Smile! You're on SCALE-TV!

For the last few years SCALE has used audio-visual recordings to disseminate what goes on at SCALE.  And every year that use has expanded.   The success we've had has come from the efforts of Tom King, who now leads up SCALE's A/V Committee.  SCALE interviewed Tom to find out what makes him tick.  Here's that interview:

Q: How did you get involved with Open Source Software and Linux?

In 1999 I got a contract to build some Internet Weather Kiosks for NOAA and quickly realized that Windows was a disaster that kept crashing.  So I looked into Linux then and discovered how rich and stable it was. The kiosks we built in 1999 and 2000 are *still* running.

Since then I've been working with embedded Linux first with the nslu2 (aka SLUG) and now with webos-internals on Palm webOS and other "embedded linux" projects as a SysAdmin for the projects infrastructure.

Q:  How did you get involved with SCALE? How did you wind up volunteering for SCALE?

I went to several SCALES (starting with 4X) and by 7X realized that A/V was an area that needed help.  Last year they asked me to come onboard to help organize A/V and make it run smoother.

Q: Why A/V?

I'm a broadcast engineer working on radio and television stations so it kinda fit.  Analog things don't scare me.

Q: What are the A/V requirements for this year's SCALE?  What all is required to cover it to your satisfaction? What's planned?

Last year we had 6 rooms of A/V. This year we will have 11, so that's quite an increase. We'll have 11 rooms with wireless mics/LCD monitors/Speakers, and video and mics for panel discussions...(oh... and a bullhorn!).

This year we are spread out over three floors so we plan on monitoring the video and audio of the proceedings from one location to cut down on the running around. That will also cut down on the number of volunteers needed to cover the conference by not having to station someone in every room.

Q:  How many A/V volunteers do you expect to utilize for SCALE 9x?

The core group is three volunteers.  For setup between 15-20 (there are a TON of boxes and cables to move around.) and I suspect it will take us somewhere between 7-9 hrs to setup.  Same for teardown (although that seems to go faster for some reason)
During the show four people during the times that the conference is happening. Two on the floor and two in the Ops Centre. (one monitoring and one cutting video/audio).  With between 8-11 rooms to monitor and a small staff we will be pretty busy.

Q:  What do you think SCALE might do for A/V in the future? Any cool things you want to try?

This year, it's video monitoring.  Next year? I'd like to have something that would allow us to have higher quality video, and  the ability to interleave presentation slides (but that will take a LOT more people).