27 Feb New Galicaster-equipped classroom in UVigo Engineering schools
A new classroom equiped with a Galicaster Class (GClass) lecture capture system is available at the Mining Engineering School in the Campus of the University of Vigo.
This classroom is part of the University of Vigo “Campus do Mar“ Matterhorn pilot project.
The recording equipment in this room consists of a Intel i7-powered GClass mounted in a rack, a HD USB camera, and a redundant audio system: 1 wireless microphone and 4 ceiling microphones with a 4 channel noise-gate. The latter is a backup in case the wireless microphone fails due to a low battery level, connectivity problems, etc.
For a maximun efficiency this GClass device is configured as a “Capturer-Worker” unit. This means that it acts as a capturer for 10 hours in the day, and as a worker[1] for the remaining 14 hours at night. This way we can make a better use of the units’ processing power, which otherwise would be idle during most of the day. Also, every new recorder implies an additional new machine available for post-processing recordings, thus balancing the overall workload of the system as we increase our recording capacity.
Here are some series courses currently being recorded in that classroom (in Spanish):
[1] – In the Opencast Matterhorn project jargon, “workers” are servers that take care of all the analysis, inspection, processing and transcoding of media files.
