber Connectors

AUDIO AND VIDEO
XRL Mic and Line Connectors RJ45 Audio Inputs

LIGHTING
Fluorescent with bi-level switching and dimmable incandescent

RESTROOMS
3 sets men's and women's rooms

Video Crew Registration and Practice Run

ronaldmulero's picture

Registration
Don't forget: Everyone on the paid video crew will need to attend registration in order to receive their ID badges for the conference. On-site Early Registration starts at 4:00 pm today (Drupalcon Layout: http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/news/drupalcon-dc-locations-times-maps-and-food). You may also attend Wednesday's registration if you can't make it today.

Practice Run
A workshop for presenters (Presenting You! Workshop http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/presenting-you-workshop) also begins at 4pm today at the Convention Center. This is a perfect opportunity to setup and test your equipment on-site, practice recording/converting/uploading a session, get comfortable with the workflow, check out the other rooms, ask questions, get answers, see how all of this is going to work.

If you're planning to video record today's workshop, please arrive one hour beforehand (3pm) to give yourself time to set up your equipment.

Video Online

Audio Out XLR

ronaldmulero's picture

Heads up!

Each of the rooms is set up with one video riser having a powerstrip and one XLR audio line-out available. Make sure you have an XLR adapter (femaleXLR-to-whatever.you.use) if you want to pull the sound directly from the board.

Recording Workshop Now

ronaldmulero's picture

Will post online when finished.

Equipment:
Sony Handycam DCR-TR20
FireWire out
MacBook Pro
Quicktime Pro

Notes:

Recording video direct to disk. Audio direct from mixing board audio-out to camera mic in. You'll notice a buzzing sound in the audio in the beginning. It goes away after a little bit. If you get this buzzing sound from your XLR out, ask Joe (you will meet him) to check that phantom power on the board is turned off. He's checking all the rooms now to make sure that they are all off. An isolation transformer might be a good thing to bring along if you have one.

This should go without saying, but don't do anything else like hop on the Internet while you're recording...like I'm doing now:(
Just concentrate on capturing the video, framing, focus, etc. You'll see in the video when I was not on the camera.

Backlight

ronaldmulero's picture

Turn on the "backlight" feature of your camera if it has one. The stage is pretty dark and the screens seem to show up better too. I'll switch it on and off toward the end of this session so you can see.

Lighting?

RobertNelsonVance's picture

You had mentioned that the lighting in the rooms was florescent... but in your video, the lights that are on are incandescent in-ceiling can lighting - the florescents are off. Is it going to be like this in all the rooms all the time?

That said... Once a decision is made for a room to either 1) have florescents on, or 2) have florescents off w/ incandescents on... it should probably stay that way for at least the entire day for sake of the videographer not having to tinker around multiple times per day with white balance.

Infact.... it may be best to decide how you want all of the rooms so that 1) the conference is uniform from room to room and a) looks more esthetically uniform and b) is easier on people's eyes because it'll all the the same, and 2) so that the videos are all uniform.

Just some last minute thoughts.

Good eye. :) Which lights

ronaldmulero's picture

Good eye. :)

Which lights are on or off are completely up to each presenter. Since they are presenting primarily to the attendees of Drupalcon, not to the video crew, we will have to adapt as best we can.

Grab 2 chairs

ronaldmulero's picture

Place them on the riser. One is for you to sit in. Remember, you're going to be video recording for many hours. The other is for you to set your laptop on if you're recording direct-to-disk. Bring a cooling tray/fan for your laptop. These chairs have a lot of padding and tend to act as an insulator -- not so good for dissipating heat.

These risers are pretty comfortable for one person. No worries about bumping equipment off.

OK 3 chairs

ronaldmulero's picture

One for your other laptop so you can connect to the Internet, take notes, give status updates, bookmark session URLs, etc. -- between sessions.

Gatorade!

ronaldmulero's picture

Wow! This room is dryyyyyy. Bring snacks and something to drink and keep them within arms reach.

RobertNelsonVance's picture

Did you suggest not doing anything on your laptop while recording because 1) it distracted you and you didn't keep the camera focused where the action was, 2) because the laptop couldn't handle multitasking, or 3) both?

My plan was to upload videos while recording others. I briefly tested this out at home and didn't seem to have any issues with it. My thought was that after session one is recorded, I would start uploading it before session two started. Once session one was done uploading, I would start uploading session two at the next break between sessions... and so forth. I figured I'd be able to at least get some uploaded asap for those people who won't be attending and also save me from having to upload an entire day's worth when I get back to the hotel.

I recommend you not do

ronaldmulero's picture

I recommend you not do anything on your laptop while recording because it's distracting to you. It's better to remain fully aware of what is happening in the room, in addition to what is happening in your camera frame, so that you can adjust your shot to best capture what each presenter is trying to communicate at any given moment.

If you are uploading videos using your personal mobile broadband connection, that's ok.

Please do not use the wireless connection at the convention center to upload videos, though. A dedicated ethernet connection to the Internet has been provided specifically for us to upload videos on site. It is attached to a 4-port router that will remain very accessible to the video crew. In addition, at least three 500GB external hard drives will always be available for the video crew to use. These hard drives will rotate between the video upload desk (where volunteers will be stationed to convert/upload your videos for you) and each room (so that each videographer can offload their recordings regularly in order to free up space on their own hard drives). Once your video is on one of these hard drives, it is as good as "uploaded within 24-hours" and you will receive credit.

Archive.Org Meta Data?

RobertNelsonVance's picture

You mentioned at some point telling us how you'd like the meta data assigned in Archive.Org for people to easily find it....

Should we just follow your video upload (http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalconDC2009-PresentingYou) as an example... or is there other info that you need us to add?

Yes. If you will be

ronaldmulero's picture

Yes. If you will be uploading videos, please follow that video upload as an example.

Before you upload, follow archive.org's recommended naming convention for your video file:
TheTitleOfThesession_[datarate].mp4
for example, PresentingYou_500kb.mp4

When uploading, the important metadata to provide is:

Identifier: DrupalconDC2009-TheTitleOfTheSession
for example, Identifier: DrupalconDC2009-PresentingYou

Creator: drupalcon

Year: 2009

Licenseurl: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Director: (Your Name)
for example, Director: Ronald Mulero

Publisher: drupalcon

Runtime: (runtime)
for example, Runtime: 1:23

Keywords: drupalcon dc 2009 (Presenter's Name)
for example, Keywords: drupalcon dc 2009 Emma Jane Hogbin

Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Thank you!

ChrisBryant's picture

All of you guys rock! It is amazing the number of sessions recorded and the speed with which they were all uploaded. Thank you again!

Chris

--
Gravitek Labs

Videos posted online:

ChrisBryant's picture

For anyone that comes here and hasn't seen the list, you can find all of the videos here:

http://drupal.org/node/385952

--
Gravitek Labs

Wall of DrupalCon Video

aaron's picture

Wall of DrupalCon Video

http://aaronwinborn.com/video-term/drupalcon-dc

Aaron Winborn
Drupal Multimedia (book, in October!)
AaronWinborn.com (blog)
Advomatic (work)

Aaron Winborn
Drupal Multimedia (my book, available now!)
AaronWinborn.com
Advomatic

Missing a video

febbraro's picture

Hey there.

I noticed that the video from one of my sessions is missing. No where to be found.

http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/using-intelligent-web-services-seman...

Am I the only one? Have I done something wrong? Why have you forsaken me?!?!?!?!?! :)

I would love to get this up there too,
Frank


http://phase2technology.com
http://agileappraoch.com
http://twitter.com/febbraro

Sorry Frank

ronaldmulero's picture

9 of the sessions didn't get recorded. Yours just happened to be one of them. :o(

See list of 9 at http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/news/almost-all-session-videos-drupalcon-dc-...

Audio missing.

dipen chaudhary's picture

This session by chx and david strauss http://www.archive.org/details/DrupalconDc2009-TheNextDecade doesn't have sound? Can you guys re-upload this as this seems to be a really awesome talk


Dipen Chaudhary
http://dipenchaudhary.com
http://playdrupal.com


Dipen Chaudhary
Founder, QED42 http://www.qed42.com Drupal development

Thanks for the heads-up.

ronaldmulero's picture

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll get ahold of Alan and see if he can't re-upload this one: "The Next Decade".

Washington, DC Drupalers

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