DRAFT ‐ FOSDEM 2025 video buildup operations teardown schedule

principles

• one VOC room per building
  • 2024: AW1.125, H2.111, Janson, K VOC, UA?.???, UB4.228, UD2.119
• K VOC = central, deals with voctops & streaming infra
• one kit per auditorium
• rental gear secure at all times
  • in/out/lock
  • as few room openings/closures as possible
  • 1 person stays behind outside room until closure
• team per auditorium: 2 or 3 people
  • 1 experienced, 1 medium, 1 optional novice

timing

pre-FOSDEM

• virtual volunteer briefing?
  • everyone joins #video-backstage
• prepare 1 labeled FOSDEM set/decentral VOC
• preorder 50 premade vegetarian sandwiches for delivery Friday 10:30am
  • vegetarian serves a practical purpose: conserves safely without cooling
  • premade, not pizza or other hot food: can be eaten on the job/between jobs
  • 50: plenty for the video volunteers; letfover go to general volunteers later in the day
• contact Pierre Thomas:
  • ask for changes to ULB av setup (any more XLR inputs removed?)
  • get ULB av student contact data for the weekend

Sunday -1 week, 11:00

• video volunteers online meeting

Thursday

• ??:??: pick up priority van @Dockx Herent (large VW Transporter or similar, 3 seats, driver: Vanko)
• load priority gear (owned video & NOC) into priority van @FOSDEM office
• <=22:00 unload priority gear @ULB, potentially install it:
  • try ULBPermission: -unload priority gear @cloakroom
    • install priority NOC/VOC @k1.110
  • except NoPermissionError:
    • try ResULB permission: unload @smelly room/server room
• park empty priority van @hotel (driver: Vanko)

Friday

• 08:30: drive priority van to Budgetcam Evere (3 people, driver: Vanko)
• 09:00: 4 video volunteers arrive
• 09:00: K1.110 (=central NOC/VOC) and server room video setup
  • responsible: Vasil
  • #4? volunteers required
  • build voctop racks
  • set up voctops
  • ansible deploy last minute voctop fixes
  • END: +- 14:00
• 09:30: load video van @Budgetcam Evere (3 people, driver: Vanko)
• 10:00: video volunteers arrive
  • reminder: join #video-backstage
• 10:00-10:30: #3 volunteers assemble per room owned gear kits @k1.105 or @h2.215
  • TODO: order picking list, ULB permission
• 10:30-11:00: video rental van arrives
  • volunteer 1
    • scan or photograph original rental gear inventory, send copy to [email protected]
    • make 10 stapled copies of rental gear inventory
      • requires printer-copier setup/going into copy shop in building F/begging ULB av services
    • restaple original and return to dispatcher
  • #10 volunteers (2 for each of 5 item types) check and mark 5 physical rental gear lists (1 per item type)
    • are the headphones working?
    • are all parts to all cameras, tripods, microphones there?
    • give physical copies to video buildup coordinator, send digital copies to [email protected]
    • label rental gear with destination auditorium: paper tape on peli cases, zip tie tags to soft shell cases
  • END: 11:15-11:30
• swarm over campus for individual room setups
  • in, out, lock
  • VOC room per building slightly ahead of streaming rooms
  • order:
    • H
      • VOC: H2.111 (manual lock!)
      • H1.301, H1.302, H1.308, H1.309, H2.115, H2.213 (manual lock!), H2.214 (manual lock!)
    • AW:
      • VOC: AW1.125
      • AW1.120, AW1.121
    • UA:
      • UA2.114, UA2.220, UA2.118 (manual lock!)
    • UB:
      • VOC: UB4.228
      • UB5.230, UB5.132, UB4.136, UB4.132, UB2.252a, UB2.147
    • UD:
      • VOC: UD2.119 (manual lock!)
      • UD2.218A, UD2.208, UD2.120
    • upper K
      • from 14:00 (extra general buildup (40 extra chairs/room) requires extra time)
      • K4.601, K4.401, K4.201, K3.401, K3.201
    • K1105, Janson:
      • ideally after all others, 15:30 at last, long before Pierre Thomas leaves on Friday
  • no FOSDEM supported video in BoF rooms

Saturday afternoon buildup

Sunday teardown

• 16:45:

TODO

• update checklist - link cable rollup instructions

roles

• dispatcher:
  • dispatches room building teams, VOC builder, incoming rental gear checker, courier, driver
  • requests room openings and closings within FOSDEM to central FOSDEM matrix channel, NOT directly
  • gets room opened/closed ACK in cntral FOSDEM matrix channel
  • logs room builder team dispatchings in matrix channel
  • speaks/writes French in case exceptionally urgent contact with security is needed
  • moves with video team, adjusts nickname suffix to show where (s)he is
• driver:
  • drives video van (Ivan "Vanko" Dingskes)
• voc builder:
  • Saturday & Sunday building responsible
  • sets up building VOC
  • safeguards per building VOC room until closure
• room builder 1:
  • experienced
  • carries tripod, camera, microphone 1
• room builder 2:
  • less experienced
  • preferably same native language as room builder 1
  • carries: FOSDEM bag, (optional) portable p/a, (optional) microphone 2
  • safeguards
• incoming rental gear checker
• outgoing rental gear checker
• courier: get things to/from central VOC

inventory

auditorium kit

qty	item	remarks
2	1u capture box
2	capture box power supply system
3	hdmi cable 2m
1	usb-c-> hdmi adapter
1	mini-dp -> hdmi adapter
1	hdmi-> vga adapter	only for upper K (hdmi tends to die)
1	network cable (custom length)	between capture boxes
1	XLR cable (custom length)	between capture boxes, possibly replaced by network
1	5m XLR cable	capture box -> room audio system
1	3-way power socket	with 2m extension cable
1	portable p/a set	only in S rooms with no ULB audio
1	roll gaffer tape	for taping down cables
5	zip ties 40cm narrow	for tieing down video boxes in tripods
1	room specific check list	current general checklist + camera placement map, cabling remarks, ...

decentralised VOC room kit

• network uplink
• permanent presence

qty	item	remarks
2	laptop with desktop distro	1 for running control.v.f.o
2	hdmi cable 2m	1 for hdmi screen, 1 spare
1	headphone 3.5mm	for full loop audio test
2	gaffa tape	spares
1	pliers set	for cutting zip ties mostly