[ale] Testing video conference capability.

[DJ-Pfulio]

On 05/13/2016 08:36 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> I have new toys at work! A nice PTZ camera and microphone setup that connects by
> USB to a mac mini running Vidyo.
> 
> Not GPL so that's sad. But at least it has $0 clients for Linux desktop and
> Android phone/tablet. It also costs my department $0 to use the portal connection.
> 
> I've had a conference with myself between new gear and phone. The invite
> includes rather vague info about using a SIP connection and h.323 protocol.
> 
> Can someone with SIP skilz find some time to play with new toys with me?
> 
> Note: this is not my long term vision for ALE remote meetings. That will be an
> all GPL or similar freedom-friendly, fully auditable software stack with
> recording ability.
>  

OBS is THE tool for producing this stuff.  Just needs inputs - audio, video,
video, video, video, audio, .... lots of inputs.  Then you can design what gets
muxed and captured and/or transmitted.  OBS is F/LOSS.  Of course, how many
inputs and what muxing it performed will demand greater CPU capacity.  OTOH, a
Core i3 can handle 2 1080p video inputs and 3 audio inputs with room for more -
which is good for point-of-view transitions.  OBS can be used for live and
delayed muxing.  Runs well on Mac and Linux. Had Linux stability issues 6 months
ago, but they did a completely new release which seems to have solved that.

As usual, capturing good audio is the hard part.  BTW, I figured out the audio
issue I was having and have everything working in a chroot under ChromeOS now,
though google forcing OS updates down my throat has caused instabilities and
locked up the device from time to time. It usually shows up as a video or audio
issue.

And SIP skills aren't enough. You want h.323 skills which can be VERY DIFFERENT
from normal audio SIP stuff.