[ale] ALE CENTRAL MEETING for Thursday, Feb. 12

[aaron]

Someone tagged me, so I'm it...
===========================

ALE Central Meeting for
Thursday, February 12, 2004, 7:30 pm
at the Emory University Law School
 
==================
Main presentation:
  
  Desktop Linux for the Media Minded
    - presented by Aaron Ruscetta
	
Description:
 A ground up assessment of constructing a modern Desktop GNU
 Linux system and Open Source software suite that supports, as
 much as possible, the more common, midrange A/V media production
 applications that can be purchased for (and are used frequently
 by the presenter on) competing commercial systems.

 The [realistic] base target of the project is the creation of a
 semi-pro Linux Audio Workstation, but a complete list of the
 optimistic goals for the final media system includes:

 -- Built primarily from budget minded commodity computer hardware.
 -- Based on a complete desktop framework from a well supported,
    easily installed Linux distribution [no kernel re-compiling].
 -- Support for basic CD and DVD burning for storage and
    duplication of video, audio and computer data.
 -- Hard/Soft support for GUI Multi-track Audio recording,
    processing, format conversion and editing.
 -- H/S support for basic IEEE-1394 DV video I/O and editing. 
 -- Support for basic video DVD authoring and recording.
 -- Support for complex audio CD authoring and mastering.

Note:
 This presentation is being undertaken on short notice and the
 project itself is currently a work in progress. As a result,
 the evaluation of the process and possibilities may be somewhat
 incomplete, but the presentation should still prove informative.
	  
Bio:
 Aaron Ruscetta is an audio, video and electronic media
 production professional with more than 25 years of experience in
 numerous media and computer disciplines. His career has included
 many years of work in live broadcast production and directing,
 plus more than a decade of work in state of the art commercial
 video production, editing and electronic effects design. His
 closely related interests in computer media technologies led him
 into several cherished years of adjunct teaching of computer
 arts, graphics, 3D modeling and animation at the Atlanta College
 of Art. He eventually combined a decade of independent computer
 studies with his extensive media systems knowledge to design,
 program, implement and commercially distribute software and
 hardware products supporting computer based video and non-linear
 editing systems.

 Aaron [aka Aarexx Aaron] migrated to Linux platforms in 1999
 after more than a dozen years of [hyper]active usage, study,
 advocacy and development work surrounding Amiga multimedia
 computers. He served the Amiga community in numerous ways,
 including frequent professional writing for periodicals and
 filling volunteer leadership roles in the Amiga Atlanta users
 group, where he was proudly awarded the title of "Videot
 Savant". He is currently serving the Linux community as
 associate moderator for the ALE Central meeting.


Additional Details:
 For the past few months now I have been tracking the progress of a
 few of the more promising mid-range audio and video editing
 projects, and have meanwhile been assembling [read: waiting for huge
 bargains on] parts for building a dedicated Linux media work station.
 A few recent package releases have convinced me to it's time to glue
 all of the parts and research together, with the huge added
 incentive being that that Michael Hirsch and I couldn't find another
 volunteer to provide the main presentation for this month's ALE
 Central meeting.

 I was also encouraged and aided by a timely article in the Linux
 Journal. Starting with the January, 2004 issue, the magazine is
 running a regular Linux Audio column written by the well recognized
 Guru of the topic, Dave Phillips.  The first installment included
 reviews and installation hints for the latest Linux Audio
 Workstation options, and served as a convenient guide for much of
 what I am trying to try out for the presentation. You can check it out at

	 [http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7342]