[ale] Linux-based financial tools?

[DJ-Pfulio]

I attended the BBB presentation.

Broadcasting is something best left of services, IMHO. Sorry I wasn't clearer.

There are plenty of video broadcasting services that work for free - beyond just
youtube.  Livestream,  take-it-live, Justin.tv and about 5 other come to mind.
What about having an ALE Channel on Roku? That's an option, if someone is
interested. We have lots of knowledge here and almost everyone can do a
screencast - for that, "simple screen recorder" makes it really, really, easy.
Then add audio with audacity and mux it together with almost any video tool (or
ffmpeg does this easily too). This is all done as separate steps, which means
that live-streaming is out.  People like to see a human face during a
presentation, but they need to see the slides or window more. Seeing both - that
is ideal, provided the audio doesn't suck.

Capturing and muxing the many different inputs **during** the presentation is
really what I'm after. OBS is an amazing tool for that. Basically, any number of
audio and video inputs can be merged or swapped during the video production
stage to create a single video+audio output. Strangely, quality video is easier
to get than quality audio. ;)  Good audio is hard, really, hard.  I've looked at
all sorts of solutions but end up coming back to a $200+ wireless mic system for
the presenter or adding audio after the fact in a controlled sound environment.
 Had hoped that bluetooth would work, but the 2-3 sec delay is just crazy and
asking someone to use my cell phone and "this" lapel mic hasn't worked either.
Scratchy sounds from movement.

Setup BBB a few years ago and it was ugly for everything except the actual
conference meetings. Even getting a pre-built, in a VM, setup wasn't trivial to
use. I had no way to know what security that pre-built setup had. I suspect
ZERO. Plus it used flash. Maybe they've moved to webm and html5 by now? The
project didn't seem interested in making a generic front-end at the time -
perhaps doing that consulting is their business model?

Scott found a nice web-platform for small groups to share desktops and audio -
just a webcam and web browser are needed. Think 10 people can join.  A few of us
got it working and it worked well, shockingly well. Then it took me a few mins
to fiddle with the settings every time we wanted to meet online. I never figured
out what made it work, just that eventually, around the 5th attempt, it did.
Oh, and if you close the window, you are dropped from the meeting.  Seems
strange from a security standpoint that a web browser can capture the entire
screen and share it over the internet - ok, THAT seems like a really bad idea.
It worked under Windows and Linux and OSX.

There is a huge difference in using a video platform for internet broadcasting
and running a video platform for internet broadcasting, as you know.  All sorts
of different considerations involved.

Anyone interested in helping to find a solution we can standardize on for quick,
face-to-face meetings?  When everyone is remote, these things work really well.
 Mixing onsite and remote viewers means the remote people are basically watching
only, due to background noise that a group of people creates. During a Q/A
session, remote people are often disconnected, since having a microphone for the
crowd is an extra $100-$300 and requires discipline.

I have very high hopes for solid, remote, presentations and for 2 people
talking, this has been solved for years for free.  More than 5 people and
$30/month solves it, I know this. Some offerings are on the edge of solving it
for free for 20 people, without any google involvement.  Hangouts with youtube
capture work for unlimited numbers today.

Maybe a small group of us can solve this?

> Check Big Blue Button. they presented at ALE once. Looking at it for our
> presentations thanks in no small part to the recording ability.
> 
> LGPL Licensed too.
> 
>