Current Projects

This should be a listing of current, ongoing Technical and Computing projects that aren't yet complete enough to merit real documentation. Be warned, this is liable to be outdated and should be used for some idea of what's going on. Also worth a look is the Techie Todo List and the Trac Listings for some of the other ongoing projects.

If you're interested in any of these projects or want to get involved, feel free to email the person listed under the Responsible heading, bearing in mind all YSTV email addresses are of the firstname.lastname@ystv.co.uk form where another address isn't listed.

Continuous Channel/Scheduling Engine

Responsible: Sam Nicholson

Status: Deployed, albeit still probably buggy, many outstanding feature requests.

Write a scheduling and automation tool to allow the Scheduler to come up with shows, and autofill idents, trailers and graphical overlays to make us more like a "real" TV channel. Known as Tarantula.

Update 28/05/2013: Now working enough to be used, tracked at [1]. Won the 2013 NaSTA Technical award. Update 16/10/2013: Deploying now.

New Muxes

Responsible: Michael Chislett

Status: Power supplies need finishing

Build a pair of chainable 8x8 video matrixes, as prototyped for NaSTA 2011. See the history wiki for more.

Update 26/06/13: Will not work with HD, but might be useful for making for the analogue OB trolley

Jack/JAAK

Responsible: Michael Chislett

Status: On long-term hold. Need to work out if it fits in with HD plans.

The mother of all abstraction layers for the video and audio paths. JAAK will essentially be the auto-router, with simple monitoring of gear statuses. Shiny things JAAK will do:

• Cope with instruction (graphic touch screen apps) such as "patch studio 92 to DaVE 4". JAAK then goes off and finds the most suitable routing path (shortest and non-conflicting with existing paths).
• Not need a user manual.
• Poll serial ports for new YVP compatible devices
  • auto-initiate them.
• Have an advanced command interface, supporting commands such as DO, WHEN & ON. It will also cope with basic logic and events such as time, and whole system I/O events.
• JAAK will also detects and avoid (it already can) things such as routing loops.

Update 28/05/2013: Updated status to on-hold pending HD roadmap completion

Archive Server

Responsible: None (stalled)

Status: Part working, see http://ystvvault.york.ac.uk

Write an interface to the Archive server to search for items by name or tag, and retrieve them either by download or to a network drive.

Single Sign On

Responsible: Nobody assigned

Status: Proposed

Modify the wikis, forums, webmail etc so that if a user is logged into the website, they also maintain that login through the other online services without having to enter more credentials. Also, automatically logging in to the website if your are logged in with your Server account would be good

Software Updates

Responsible: Unknown

Status: Virtual clone of webserver built and tested

Update all the servers to run the latest stable Debian, along with updates to the included packages and other software such as this wiki.

Autocue

Responsible: Robert Walker

Status: Construction in progress

Build an autocue, see the forum thread for more detail. Mike Chislett et al have made some progress on this (ie photos have appeared on Twitter), but I (Sam) don't know any specifics, being a techie-in-exile at time of writing.

Update 16/10/2013: Looks like its very nearly there, some of the mounting parts need bolting in to place and some cabling installation remains to be done. The monitor needs mounting and software setup, and a coat of paint would be good.

Document All The Things!

Responsible: Greg Ebdon

Status: In Progress

Basically, write up documentation on everything YSTV does on here. Big project!

Completed Projects

OB Stream/Receive

Responsible: Sam Nicholson/John Caine

Status: Complete

Live Link Laptop

Responsible: Sam Nicholson

Status: Complete

OB Recording

Responsible: Sam Nicholson

Status: Complete!

Write a similar wrapper to the video server one for recording on OBs using the capture cards, along with a client to provide a director with record/stream controls, matrix controls, a running order and potentially internal IRC in one handy window.

External IMAP

Responsible: Alex Williams

Status: Complete, could do with How To guide though

Negotiate with IT Services for an external firewall hole, so that YSTV mailboxes can be read using regular clients or phones from off-campus. At present on-campus works, with this running to completion it's probably worth documenting how to set up external YSTV mail.

PiVT

Responsible: Sam Nicholson

Status: Done.

Create a VT server system using a Raspberry Pi and the on-board HD video decode hardware, which should provide cheap HD VT servers.

Update 16/10/2013: Deployed (mostly!)

Scrapped Projects

Easter Refurb

Responsible: Chris Wall, Greg Ebdon, Liz Pascoe, Mike Chislett, Sam Nicholson, Matt Johnson

Status: Scrapped

Still known as the Easter Refurb, despite that holiday being long gone, the plan was to repaint both studio and control room, re-carpet both and generally make the place look nicer. Sort of a tech project.

Currently Chris Teeling (ZFM) has provisionally agreed to fix our blinds but put the floor etc on hold for a little while due to the potential to move into a new space. It should be noted this is a very early stage, the idea to move was mooted but nobody has said yes in any way shape or form. The individuals listed above are working on details.

Update 28/05/2013: Firmly scrapped, however much of the plan may happen in the Summer 2015 refurb of James Nucleus

DNS Delegation

Responsible: Alex Williams

Status: Scrapped

In theory YSTV could administer our own DNS server, and delegate the zone IT Services manage for us to be managed directly, potentially with access to LanDB for updating our own machines.

UPDATE (26/06/13): Not possible in 'men and mice'

Video Server Recording

Responsible: Sam Nicholson

Status: Scrapped

Write a wrapper to start and stop the Video Server recording live shows over the network.

Update 16/10/2013: Scrapped due to HD upgrade completely changing how this will work