Collaborative Video Editing Infrastructure Problem Statement

elifarley

Tristan wrote:

Hey Elifarley,

Hope all is well on your end!

Was wondering if I could get some input from you, being a technical minded person. I'm trying to develop a system whereby OSE can send footage to remote editors so they can create videos for us. I'm trying to figure out a system that can get them footage I have here in Missouri via the Internet.

As you probably know, HD files are very large. I'm trying to avoid hosting everything on a cloud because it will take forever to upload everything. Instead I was thinking of hosting the required files on a case by case basis. I've been looking into FTP which I though was relatively simple, but it seems like its a bit more complicated than I thought.

If I were to use FTP (is this the best solution?) what is the process? I have downloaded an FTP client, but do i need to rent a sever as well?

As a side note - the system must be versatile - ie. one that can be used by mac/pc/linux.

Your input is very much appreciated.

Best wishes,

--
Tristan Copley Smith,

Video Communications Director
Open Source Ecology

elifarley

Hi Tristan,

Something I had previously suggested to Marcin is to host those large files on BitTorrent. Someone else suggested PogoPlug (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Pogoplug).

Here's a wiki page where Marcin has written something about this:

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Collaborative_Video_Editing_Infrastructure_Problem_Statement

Collaborative Video Editing Infrastructure Problem Statement

The founding development facility for the GVCS is Factor e Farm (FeF). Much of the video produced by FeF remains unpublished. To address this, we would like to set up a collaborative video production infrastructure for creating documentation, documentaries, and instructionals. We are interested in making our video available to others on demand. We are considering several options for sharing video footage, where the footage involves gigabytes of data:

Bittorrent sharing
PogoStick
Uploads to a repository

Solutions to this are welcome. See Organizational Status for progress.

Beluga

For collaborative video editing, be sure to follow Novacut.

Tristan

Thanks Eli and Beluga - had a look and contacted the guys at Novacut.

I've spent the day looking into the Pogoplug, which s like a good way to make our video rushes available to remote editors. HOWEVER - apparently the software supplied is not great, and also only works with Microsoft and OSX, not Linux.

So I found a forum with people talking about using 'Arch Linux ARM' to bypass the Pogoplug software and make transferring easier. I am not a programmer, and I am unfamiliar with using Linux (I use a mac).

One of the posts said:

There really is no limitation to what you can do with these plugs once you get arch on it.
My PogoPlug pro serves as a Proxy, FTP, SMB, SFTP, HTTP, and X11 server.

Can anyone explain how this would work? Can I still use my Mac?

bubbapizza

Probably the cheapest, easiest solution is just grab an old PC, install linux on it, set it up as an ssh server by running:
apt-get install openssh-server
Then forward port 22 on your firewall to it and tell people to upload and download stuff using SFTP via filezilla (or any other sftp client).

If you don't have a static IP, you'll have to get a dyndns account or whatever so people can connect to it.

elifarley

Just found out a new page related to this discussion:

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/OSEdit

bubbapizza

Yep, sounds like a plain old linux box with an FTP and/or SFTP server is all you need. You could also throw in apache so you can browse the directories and download files via a web interface. This is not complicated - it's straight system administration 101. Bandwidth may become an issue but you can cross that bridge when you get to it.

sandywoodson

Hello, I wanted to offer up my services as a video editor. I've been a writer, producer, editor for 20 years and am very into what you are trying to do. I live an hour away in KC and it would be very easy for me to come up and get whatever format you're using or drop the footage on to my drives to do some editing. At least until you sort out the various issues you are trying to work through. I would be able to volunteer some time to this, depending on what you were trying to do and how much you wanted to do and when you needed it done by. Would love to come up and chat about it. -S

GreenValleyFarm

Have you considered using owncloud for file sharing and collaboration?
www.owncloud.org
There are probably a lot of fans in the IT industry who would donate server space, myself included.

Collaborative Video Editing Infrastructure Problem Statement

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