Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with audiovisual

Help me conceive / design / implement a videoconferencing solution for a medium-sized business with three offices.

aydeejones — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:34:43 -0800

Help me conceive / design / implement a videoconferencing solution for a medium-sized business with three offices. Our requirements are numerous and may need to be reined in based on budgetary constraints... Our offices are connected via 54Mbps LSS circuits. Our primary requirement is that the offices be able to conference with each other from their respective board / conference rooms. Our main office board room table is 20" x 4" and this is where most of the big meetings take place, so it'll probably need the best wide-angle PTZ camera out of the three, and decent sound pickup.

We also have a relatively large, open waiting area where meetings take place, and want to be able to use videoconferencing for these meetings so that our staff don't have to travel so much.

These larger staff meetings involve lots of back-and-forth discussion so we're debating how best to address the A/V needs here -- wire the room for sound, use a good condenser mic from the center of the room, pass around a dynamic microphone as people talk, etc.

Oh, and we want to be able to record these meetings for future reference, and want to be able to log in and witness these videoconferences through a web browser. Sure would be nice if you could *participate* in the conferences via web browser, but that's probably pushing it; we want anyone to be able to see what's going on but aren't interested in ensuring that every workstation has a camera installed.

Our current budget is sub-10K and I don't think that's realistic when looking at some of the tightly-bundled setups a la Polycom. I'm debating how far to go with a piecemeal solution; I have some audio experience and would love to get my hands dirty, but do not want something that is cobbled together, requiring my intervention at every turn to keep it running smoothly. I am more of a software guy and I love to write code more than anything else, so if that factors into how slick this could be (Sharepoint?) I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Someone suggested that I might be able to use this rig which has a decent DVR, but this is clearly a security-only solution and does not include sound functionality. I think I've successfully convinced them that trying to use such a contraption would be quite difficult and would involve MUXing and would be like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

This seems to be a pretty big undertaking, eh? "Call a consultant" is certainly a passable answer but I'm hoping to tap into some past experience and make this a great resource for other souls like myself who are tasked with bringing a medium-sized business into the wonderful world of videoconferencing without shelling out crazy cash.

My media players have all got problems - but different problems

criticalbill — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 05:22:17 -0800

Weird computer video/audio problems across all my media players I have various audiovisual problems going on

Winamp: When I listen to music (mp3, flac) there is some strange distortion noise underneath the playing music. The distortion starts when I press play and stops when I press stop but it is universal to everything I play in winamp, whatever filetype, whichever disc drive.

iTunes: But when I play the same file in iTunes, they don't have the distortion, instead they skip and hiccup, as though on a dirty CD.

VLC: When I watch films on VLC the sound does the same thing as Winamp, but on top of that, the sync goes absolutely all over the place. There are no error messages (in that message box) saying that anything is wrong.

WMP: The sound tends to be OK with WMP, but the sync is all over the place as well. I can play mp3s though, but not flac because I couldn't get the plugin to work.

These have all started recently (within the last month). I have downloaded the latest Winamp and VLC to no effect and iTunes was d/l six months ago or so. I have p4/2Ghz/512ram/2internal DD, 1external DD/XPsp2

Is the Alberta job market really that hot?

Alterscape — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 05:31:22 -0800

What's the job market for IT/audiovisual really like in Alberta? As you might've guessed from my posting history, I'm a recent college grad floundering around in the employment waters trying to find someplace that'll pay me to be skilled in the care and feeding of computers and/or audiovisual equipment. I have family up in Calgary who've been telling me that everything in the world is open up there, job-wise. I know the oil boom is fueling a lot of economic growth, but I'd like to start gathering more information on the conditions in the job market..

What's the entry-level IT and/or AV employment market really like up there now? I'd like to hear from people actually working in the area. I'm not picky about what part of Alberta, etc, just looking for general impressions. As a talented but not yet proven grad, do I have a hope? Where should I look? Is the job market REALLY as hot as I'm told it is?

For the record, I have dual US/Canadian citizenship, so legal approval to work isn't an issue.

Help me find a DVD recorder that doesn't suck.

BorgLove — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 12:00:34 -0800

Help me find a DVD recorder that doesn't suck. Can you recommend a good DVD recorder? We finally bought an LG recorder this week and had to return it because it was faulty. Oddly, the second one was even worse: the display showed garbage, the tray opened and closed at random times and it even had a blue screen of death twice. I've been doing my research, and the trouble is we can't find a reasonably-priced model that doesn't under-perform (the LG seemed the best of the bunch, but clearly that wasn't true). Seems like every unit out there has reviews claiming it's unreliable, generates 'coasters' instead of usable discs, or just doesn't work as expected. Am I looking in the wrong place or is the technology just under-developed? I'd rather spend $300 than $600 (units with hard drives are up around that price) but I'm thinking about giving up and waiting until things advance a bit. Do you have one that works properly? I'd like to hear your experiences so I can make a more informed decision.

Which manufacturers make well-built home theater equipment at a reasonable price?

danwalker — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 19:21:06 -0800

Over the past several years, I have been burned by poor quality in home electronics from various manufacturers. I have purchased pieces by Sony (home stereo), Panasonic (theatre-in-a-box) and RCA (various pieces of junk), and all have given out in one way or another far too quickly for my liking. In a renewed attempt to build a proper home theatre system (DVD/CD, receiver, speakers, etc), and recognizing that I haven't the money for really high-end stuff but will avoid anything cheap, I seek outside opinions as to which manufacturers are making products that are of reasonable quality, and reasonably priced. Your experiences, please.