Galicaster project Home

h5. Introduction

The Galicaster Project is an open initiative to provide *flexible, state-of-the-art solutions for recording educational multimedia contents* like lectures and conferences.


h5. Key Features

* Live visual feedback of what is being recorded, including a vumeter for audio monitoring.
* Remote monitoring of the recording, via VNC.
* Finished recordings can be browsed, played and deleted.
* Recordings can be ingested directly to an OC-Matterhorn core for publishing.
* Compatible with OC_Matterhorn 1.2 and 1.3
* Recording may be triggered automatically or manually.
* Basic control of the recording in-place (start, pause, stop…)
* It is compatible with Matterhorn scheduling system
* Touchscreen interface.

h5. New Features on Galicaster 1.1

* Full MH series support (harvest and edition).
* Multiple audio tracks.
* Basic SDI support.

h5. Main Goal

Galicaster can be used as an automatic in-room recording solution for the classroom, keeping the professor informed and in control, or it can be used as a mobile unit, perfect for recording meetings and conferences.

Our main goal is the creation of *multiple open applications adapted to different scenarios and equipment*. So far, two Galicaster applications have reached a mature state of development: [Galicaster Class|Galicaster Class] and [Galicaster Mobile|Galicaster Mobile].
* [Galicaster Class|Galicaster:Galicaster Class] (GClass) is designed to be in a classroom environment with a basic control set and a tactile interface. It works automatically but some manual actions are available to the lecturers: muting the audio, pausing the recording and manual starting and stopping if desired.
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* [Galicaster Mobile|Galicaster Mobile] (GMobile) is a complete portable recording station, providing full control on the recorded media. Operators can get real-time feedback from cameras and microphones - so that they can react immediately against any unexpected situation, manage a repository with all the recording media, delete many recordings in a single operation, send and resend media to distribution channels, label tracks, etc.
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Another goal pursued by the Galicaster Project is the creation of *end-to-end, complete working solutions for recording educational multimedia contents*, focusing not only on capturing affairs, but also on providing connectivity with the publishing systems and the distribution channels.


h5. Versatility

All branches of Galicaster are *virtually adaptable to any publishing platform* since they keep all the recording metadata and video and audio tracks are recorded separately. Proof of this is the combined [Galicaster and Opencast Matterhorn|Galicaster:Galicaster and Matterhorn, the best match] installation which is already in production at the University of Vigo.

Galicaster can be seamlessly integrated with a wide variety of environments: low-cost, flexible equipments; best-performance, customized installations; existing campus-wide infrastructures; media distribution platforms, etc.


h5. Technologies

Both applications are *based on Python and GStreamer*, both long term projects supported by large communities, ensuring adaptability to most of the operating systems in the UNIX family. They can also be adapted to multiple kinds of hardware, expanding the recording possibilities to many types of devices such as laptops, HD Webcams, TV Cameras, video players, microphones ...
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[(More)|Galicaster:Galicaster and Matterhorn, the best match]
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[!download.png|align=center,width=150!|Download Galicaster]

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*GMobile Trial - May 2011*

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*GClass demo - September 2011*
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h4. Supported By
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[!teltek.png|width=300!|http://www.teltek.es]
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h2. Latest News

h5. Galicaster v1.0.1 released: Matterhorn 1.3 compatible

*March 15th 2012*

Following the release of Opencast Matterhorn 1.3.0, an update of Galicaster 1.0 has been released including modifications to make it compatible with both 1.2 and 1.3 Matterhorn.


h5. Galicaster Community list opened

*March 10th 2012*

To ease the communication between developers and users of Galicaster, a mailing list has been made available. For all those interested on knowing more about Galicaster please visit the [Community area|Community] or [suscribe directly|http://lists.galicaster.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community].


h5. Galicaster presented to the Opencast Matterhorn Community

*February 5th 2012*

Those attending the [Opencast Matterhorn 2012 Unconference|http://unconference.opencast.org] in Oxford (UK) could hear about Galicaster in a short talk and a workshop, where Galicaster's main developer Héctor Canto showed the internals of Galicaster, attendants could try various devices, plug their own laptops and record and playback a few minutes of recordings.

In addition, part of the event was recorded with a Galicater Mobile unit and can be watched in the [Opencast Site|http://opencast.org/video/opencast-matterhorn-2012-unconference-recordings].

h5. Galicaster v1.0 released

*December 22nd 2011*

We are proud to announce the first public release of Galicaster. Key features of this very first version are: Live visual feedback, graphic manager for recordings, basic recording controls, tactile interface and compatibility with Opencast Matterhorn 1.2, allowing scheduling and ingesting.

This and further releases will be available on the [Download Section|Download Galicaster].

h5. Galicaster to be presented in TF-Media Porto

*October 21st 2011*

Developers Héctor Canto and Rubén Pérez introduced the Terena community to the Galicaster project on the 5th TF-Media Meeting & Workshop, hosted in Porto (Portugal) between 26th and 28th of October. The Galicaster presentation was scheduled for October 27th at 11:30am and provided a good insight of the goals, achievements and future plans for this effort on multimedia educational contents recording.


h5. Galicaster integrated on Access Grid

*September 29th 2011*

Today we are starting to record the _Master course in Nutrition_ in the Access Grid facilities at the University of Vigo's main campus. 8 hours of lectures would be recorded weekly, and by taking advantage of the adaptation between Galicaster and the Access Grid technology, presenter, presentation and audio are simultaneously captured. The media is published using a Matterhorn 1.2 Core and it is only accessible to the students registered on the master course.



h5. *Galicaster Class almost ready*

*{_}September 12th 2011{_}*

After a long hard-working summer we are almost ready to install our first [Galicaster Class (old)|Galicaster Class (old)] prototype.Two classrooms on either facuties of the University of Vigo will host a GClass capture agent connected to an Opencast Matterhorn server.
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As soon as posible some demos would be published for you to have a better idea of what GClass is.



h5. *Currently on development - working on the beta version*

*{_}June 13th 2011{_}*

After the success first trials we are working hard on publishing our first beta version. Currently we are improving our video and audio control and solving some issues with the user interface.

If you want any other information or you are interested on being a beta tester contact us. Keep posted\!



h5. *First trials - alpha version succeeded*

*{_}May 22nd 2011{_}*

Recently we have tested our 0.65 version on a weeklong congress on fisheries and biology. We are more than satisfied with the results, having already a working, almost fully operational version.
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Some raw demos are available on the following links:
[http://opencastdemo.media.uvigo.es/engage/ui/watch.html?id=20d5b35f-0ad7-4515-a8d1-b833f153c69c|http://opencastdemo.media.uvigo.es/engage/ui/watch.html?id=20d5b35f-0ad7-4515-a8d1-b833f153c69c]
[http://opencastdemo.media.uvigo.es/engage/ui/watch.html?id=9f53672e-cccd-4e11-9e42-0b55f522ac9b|http://opencastdemo.media.uvigo.es/engage/ui/watch.html?id=9f53672e-cccd-4e11-9e42-0b55f522ac9b]
[http://opencastdemo.media.uvigo.es/engage/ui/watch.html?id=1a96b054-6d05-46de-8066-6072e6cae5cb|http://opencastdemo.uvigo.es/engage/ui/watch.html?id=1a96b054-6d05-46de-8066-6072e6cae5cb]\\


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