DebConf10: Final Call for Contributions!

[Reinhard Tartler]

On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 09:17:02 (CEST), Reinhard Tartler wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 01:42:06 (CEST), Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>
>> Calling all potential contributors to DebConf10! One more week until
>> the final submission deadline!
>
> Okay, so do we want to give a talk or a presentation on what we work on
> at debconf10? AFAIUI, there is a number of members attending dc10.
>
> Let's track opinions here: http://doodle.com/itequat8vy7vb7x2

it seems that at least adi and edrz are interested in giving a talk
about our group. As we are expected to hand in an abstract on our talk
(with less than 600 words), I've drafted something. Find it below.

Moreover, I'm considering filing a BoF or a Discussion about multimedia
patents in particular on this. This seems to require an abstract as
well. Hrmpf.

Anyway, the deadline seems to be tomorrow night. Please review and amend
my draft by replying to this mail. I'll compile and submit the final abstract
tomorrow night based on your replies.


=Abstract Start, currently 360 words=

Brave new Multimedia World

Many user expect "Proper multimedia support" from the operating system
of their choice. This is challenging, because of the different
requirements users have.  For casual and heavy consumers of movies,
trailers and music, a large variety of video and audio codecs and
formats must be supported.  Professional and semi professional users
expect software that supports *reliable* multi-track recording and
playback - some of them even on slow hardware!

Satisfying these requirements turns out to be pretty hard. Several
individuals have been working very hard on creating and maintaining the
necessary software in Debian.  During the squeeze cycle, the two
existing Debian Multimedia Teams have merged to a common team on Alioth:
pkg-multimedia. Like other packaging team, pkg-multimedia has been (and
is still!) suffering from the typical symptoms "shortage of manpower",
"shortage of motivation", etc. Additionally, there are some more unique
constraints that this contribution will highlight.

First, the complexity multimedia stack on Linux is impressive. In the
past we have seen the competing audio drivers OSS vs. ALSA. In more
recent times and on a higher level, the traditional enlightment sound
daemon seems to have lost in favor of the more advanced sound server
pulseaudio. As if this wasn't complex enough, the pro-audio community
has developed a soft-realtime capable framework, the "jack audio
connection kit" along with several different and competing
implementations.

The second hurdle the pkg-multimedia team is facing is with supporting
the latest and increasingly popular audio and video codecs and formats.
Luckily, for the most poplar "modern" audio codecs DSFG "free"
implementations do exist. However, because of patents Debian has
problems with including these packages so users have to resort to
3rd-party archives or other vendors if they wish to use such formats.

In order to provide the best multimedia support for Debian users, the
pkg-multimedia team has been collaborating with derivates (studio64,
ubuntu studio) with packaging important pieces of software in the
multimedia stack and working on a high quality supplement repository
(debimedia). While there is always room for improvement, squeeze is in a
decent shape for current multimedia requirements. This talk explains
the challenges and Debian's approaches to them in detail.

=Abstract End=

-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4