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Galicaster Class Installation Guide

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Introduction

On this section you will be guided through a series of steps to finish the setup of your Galicaster Class unit. Please, read this documentation carefully and follow its instructions. In case of doubts please take advantage of the Galicaster Community list to make any question or suggestion. If you have purchased this unit from Teltek Video Research contact us directly through the channels we've provided.

In the following sections you will receive instructions on how to connect and configure you Galicaster unit. Some of the sections may not affect you because of the hardware you've installed or the type of installation you made, so ignore them and focus on the ones that matters to you.

A. Room installation


There plenty of variations for a room to be equiped with Galicaster. On every step we will point out some recommendations and instructions to achieve the best solution to your needs.

a. Place the rack
  • Take into account the access to power supply, network and other wiring like usb.
b. Place the screen
  • The screen is usually installed over or in the lateral of the rack.
  • Other locations are suitable, but never near the lecturer's computer because it can be confusing.
    Place the camera
  • The optimal position for the camera is 5m ahead of the wall - the one being recorded.
  • It should be placed about 1.5 to 2 m height, in order to record people "face to face" and don't get in the view of the audience.
  • Slides shouldn't be recorded by the camera
  • Avoid any direct light pointing the camera
c. Place the microphone
  • The microphone is usually kept on the Rack itself.
  • In case you want to place it on the desk, set a box to keep it and set a usb extension from the microphone to de rack
d. Wire everything:
  • There is commercial USB extensions cable up to 25m
  • There is commercial VGA extensions cable up to 20m - in case a longer wire is necessary, UTP extensions are mandatory
  • The laptop or desk computer is usually connected to the projector. The projector have a VGA passthrough which you can connect to the Galicater unit with a VGA extension.
    • In other case set a VGA splitter to duplicate the output of the desk.
e. Place warnings on the room and the unit:
  • Remember the lecture to place the microphone back on its bay
  • Inform the audience that it could be accidentally recorded

Click on the image to enlarge.

Simplified wiring.

B. Cards and connectors


The Galicaster Mobile Unit comes equipped with different inputs to fulfil your needs on recording multistream material. Depending on the devices you are about to use you should combine those inputs properly.

There are two main combinations, depending on the type of camera (NTSC or SDI) you use to record the presenter. In both cases you have to use a VGA grabber to record the slides. Those combinations will be explained briefly on the next two sections.

Please, take a closer look to the image to identify the ports of each capture card before connecting anything.

a.Graphics card
# Port Description
A1 VGA output To connect the monitor of the computer.
A2 HDMI output To connect the monitor of the computer.
A3 DVI output To connect the monitor of the computer.
b.Epiphan card
# Port Description
B1 VGA capture To connect a laptop or computer VGA output to capture it
c.Motherboard
C1 Mouse-Keyboard PS2 connector for keyboard or mouse
C2 USB hub External USB 2.0 hub for multiple purposes.
C3 LAN input To connect a RJ45 connector for network purposes.
C4 SPDIF input External USB 2.0 hub for multiple purposes.

Click on the image to enlarge.
d.On-board sound card
# Port Description
D1 Line IN (Recommended) To connect a mixer or a line level microphone to record, mini-jack 3.5mm.
D2 Headphones OUT To connect a mixer or a microphone to record, mini-jack 3.5mm.
D3 Microphone IN To connect a microphone to record, mini-jack 3.5mm.


Operative System setup


Autostart

By default, Galicaster is started automatically as the operative system is loaded. To change this do the following:

  • Press Win and write Startup Applications,
  • Check out Galicaster to disable the autostart
  • Repeat the operation to re-stablish the autostart

You may want to do it using the terminal:

  • Delete ~/.config/autostart/galicaster.desktop

To re-stablish the autostart:

  • cp /usr/share/applications/galicaster.desktop ~/.config/autostart/

Shortcuts

To configure the operative system supporting Galicaster you may exit Galicaster or change the current desktop. To do so:

a. If the admin mode is activated you can quit on the welcome page, on the quit button on the bottom right corner.

  • To access the welcome page you can't be recording
    b. If the admin mode isn't active then you can use a keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Q, to do so the Num Block has to be activated.
    c. You may not want to exit Galicaster and still change configuration on the OS, use the combination Ctrl+Alt+Left/RightArrow to switch between desktops (usually four).

To run Galicaster once closed use the Shortcut in the Desktop or press Win and write Galicaster to look for the application launcher.

C. Network Configuration

To change your IP settings, pleas read this official Ubuntu guideline.

The Network Manager is on the top right corner, Right-button click on the double arrow icon.


D. Capture Devices configuration


Galicaster configuration are specified by two types files: configuration and input profiles.
Depending on your needs you may set different parameters. Consult ....... to know the meaning and possible values of each parameters.

Galicaster records multiple devices synchronously. Each device and its configuration is called a track. A Input Profile is a group of tracks to be recorded together. The most common profiles are:

  • Webcam + Slides + Microphone: class.ini
  • Webcam + Slides + Microphone + Backup Audio: class_audio_backup.ini
  • Video Camera (audio included) + Slides: camera_slides.ini
  • HD input (audio included) + Slides: hd_slides.ini
  • HD camera + HDMI slides: hd_unit.ini

In these examples, we suppose two streams of video. If you don't want to record the slides, create a new profile without the slides track and remember to change the name of the profile, to avoid confusion.

Now, it's time to configure the cards you've selected and the audio. More information about this matter is available here.

D.1 Epiphan configuration

EXPLAIN the behaviour of the Switcher, input and output resolution, blask strips ...

D.2 Webcam configuration

Logitech c920 is an HD webcam with optic lens and automatic behaviour - white balance, autofocus, auto-aperture.
It records 24 fps at 720p. The default configuration is:

  • power-line-frequency:50Hz
  • cappabilities: image/jpeg,framerate=24/1,width=1280,height=720
    Back to 4:3
    If you want you can cut part of the video to record a non-panoramic video including in the configuration:
  • videocrop-left=160
  • videocrop-right=160
    The value is in pixels

To set manual values on the parameters of the webcam use a tool called guvcview:

  • Open a terminal and run:
    guvcview -o
    

D.3 Blackmagic configuration


To list the input standards and formats supported by Blackmagic cards run the following line in a shell:

gst-inspect-0.10 decklinksrc | grep Enum -A 20

Once you identified the format you want to capture, edit the conf.ini file you've just downloaded. Search for the track Blackmagic and change the parameters input and input_type for their right values. Some try-and-error may be neccessary since maybe you can't gather all the information from your video source.
The p in 1080p stands for progressive
The i in 1080i stands for interlaced

D.4 Hauppauge configuration


Before running Galicaster you may have to configure your Hauppauge card. Connect your camera and do the following:

Standard selection
You have to choose between a list of standards. To list and select the standard, run in a shell:

v4l2-ctl -d /dev/haucamera --list-standards | grep Index -A 2
v4l2-ctl -d /dev/haucamera -s 0

Input selection
Depending on the input you are using you have to choose between S-Video (4-pin) and Composite (RCA). To list and select the input, run in shell:

v4l2-ctl -d /dev/haucamera -n | grep Input -A 1
v4l2-ctl -d /dev/haucamera -i 2

Inputs 1 and 3 are for 4-pin.
Inputs 2, 4 and 5 are for RCA.

C.4 Sound configuration


To have the best audio feedback on your interface you should configure your audio inputs properly. First of all, go to the Sound Manager (speaker icon on the top right corner of the desktop)

Headphones output
Regulate this slide bar to a comfortable sound level.

Pulse input ( Line in):
If you are using the Hauppauge card please skip this section
Select the input you are using and set the values to 100% volume, no amplification.
Later, if you have distortion on your audio input, edit the conf.ini and set amplification = 1.0 in the AudioSource device.

Recommendation


On the pulse track of your conf.ini, don't leave the value location as _default. List the inputs and set it. This way you won't need to check it every time you switch on your unit. To do that, run in a shell:

pactl list | grep Source -A 2

Identify the input you want to use, for example

alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

Use the name as location on the conf.ini pulse track

[track3]
name = AudioSource
device = pulse
flavor = presenter
active = True
*location = alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo*
file = sound.mp3
amplification = 2.0
vumeter = True
player = True


Galicaster Vumeter
Add this section in the conf.ini file.

[audio]
min = -60
max = 0

If the NO SOUND dialog is coming in and out constantly, set a higher value on min, for example -40.

Alsa Advanced configuration
If you still experience problems after configuring the Sound Manager and your Mixer or Sound input device, you should take a look to ALSA.
Run alsamixer on a shell and ensure that your device is not being amplified.

  • Press F6 to select the input and F4 to go to the Capture section.
  • You can check the real Gain on Item on the top left corner of the screen.

D. Opencast Matterhorn related configuration


If you have a OC-Matterhorn running you have to ask your Matterhorn system administrator for some information.

First of all, You need the admin host address, including the port. For example:

host = http://fakeadmin.matterhorn.com:80

You also need a digest user - a regular one won't work. There is a default digest account that should be replaced with your own values.

username=  matterhorn_system_account
password= CHANGE_ME

You also need to set up a default workflow and its parameters. Scheduled recordings will have his own workflow and parameters, defined in the scheduling operation, but the recordings started manually won't. The usual parameters you have to set up are captions and trimHold, which default to False. The normal configuration is:

workflow = full
workflow-parameters = trimHold:true

If you set up more than one parameter:

workflow-parameters = trimHold:true;captions=True

Finally, you have to decide if your recordings will be recorded automatically or not. If you want to do so, set default to True. All the configuration together will look like:

[ingest]
active = True
default = False
host = http://fakeadmin.matterhorn.com:80
username = matterhorn_system_account
password = CHANGE_ME
workflow = full
workflow-parameters = trimHold:true

This piece of code must be written on one of the configurations file. Be aware that values in conf.ini will overrule its equivalent in conf-dist.ini.

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