[econ]

Would like to come.  I have AKSONICS if people are interested in listening to them.           Paul

[AKSA]

Hi Paul,

GREAT!!  We missed back in the New Year, so this will be marvellous to meet up!

Please, yes, bring the AKSonics!

Cheers,

Hugh

[AKSA]

Hi Larry,

My apologies for Friday night;  I went to a Claudio Monteverdi Madrigal concert with Sri (my wife) and had to leave around 6:40pm.  I'm sorry we did not link up;  any news on the bandwidth scene?

Cheers,

Hugh

[Larry]

My apologies for Friday night;  I went to a Claudio Monteverdi Madrigal concert with Sri (my wife) and had to leave around 6:40pm.  I'm sorry we did not link up;  any news on the bandwidth scene?

The investigation on the night showed that the useful IP ports of Philip's network are blocked and the PC intended to be used for the Webcast is behind a company server which is not accessable directly from the Internet.

Philip said he would contact his Internet service provider to discuss possible opening up of the neccessary IP port for webcast (at the night, no one answered the helpdesk to confirm the blockage is intentionally implemented at the service provider) and get his system guy to clean any possible blockage at the company server (at the night, the mobile of his system guy was switched off).

Philip has got all software for Webcast and he said he would get his guy to set the Webcast up after the IP port blockage is cleared. He said he would interact with you on this.

His bandwidth is not too bad (on ADSL) and the software I passed to him can do multirate webcast so even slow connections like modems can see a smaller version with animation-like motions (at reduced frame rates), if people are prepared to take the risk of " sudden mass hair loss "     If there will be quite a few high speed connections to the live Webcast at the event, the performance may be affected (to experience jitters etc) due to the bottleneck of ADSL at the venue, but it should still keep everything going.

The webcast bitstream is in the format of Windows MediaPlayer so that no extra software is required to view the Webcast for Windows users. People on other operating systems just need a media player that can handle MS Windows MediaPlayer bitstreams.

By the way, I passed the inquiry of an overhead projector to Philip as well. I trust he has responded or will respond on it to you too.

[AKSA]

Folks,

Here's an update of our attendance roll, as the names come in:

Phil Palangas
Mark Whitaker
Larry (Lei) Ye
Malcolm and Toni Fear
John Reekie
Bart Shepherd
Tim St Ruth
Greg Erskine
Paul Bishop
Ross Yannis
Jay M.
Shayne Burberry
Clive Hilliker (bringing an early Aspen Lifeforce!)
Paul Bertolino
Tony Osborn (another Lifeforce owner!)
Vic Sergie
Hugh Dean, Ben Williams, Michael Hollmann and a friend of Ben's (name not yet known) will also be attending.

This is the known list; 21 so far!    

If I have missed anyone, please let us know on this forum, and the list can be progressively revised.

It would be greatly appreciated if each of you could bring along a prospective AKSA customer so you can quietly brag and we can all meet!  (I'm certainly not into hard sell, but I do have to consider the marketing aspects - please give it some thought.    )

Cheers,

Hugh

[Cylon]

Probably bringing a friend, not yet confirmed but sounds keen

[bluesky]

Dear Hugh and fellow Aksaphiles,

I must be one of the many who would love to attend but the "tyranny of distance" prevails.  I really hope the webcast is a goer as it will enable many of us to particpate from our PC's. What about some members of the Audiophile Society, someone from the media who covers audio electronics?  Also our current governor general might be looking for some positive coverage, he seems to have some time on his hands at the moment, just joking!    

I for one am fascinated by the development of the "DACSA" and the papers being delivered.  I hope Hugh makes these available through his website for people like me who need to read everything twice with an electronics dictionary in hand to explain and understand all the terms!  

Cheers, Ian
Brisbane, Australia

[Felipe]

Hello all ,      

I sure hope that this meeting will be a success, and not being able to attend, i will surely make a presence via WEB.

So...Hugh, when will you give us any news on how to attend to this "far far away" audio show ?
Are you gonna post the links in the site ? Or should we look for them here ?
I'll be in campus all night (europe - the other side of the globe) , have LARGE bandwith there ...    

Thank you all
Felipe

[AKSA]

Hi Felipe,

Thank you for your post, and your enthusiasm!  I'm pedalling as fast as I can...........

Actually, it is Larry who will be setting up the webcast.  He is kindly organizing it with Phillip - I'm very grateful as I know little of digital matters - and our plan is to first archive it on HDD then make it available somehow over time to anyone who cares to listen.  We will need some server space (any ideas from anyone here??) as my own web server is limited to 2Gb per month.  We believe it will be around 100M;  the idea would be to make it downloadable rather than streaming because of the multiple time zones around the globe.

Certainly you will be kept informed, and thanks again for your interest.  Any ideas on servers?

Cheers,

Hugh

[AKSA]

REQUEST FOR SOFTWARE EXPERTISE

Hey Guys,

Is there anyone coming along to the AKSAfest on 29th who knows how to record the event from a webcam and archive to a HDD for later uploading to a website?

And, anyone know where I can find a free (or very cheap) website from which the event can be FTPed or streamed?

Ideas, help, assistance, greatly appreciated........  please answer to here.

Cheers,

Hugh

[JohnR]

I had some experience with setting up a presentation recording setup for the web, altho it was nearly four years ago and the details have undoubtedly changed. At the time, we simply used the Windows Media recorder, and recorded at 100 kbps. It was complicated by the fact they we also synced to Powerpoint slides. I could ping the guys who still do it and find out specifically what software they use.

What's the current status? Is a good camera available? PC?

[AKSA]

Hi John,

Thanks for replying, most grateful of your input.

Here's the idea from a chat I had with Darl Singh tonight:  

1.  Record on a DIGITAL video camera (if we can borrow one, anyone able to bring one along).

2.  Then, using Firewire (IEEC1394), transfer to a PC with at least a 1.5GHz processor.

3.  Edit the recording where necessary, including shots of the audience, any slides, etc.

4.  Use conversion software to encode the archived format to DIVX.

5.  Upload the DIVX archive to a suitable website with up to 80-100Mbytes of free (or very cheap) webspace.

At this point, people should be able to download at leisure.  It is not a good idea to do this in real time, as it would be the middle of the night in the US and a weekday in Europe.  We need to have this downloadable from a website for any/all who are interested.    

This has the prospect of being great marketing footage for Aspen, and if properly done could introduce OS customers to the identities and culture of AKSA......  I am quite keen for something of low bandwidth but maximum impact.

Thanks John, ideas????  

Hugh

[JohnR]

I'm not familiar with the digital recording process... I'll ask my buddy Aaron. AFAIK they are still using analog. The capture card is (was) one that comes with a Winnov camera, but they ditched the camera and replaced it with a mid-range Sony ($1k US at the time).

Concerning servers, we're out of space for this month but we'll have 100 Megs of space and a few Gigs of bandwidth left over next month, which could be used for a short-term solution.

If you wanted a more permanent solution, Hurricane Electric will give you 250 Megs of disk space and 25 Gigs of bandwidth for US$25 per month. They may be other ISPs that will provide a better storage/traffic/cost ratio, but I'm not sure who and I do know that HE is very reliable  

[JohnR]

At this point, people should be able to download at leisure. It is not a good idea to do this in real time, as it would be the middle of the night in the US and a weekday in Europe. We need to have this downloadable from a website for any/all who are interested.

A minor point here, I think you do want this available as streaming media. No point in having someone download a complete 100 Megabyte file if they only watch the first 30 seconds...  

That also suggests breaking footage into a series of small clips. This is going to be a lot of work for someone.

Finally, not to pour cold water or anything but just being realistic, I'm fairly certain that if this is not rehearsed very carefully beforehand it will not work. Things like decent lighting, gluing the presenter in the one spot, camera angle (s), miking, and so on don't usually come together first time. Our first try was a disaster, it took a few goes to get it reasonably slick and even then some of the camera work was pretty shoddy  

HTH

JohnR

[Larry]

Hi, Hugh,

Philip is taking the reins.

He has to clear the IP port blockage of his company network before the webcast can happen. He also seems prefering his guy to set up the webcam etc. (He has copied the webcast software from me.)

However, Philip is apparently off line for quite a while. (I have not heard any news from him since). So, get Philip to talk otherwise nothing would happen.

For the worst or best scenario, bring along your video camera with a tripod and record the event on a tape properly then you can process it anytime later into any formats. (Bearing in mind that even a webcam is set up, the quality of video and audio -- camera location/coverage/mobility, audio pickup etc -- might be uncertain till too late.)

Cheers!

[AKSA]

Hey John, Larry,

Realism is compulsory;  I agree, a practice run is essential.  Maybe streaming is the way to go, I agree, otherwise there might be outrageous overuse of bandwidth.

Larry, my thanks for your response.  I spoke with Phillip today and he suggested his firewall - integrated with MS Server - cannot be pinholed for a video stream/upload.  However, a laptop could be given direct access outside the server, direct to the cable.

Nonetheless, it's looking as though the best bet would be a digital video camera on a tripod, with the result downloaded to a PC and 'streamed', ready for upload to a website, perhaps John's, which will have space on 1st June.  This looks doable.

I guess the big question is this:  does anyone own a digital camera, and would they be willing to do the camera work on the night?  I plan to do only the presentations;  the gear can be captured as stills with my S3800 Fuji 3.2M digital camera.

Cheers,

Hugh

[Larry]

Hi, Hugh,

There are some more posts while I wrote my post. (A friend paid me a short visit just I started writing and I finished it after he left.)

If you have a digital camera, use it for its superior quality. There are always ways to transfer it into a computer. If not, use any analog camera. Putting a video into a computer would not be any problem in a multimedia era.

Store the video in MS Media or Real player format on a website and the players (MS/Real media players) are able to play it while downloading (as streaming).  

Make sure Philip start talking again well before 29 May   There are still some organising work to be done with the equipments people are going to bring. Otherwise, after your talks, the time will fly if no organization is in place and people may find their equipment is not appreciated before people fatigue.  Short of one interconnect or a CD player can spoil the whole evening. At this stage, there are more pres and amps for  two systems but there may not be enough equipements and accessories for two complete working systems. Which piece of amps goes to which room or with which piece of others etc demonds a centralised organisation to get the show go smooth. Also, there might be a missing link in the chain if someone happens to turn up late with his amp or so becasue of any reasons. This needs not be as a very accurately planned project but some plan in advance will be neccesary for an unforgettable evening in a way we like it.

[AKSA]

Larry,

Thanks;  all good points!

Now, would it be possible for all those attending to privately email/message me telling me exactly what they plan to bring?

I'll then look over the listing, try to coordinate the gear so we have two complete systems and all the wherewithall to make the night go smoothly.

So far I believe it this is the list:

Hugh:   CDs, digital stills camera, some prototype pcbs, presentation slides, some interconnects
Ben:  Presentation slides
Phillip:  GK-1E
Malcolm:  GK-1 (modded) and Diatones, with AKSA 55N.
Larry:  GK-1 with DACT attenuator
Paul:  AKSonics
Shayne:  AKSA 100N
Greg:  Speakers???  (begging.......!)


Oh, and if someone has a digital video camera and tripod (I have the digital stills camera), could they let me know as well? (And let me know their expertise with the machine, and any software they can use with it to make streaming video for uploading to a website [thanks John!])

I beg people's indulgence on this stuff;  the more we put in, the better the night will be.  It should be planned, well run, and we will all be much happier on the night.  (Gawd, this takes me back to my military days...!)

I am sincerely touched by all the help and great suggestions, guys.

Cheers,

Hugh

[Larry]

Larry, my thanks for your response.  I spoke with Phillip today and he suggested his firewall - integrated with MS Server - cannot be pinholed for a video stream/upload.  However, a laptop could be given direct access outside the server, direct to the cable.

1) Some service provider needs authentication so that simply pluging a laptop into the cable socket may not get you onto the Internet and therefore some software may need installed. If there is an issue, it unlikely be rectified on the spot without prompt support from his system people (knowing ID and password) or service provider (clarifying system configurations or neccesary detail at their gateway). It needs to be tested in advance if not all details are known.

2) If say, the company server is bypassed and the laptop is on Internet, there should be no IP port blockage at service provider's gateway. A lot service providers do this these days. (For instance, Telstra cable is open and Optus cable is blocked. Philip's ADSL is not on either of these and from a service provider I can't remember.) The IP scanning test I did on that Friday night showed that there is IP port blockage at his network but there were not sufficient details of the network available to me to determine where the blockage is. (His system guy was not there to answer my questions on the system configurations. Philip is the boss there and all bosses are not supposed to know this sort of stuff.   ) Has Philip found out this from his service provider?

[JohnR]

It appears that our server doesn't really support streaming, but it works over HTTP anyway. I assume that this means that if the clip gets to a certain length something will time out and the thing will basically just barf. We'll just have to try it and see.