Volunteer opportunities

There are many ways to volunteer with the SCALE A/V crew.

Before SCaLE:

• Working on software relating to camera control, recording.
• Planning: documentation on the hardware/software. Write up a basic troubleshooting procedure. Create setup diagrams for the room, including wiring diagrams for the equipment. Make signs and checklists.
• Hardware: we have more rooms to support this year, so we will need more cameras and video streaming computers.

Setup:

• Setup on Tuesday night
  • Unload MPS's truck and bring it to A/V NOC
  • Begin setting up A/V NOC
• Setup on Wednesday

  • Complete setup of A/V NOC

    • Establish area for MPS, with video stream monitoring station catty-corner to his station
    • Establish area for Tom King and audio-related equipment
    • Establish area for tech lead, with room to hack on software and hardware
    • Establish area for triage board(s)
    • Establish a reception area to greet incoming people and either answer questions or direct them to the appropriate person. This is also the place to sign out video adapters.

  • Set up video streaming computers

    • Install into speaker podium
      • run all the cables to the computers, according to this [guide] (http://socallinuxexpo.github.io/scale-av-web/usermaunal/podium_computer/)
      • Tape down cables so they remain in position and are obvious to the speaker
      • Test setup
      • Post basic A/V instructions to podium and near door

  • Install cameras

    • Cameras should be mounted on tripod and adjusted to the correct height to view the speaker
    • There is no power in the back of room; power injectors should be installed close to the network switch

  • Check audio setup

    • check audio levels
    • make sure microphones have fresh batteries
    • mic speakers
    • monitor rooms

  • Teardown on Sunday - prefer to have a lot of people, so it goes more quickly

  • Usually start teardown as soon as final event in the room completes

  • Disassemble and retrieve camera and video streaming equipment

  • retrieve any hardware that belongs to A/V team

  • Help other teams disassemble and stage their equipment.

Volunteer positions within A/V NOC

We want everyone cross-trained on both audio and video basics. We want everyone to be able to handle basic troubleshooting, so our experts can focus on troubleshooting the tricky cases. Issues with PSAV equipment will be turned over to PSAV to deal with. We will need to handle issues relating to our own equipment.

During the mornings, we check out the rooms to make sure they are ready for the day. Before each talk, we make sure the speakers are mic'ed and are able to display to the projector.

In the afternoons, we may need to reconfigure some of the rooms for evening events or for the next day's configuration.

• reception/triage (1 person)
  • greet people coming to NOC
  • answer basic questions or direct them to appropriate person
  • take messages
  • keep track of issues
  • manage video adapters. (We will have a stash of adapters for people looking to connect displayport, DVI, or HDMI to our projectors, which take VGA input.)
• stream monitoring (2 people) - scheduled to work one hour, be off one hour, train other monitors
  • center cameras on speaker
  • adjust scan converter settings to center and maximize slides
• stream troubleshooting monitoring (1 person)
  • check for room issues, provide feedback to tech lead and field tech
• technical lead (1 person)
  • directs field techs, hardware/software hackers to resolve issues
• field techs (2 people, one for each building)
  • replace batteries in microphones. (batteries provided by PSAV)
  • mic the speakers
  • monitor the rooms
  • mics not working (check receiver)
  • projector issues
  • room speakers not loud enough, feedback, bad cabling
  • streaming computer issues
• soundboard operators (usually evening events, 5 total) - managed by Tom King
  • most of the time, this is just turning on certain mic channels during a talk or adjusting volume for a panel speaker
• hardware/software hackers (as-needed)
  • deal with issues relating to video streaming computers