TwinPact100:

1. signal from projector's VGA output - signal loss? termination?
2. figure out how to keep stream from dropping when there is no video so it can be used for audio
3. using the remote: Zoom/Pan, corners, centering. It is in the hardware docs, but it should be extracted from all the things you don't need to know for recording presentations. Perhaps some tips and tricks, like pan down as the presenter moves his cursor down.

controlling from software:

1. test pattern to hold up dv stream so audio won't stop
2. changing input source and overscan
3. pan/zoom to capture the full res of a portion of presenters screen (to make up for detail lost in the conversion to ntsc)

porting parts to mac and windows

1. dvswitch will run on linux in VMWare. There is a video driver problem, but it might be usable: screenshot
2. dvsource-firewire - vmware does not support firewire, but it will expose the network port, so it can be connected to from the host OS. Python can read dv from firewire using gstreamer dv1394src the only issue is can it transfer it to the network socket fast enough.
3. The sinks can run in the linux VM.
4. LiveCD - for people running Windows (and I assume mac) a DVswitch live cd would let them use it without having to install Linux on their laptops. having some pre-loaded configs would be a good addition.

mics

• camcorder mics in place of good mics and mixer
• external camcorder mic
• usb mic(s)

hardware requirements for remote laptop

1. just streaming DV
2. saving dv to disk (local or usb)
3. transcoding for streaming

4. audio source (one or more mics, mixed by remote laptop)

5. firewire extender

6. firewire chipset compatibility (to avoid http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13075 panic)

combining house sound with recording system (house = venu PA mixer, amp and loud speakers)

• taking a feed from house system into recording mixer
• providing house system with feed from recording mixer

TwinPact alternatives

I would not use anything else for PyCon, but it is a bit expensive if all you are doing is a monthly user group.

• vnc - works on the 3 main OS's and a few other things, like the Android phone. Just need to figure out how to make a dv stream.
• vga to svideo, svideo into camera
• vga to svideo, svideo into a video capture card
• dv cam pointed at screen. SD, not ideal, but better than nothing.
• HD cam - might be just as good, and more I have seen a number of people with them.
• web cam - worth trying

OLPC XO

• XO's mic and cam are well supported. it has a USB port. If that could be plugged into 100mb ethernet, might be a usable camera source.