dhicks

If there's no text input box, where are you seeing that "~12345678" string? A screen grab of Eclipse's main waiting-for-barcode-scan screen might be handy.

Just re-reading the thread: if the barcode number always goes in a particular input field you could use an AutoIt script to look out for input going into that field and have that script modify the data and press "enter" for the user.

If your switches have the capability, a "sandbox" network environment depenedant on the type / frequency / destination / etc of network traffic might be more flexible. If you have switches that can let through normal traffic (requests to Google at 1 page request per second, or whatever), but stop suspicious / wrong looking traffic (i.e. someone writes something that gets stuck in a loop at spews out 1,000 HTTP requests per second). We plan to do this with OpenFlow and an SDN controller, although getting the time to actually put this in place is proving tricky.

First thing to do would be to figure out if it's a lack-of-power issue or a lack-of-bandwidth issue. As suggested, try a USB power supply if you have a spare one around to make sure the board is being provided with enough power. You could also try a different computer attached to the board if you have something spare - maybe something with a misture of USB 2 and USB 3 ports. We've got an issue with some boards seeming not to work with USB 3 ports on some specific machines, although oddly enough they seem to work okay with USB 2. USB 3 is supposed to be able to provide both more power and more bandwidth than USB 2, so it would rather seem to imply a (USB 3 related?) driver issue as much as anything.

Yes, indeed. Would you happen to know if Panasonic's HC-V270 camcorder will let you send a live copy of whatever it is recording via the HDMI port, or is it limited to pre-reocrded clips only as it seems to be for direct DLNA streaming? If not, any idea if Canon's camcorders will? Why, specifically, a wireless HDMI transmitter / receiver and not a wireless DLNA transmitter?

I need to sort out some new cameras, and live mixing / streaming of video would be nice extra feature, but isn't a main requirement. It sounds like we would need to have our video mixed before it went to Ustream (or similar services). Does anyone have any idea if any of cheaper consumer-level camcorders will live stream, somehow, to a local video mixer of some sort? Can I plug the Panasonics in to an HDMI video mixing desk (BlackMagic, as Anthony suggests, seem to do a good range starting at around £1,000)? Will the Panasonic camcorders stream live to DLNA or not? If so, could I maybe use a Raspberry Pi as a receiver for each separate camera and use the HDMI output from each of those to feed in to the mixing desk? Would that work, and what would the video quality be like (having been re-encoded to and from H.264 around 3 times by the time the vierwer would see it)? Does anyone have any experience of other camcorders? Our current camcorders, and my own one, are Panasonic - do Canon have any different live-streaming features?

Right-oh, that makes sense, so next time CyberNerd talks to Google it would be handy if he could convince Google to allow for a default filter on a per-site basis to allow for easier handling of non-authenticated guests. Thinking about how Google would want to handle that, it'd probably be a case of assigning a source IP address to a particular Google account from your domain (user "guest" or similar), which would then have a blacklist/whitelist of disallowed/allowed videos assigned to it.

Does that work without having to distribute an HTTPS certificate to each client device? If not, then it's fine for domain PCs, but not for guest devices without further configuration.

Ah, darn - you mean I can get the camera to play back a recorded clip via DLNA, but it won't live-stream whatever it is currently pointing at as a DLNA stream? Any idea if you can attach an HDMI-to-DLNA dongle to the HDMI output of the camera and use that for live streaming instead? Any idea if the Canon camcorders are any better in this regard? I understand the camera supports streaming directly to Ustream. Will Ustream let me mix multiple video signals? We'll probably end up using multiple cameras in multiple locations - I'm aiming for a portable setup that we can use around various locations, hopefully with no cables needed to any cameras so we can place them wherever is best to film from. Live streaming would be a bonus features, really, we'll probably mainly be using the cameras to capture a bunch of footage that we then edit together afterwards.

That's handy - when you next speak to them, could you maybe ask for some provision to be made to assign a default YouTube access level based on an originating IP address, please? That way we could have a default setup where all YouTube requests from our site get filtered (default "restricted mode" sites + site-defined whitelist), with no requirement for end users to be logged in to a Google account. That way any guest user or similar that comes in can be given YouTube access, and we can un-block anything specific they need, without having to dish out any account details.

Right: we're looking to buy some new camcorders - nothing too expensive, these will be for day-to-day use by various staff and children, so expect a few breakages along the way. I've been looking at the Panasonic HC-V270 - available for around £230, seems like a decent camera. I then noticed it's compatible with Panasonic's remote pan-and-tilt cradle (the Panasonic VW-CTR1), available for around £100-ish, which lets you remotely control the camera direction and zoom from an iPad app. Also, it would seem that the camera and cradle will power from a USB port, so I can power the both of them from a large, portable USB-out battery rather than have to plug them in to the mains. Add a couple of cheap stands and you've got a self-contained, remote-operated camera probably capable of running for most of a day. As an added bonus, the camera also supports DLNA. Am I right in thinking I can set up a DLNA server / receiver of some kind, then mix various video feeds and broadcast the result live via something like Ustream? This all seems remarkably affordable, too - each camera with cradle, stand, batteries, etc, would be around £500. Has anyone got a similar setup? Am I right in thinking DLNA-compatible cameras are going to be capable enough? What central switcher / DLNA server should I look at? Is there any way to include a tally light on the camera to tell people which one is live?

A Google search for "powershell domain controller event log" gives this as the first result: Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Query Event Logs to Discover Active Directory Information? - Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs It should be simple enough to turn that into something that gets a list of currently logged-in users and turn that in to an HTML file.

Good point. I generally use a monopod and remote shutter release cable - similar in function to a selfi stick, but with a camera with a positionable screen you can hold your camera (if it's light enough) well above head height to get a shot over people's heads. It's generally quitye a cheap accesory, too.

If your filter can inspect HTTPS URLs then you could have your filter associate a single Google Apps account with a particular level of access ("staff" access, "pupil" access, etc), then allow or disallow access to those URLs depending on what YouTube allows that user to see.

Sure, install Wireshark on the old Sims server and see what trafic comes from your new Sims server. Wireshark will show you all traffic, and it will show you what protocol is being used for each bit of traffic - I should have thought SMB (Windows file sharing) traffic would be good to start looking for, see if your new Sims server (or a Sims client) is trying to open a file somewhere on your old server. Wireshark will capture a lot of data in a short amount of time, so it's probably going to be best to have everything set up beforehand, then start Wireshark capturing, start your Sims client, then stop Wireshark capturing and go back and analyse the data.

You've probably already seen this, but just in case: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/classified-adverts/157687-nikon-d7000-lenses-bag.html

That's what we have as our general-use school camera - a Nikon D5100 with the kit lense. It's lasted a good three years so far, having being lugged around various events and used by various different random members of staff, and gets perfectly accetable results in "auto" mode. If you were to look at different lenses (either Nikon or Canon), you could hire a lense or two for a few days first to see how you got on with it before buying.

Try ITS Group: Welcome to ITS UK | ITS UK Their website is very basic / generic, but they're actually very useful people to know.

Most people seem to use a shotgun mic - Rhode seem to be the best-known brand, but to be honest I've used a couple of cheaper ones off Amazon like the one you link to and they sounds fine to me. It's just a bit more flexible than a mic you have to attach to someone, and you don't pick up rustling sounds as they move around.

We've had an issue with our 4K 65" Prowise board with half of the screen having a fuzzy "interferance" pattern flickering over it, almost like old-fashioned TV static. This is using an internal PC - we first assumed it might be the connection between the PC and the board. However, the problem still occured when we plugged in a laptop. The board has gone in to Prowise for repair, and there was no fuss or argument about it needing to be fixed, all was fine there. Seemingly the issue was caused by a faulty component of some kind in the 4K display - not the PC's driver, and not the firmware on the display, but a physical component of some kind, and that will need to be replaced. I don't know if your issue might be caused by the same thing. If you're using a Prowise-provided internal PC, it might be worth upgrading to the latest Intel chipset driver, just to make sure it's not an out-of-date driver that's causing the issue.

I think the tax involved is an EU import tax (rather than a Japanese export tax) - if you can get the US version of a camera they don't seem to have this limitation. Most DSLRs, by default at least, will record H.264 MP4 or MOV files. Some cameras will let you use a different codec, but if that's not an option you can get an external recorder (Atomos seem to be the main manufacturers). They sell devices that attach to the camera's HDMI out port and record footage to a high-bitrate "intermediate" codec (ProRes, CineForm, etc) - a codec designed for use with video editing software rather than for playback, and generally records with less compression and with greater colour detail. Atomos' devices also record straight to SSD and with no time limit other than the size of the storage you give them. You need a camera that outputs uncompressed data to HDMI, though, if you want higher-quality footage.

If a room has a wireless access point then you should get a strong wireless signal in that room, hence you could do away with wired connections for the PCs in that room. If you're using VOIP phones (as you seem to be), you could use phones that have a pass-through ethernet port - either connect the wireless access point through the phone or the phone through the wireless access point.

What make/model DSLR? Lots of people seem to go for a shoulder rig of some kind to make the DSLR into more of a shoulder-mountable style of camera. You can buy them, of course, or make your own - a search for "DIY DSLR rig" should probably be the place to start. A DSLR acts as a way for you to hold and mount the camera, and for a way of mounting various accesories. Lots of DSLR filmakers seem to use a follow-focus - basically a way to more finely adjust the focus ring on your lens. Again, you can buy them or make your own (search "DIY follow focus"). A lot of people also seem to use a matte box (to keep the glare of sunlight / stagelights directly off the lense), although a certain amount of equipment seems to be used because that's what everyone else uses. What kind of video quality does your DSLR output? Do you know what codec it uses, and the kind of bitrate it records at?

We've found our two sets of 4 Chord mics very good for what we use them for - we're a primary school, we don't have that much call for stunning audio quality or huge numbers of mics, but we do seem to require a couple of mics of some kind in various places on a regular basis, and our Chord sets have been great for lugging around (nice, all-in-one rackmount receivers that can be fitted into a stage box or flight case for plonk-it-down-and-plug-it-in use). Both the handheld and headsets mics have proven robust enough to use with primary school children (and, more importantly, their teachers and parents). I see Chord are now doing a six-mic set - they've managed to cram a couple more channels in to the Channel 70 space - but I thought I'd check out the Pyle Pro option as well, just in case we could (legally) use a (cheap) 8-channel wireless headset unit. It would seem not, though, so I guess I'll stick with the new Chord unit.

Yes - sorry, re-reading my post above I haven't made it clear that that's what I'm talking about. With footage from a variety of cameras, audio drift over and hour or two doesn't seem to be a problem - it could just be I'm not noticing a couple of frames worth of drift, or it could be that Adobe Premier is taking care of it in the background when I choose "sync by audio track" to sync up two video tracks, or it could be that all our cameras keep accurate enough time over short(ish) periods of time.