Table of Contents
2. Hardware Requirements
The use of Scenic require specific hardware. Telepresence system oriented for realtime performance have to met certain standard, this for good reliability and performance. Our team is continuously testing various devices and computer parts. We frequently update this page with material that is adequate to use in a telepresence system. For any material that is not proposed in our list, please contact us.
2.1 Computer Specifications
We recommend the following computer specification:
Computer Memory 2 GB Processor INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Motherboard Minimum of 2 PCI and 2 PCIe slot
Here is our proposed product spec for the computer:
Processor INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q9550 QUADCORE 2.83GHZ 12MB 1333MHZ FSB LGA775 Motherboard ASUS P5E3 PRO INTEL X48 DDR3 2PCIE 16X ATX
2.2 Video devices
Graphic Card
The graphic card will manage your video output. The choice of your graphic card will depend on how you want to use Scenic. For now, we only support nvidia video card. Some ATI cards have problems with Xvideo extension. YMMV.
Before choosing your graphic card. Determine the following needs:
What kind of video output do you need?
| VGA | The lowest common denominator that all PC graphics hardware supports |
| DVI | |
| S-Video | |
| Hdmi | - Not supported and not tested yet. |
You can have an overview
Here
Graphic Card nvidia graphic card 2 X DVI Out + 1 s-video out
What is your linux distribution and releases:
Some graphic card may work only on certain releases. Before buying a graphic card, verify on the nvidia unix page that the hardware you are planning to use is supported not only by your linux distribution but also on the release you are using.
Video Capture card
Here is a list of the video capture cards tested with Scenic:
Best Quality
Good quality
Viewcast Osprey 100 Viewcast Osprey 210 Pinacle Dazzle AVC 100 (only in Ubuntu Karmic)
Medium Quality
WintvHauppauge 350 WintvHauppauge 1800
NOTE: Choosing capture cards or DV
Capture cards have a few advantages over DV converters: they don't need additionnal converters, they are prone to less latency (typically always less than 60ms), you can manage multiple inputs through software and you can control image variables (brightness, contrast, etc). On the minus side, you need a PC with an available PCI slot. USB video capture devices are usually of domestic quality.
If the PC has a Firewire (IEEE1394) interface, you can use a DV converter to get video. The quality and available features on these are quite varying. DV transmissioin is already (lightly) compressed, so videos have to be uncompressed first, then compressed again for transmission. This procedure adds a bit of latency (approximately 200ms). Image quality from a high end converter can be considered as good as that from capture cards.
=== Camera and camcorder===
Point grey FL2G Sony XD-Cam EX1 Sony PD-170 Sony PDX-10
Unibrain
2.3 Audio devices
1 x sound card
We recommend using a sound card with 8 channels and supported under Linux.
Here is a list of sound cards tested with Scenic:
Tested and known working: Driver: M-Audio Delta 1010 (regular or LT) Alsa Edirol Firewire FA101 Freebob Edirol Firewire FA66 Freebob RME Hammerfall Digiface Alsa RME Hammerfall Multiface Alsa Focusrite Saffire and Saffire Pro 10 freebob PreSonus FP10 freebob
- 1(+) set(s) of headphones.
- 1(+) microphone(s).
- 1 x audio mixer with at least two audio subgroups, so you can have one mix for local output and one mix to send.
2.4 Network connection
- Ethernet connector (10/100/1000).
- Network connection devices (hub, firewall, etc...).
Next to: Hardware Setup
Back to: Installation Manual Introduction
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