My daughter's principal has asked me to set up an IP video system so
that teachers can capture their lectures using webcams attached to
their Windows laptops, and also have one or two dedicated IP video
setups where a PC in a computer lab or media center has a video camera
on a tripod connected to it for realtime streaming of morning
announcements to teachers Windows PCs. I'm thinking a dedicated
Ubuntu PC for each of two cameras running Ubuntu Studio, and another
dedicated Linux box that becomes the IP video server where all videos
from morning announcements and classrooms are stored and served. The
wrinkle is the teachers Windows laptops and the parents and students
at home/work who would like to view the videos.
Has anyone done something like this? Can you offer thoughts on how to
best do it in a school setting? I'll need an easy way in Windows for
teachers to setup and capture videos of lectures and save them to the
local server, hopefully an OpenSource solution and in a format that
any OS can easily use, likewise the Ubuntu Studio PCs used for morning
announcements, etc. in the Media Center and Computer Lab. Note that I
considered uploading videos to YouTube, but our school district blocks
it.
Any ideas appreciated! Best, Daniel
Daniel Howard
President and CEO
Georgia Open Source Education Foundation