Video-/podcasting setup on Ubuntu

I am also preparing for an event next month. Since I have made several videos using Ubuntu let me give you some tips:

• Most of the work will involve sound, cleaning sound, clipping errors out, etc.. so make sure everyone is on a place that tends to be silent or does not have a lot of background noise and that they have some idea of what to talk about and in what order.

• If everyone has a good microphone, you will most likely not need to use Audacity. If not then Audacity will be the solution for background noise and other artifacts.

• For the video editor I recommend openshot over pitivi. Openshot is more stable, friendlier and can cope with clipping which is what you will be doing in this case a lot. I used to use Pitivi for about a year until Openshot came out. Have not changed my mind yet. Use the PPA for openshot. Additionally Openshot can quickly save the file as mp4 with h.264.

• Hangout can record and/or take pictures (Specially hangout on air which gives options to edit the video afterwards and streams/saves it to youtube).

• If you also want to record the desktop, over recordmydesktop, istanbul or any other gui recording app I highly recommend kazam. Again, you need to use the PPA from kazam, but this screencast is very good and very simple to use. It can record on the fly without taking much resources compared to others and save in mp4/h.264 format. It also asks if you wish to edit the file afterwards with a video editor like pitivi or openshot.

• It is possible to make the stream go to your wordpress site by pointing your wordpress post to your youtube video while is streaming. This way, any user that arrives on your site can click on the video and start seeing the live stream from there.

• Since you are going to be the one recording, it is recommended that you be the one that:

  1. Creates the hangout
  2. Names the hangout (Title of Hangout)
  3. Starts the recording for hangout on air when everyone or most are connected (Need to click on the recording button at the bottom. Only visible to the hangout creator.
  4. Prepares the wordpress site to receive the stream (If it applies)
  5. Makes sure each topic that is talked about is done in the time frame agreed upon.
  6. Serve as the one that asks the questions made by viewers (If it applies and there is no one else that can do it), says who will talk next or simply be a referee to any discussion.

• Hangout now offers several plugins for it, I recommend specially the one called Toolbox since it offers the lower third option to make your podcast/streaming session more professional.