[AG-TECH] LSU Uncompressed High-Definition Course

Fri Mar 9 14:39:41 CST 2007

Ladan -

A link to the course:
http://www.cct.lsu.edu/csc7600/

It does not include much of the information that is probably important 
to this community, but following is a general summary. Hopefully there 
will be more time to talk about it at the retreat:

The High Performance Computing class is the first of its kind to be 
broadcast over uncompressed High-Definition video to a number of 
universities. At the moment we actually have students receiving credit 
in the course from the Masaryk University in the Czech republic, the 
University of Arkansas, Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana State 
University (from two Satellite locations), and MCNC. We are both 
receiving and sending the HD stream over optical networks over the NLR.

The AG component of the High Performance Computing class is actually a 
secondary choice for institutions that have not yet gotten their 
equipment for the HD component of the class installed. Thomas is 
teaching the course this semester as a beta test and then in the Spring 
of '08 we are hoping to teach the course again using the same 
uncompressed HD as well as compressed HD over AG. Secondly, we are also 
recording all of the lectures and making them available to students to 
be accessed whenever they'd like as well as providing supercomputing 
resources for them to access to actually test the knowledge that they 
are learning.

Although this is merely a general summary, I hope it does give a bit 
more information. If any university is interested in participating in 
the course in the Spring of 2008, we are currently fielding participants.

-Daniel

Ladan Gharai wrote:
> Hi Daniel:
>
> Yes I have heard of this work at LSU from John and via the CESNET 
> folks (Petr Holub, et al). Is there a website or any other reference 
> to it? My understanding is that a class is being taught  between 3 
> different locations?
>
> Yes, the Centaurus cards are pricey!  but a new CentaurusII card is 
> available now at a lower cost (almost half). This card is compatible 
> with the SDK we have been using and comes in either PCIe and PCIX.
>
> Ladan
>
> On Mar 9, 2007, at 1:28 PM, Daniel Eiland wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> John already knows of this, but just to mention it. We are currently 
>> using the Centaurus card to send and receive HD uncompressed video 
>> over Ultragrid. They work well but are nice and pricey.
>>
>> -Daniel.
>>
>> Ladan Gharai wrote:
>>
>>> Hi John,
>>>
>>> On Mar 9, 2007, at 10:07 AM, John I Quebedeaux Jr wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Well, that camera does specify the type of output that Ultragrid 
>>>> works with on that HD-SDI connection (SMPTE-292M output)... i 
>>>> suspect then the details get down to the hardware on the computer 
>>>> side and networking, etc. It has other outputs, but not IEE1394 
>>>> (firewire) which is where most HD cameras do onboard mpeg2 
>>>> encoding/lag that Brian spoke of. I'm... guessing? that HD-SDI is 
>>>> uncompressed.
>>>>
>>>
>>>   correct, HD-SDI is the uncompressed HDTV format. And there are a 
>>> number of HDTV capture cards on the market with HD-SDI input/output. 
>>> The Centaurus card from www.dvs.de  is the capture card the 
>>> UltraGrid system currently supports.
>>>
>>>  HDTV cameras with IEEE1394 output, provide an MPEG2 compressed HDTV 
>>> stream.
>>>
>>>  HDMI capture card/cameras becoming available is very interesting 
>>> and I'd be very interested to see how they compare in performance 
>>> with HD-SDI systems.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> My concerns in meetings get back to having an "environment" of 
>>>> human presence @ multiple sites that can interface naturally - 
>>>> which includes video sources from the front and back of the room 
>>>> (what I call "environmental feedback") - typically called the 
>>>> "presenter camera" in the back of an AG room. I can possibly see 
>>>> having an HD camera in the front and back of the room to do this... 
>>>> then maybe another for... i've always felt you can't have enough 
>>>> cameras!
>>>>
>>>> -John Q.
>>>>
>>>> --John I. Quebedeaux, Jr.; Louisiana State University
>>>> Computer Manager LBRN; 131 Life Sciences Bldg.
>>>> e-mail: johnq at lsu.edu; web: http://lbrn.lsu.edu
>>>> phone: 225-578-0062 / fax: 225-578-2597
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mar 8, 2007, at 4:11 PM, Colin Perkins wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> We've done some work with uncompressed HD conferencing which might 
>>>>> be relevant: http://ultragrid.east.isi.edu/
>>>>> Colin
>>>>>
>>>>> On 8 Mar 2007, at 21:14, Brian Corrie wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi John,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Interesting... Does anyone know anything about SDI HD capture 
>>>>>> cards. We are looking at HD as well (but no direct experience 
>>>>>> yet) and the trick seems to be to get video off of the camera 
>>>>>> avoiding the onboard encoding of the video, which often adds 
>>>>>> significant latency (which is not good for AG of course). Does 
>>>>>> anyone know if the SDI out of this camera either has onboard 
>>>>>> hardware encoding (so low latency) and/or whether the SDI out is 
>>>>>> uncompressed video (I don't know anything about SDI other than 
>>>>>> that it is a broadcast oriented standard). Since this is a video 
>>>>>> conferencing camera one would assume the SDI is raw video (it 
>>>>>> looks like it base on my reading). So once one gets it out of the 
>>>>>> camera how does one get it to the computer... There must be an HD 
>>>>>> SDI capture card available.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We are looking at the Sony HDR-HC7 prosumer HD camcorder as a 
>>>>>> possibility. They aren't available yet, but any day now... They 
>>>>>> have HDMI out, which is uncompressed video. There is a HDMI 
>>>>>> capture card that can handle raw uncompressed HD video at 1080i 
>>>>>> available from Black Magic that looks promising... The camera is 
>>>>>> around $1500 and the card is $250.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We are going to be purchasing this pair as soon as the camera is 
>>>>>> available, so I will let everyone know how this works out. If it 
>>>>>> does work its a pretty inexpensive HD solution!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Brian
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> John I Quebedeaux Jr wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Someone asked me about this camera for HD use on the AG: 
>>>>>>> http://www.picturephone.com/products/sony_evi_hd1.htm
>>>>>>> Anyone have any experience with it? I'm wondering if it was 
>>>>>>> used, how to best "capture" it into a system for use on the 
>>>>>>> AG... interest in using HD is high here. I'm more concerned 
>>>>>>> about logistical issues with high resolution images on displays 
>>>>>>> that don't have that much "resolution" space - particularly if 
>>>>>>> several sites are involved.
>>>>>>> -John Q.
>>>>>>> --John I. Quebedeaux, Jr.; Louisiana State University
>>>>>>> Computer Manager LBRN; 131 Life Sciences Bldg.
>>>>>>> e-mail: johnq at lsu.edu; web: http://lbrn.lsu.edu
>>>>>>> phone: 225-578-0062 / fax: 225-578-2597
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --Colin Perkins
>>>>> http://csperkins.org/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Best Regards -
>>
>> Daniel L. Eiland
>>
>> Audio/Video Support
>>
>> The Center for Computation and Technology
>>
>> Louisiana State University
>>
>> deilands at cct.lsu.edu
>>
>> IM: cctdeilands
>>
>

-- 

Best Regards -

Daniel L. Eiland

Audio/Video Support

The Center for Computation and Technology

Louisiana State University

deilands at cct.lsu.edu

IM: cctdeilands