LiveCD for Live Video

Being involved in the development and production of the high performance network video cameras Elphel, Inc. opened project at SourceForge with the same name aimed at the embedded software design to support high speed image compression performed in the FPGA of these GNU/Linux based cameras. As the project evolved and expanded it was challenged by the lack of appropriate clients to handle high resolution and high frame rate video streams produced by the cameras. Best results were achieved using customized version of Mplayer running on GNU/Linux configured with the use of Live.com streaming library and support for the motion JPEG and Ogg Theora formats used by the cameras. To simplify camera operation for the customers (most of whom use only other operating systems) we decided to base our distribution on Knoppix Live CD that provides excellent compatibility with a variety of the computers. We preserved most of the software from the original disk and added support for the RTP/RTSP streaming (both uni- and multicast), viewing live video, recording it and retransmitting on the computers with multiple Ethernet ports. Cameras discovery on the network is automated, it is possible to view multiple streams from the cameras on the same computer as well as multiple computers can receive the same video for viewing and/or recording.

These custom Live CD are now distributed with the cameras and proved to be very easy to use even for the customers who had no prior experience with the GNU/Linux. We will add more specialized software to this distribution and in addition to just cameras operation programs (such as video security system) we plan to release preconfigured embedded software (and possibly FPGA) development environment for the cameras to simplify customization and so to unleash the full power of the open design.

Sergey Khlutchin works as a senior software engineer for Elphel, Inc. and maintains project Elphel at Sourceforge. He joined the company after participating in the software competition aimed at developing high performance video streaming server for the FPGA-based reconfigurable network cameras. In addition to his own program designed for that project Sergey organized the software made by other developers so it all can be combined in the camera and operated in a unified way. Before coming to Elphel Sergey worked on installation and support of networked business software and web design for the different companies in his home town of Samara, Russia. It was during that period that he realized the advantages of Free Software, flexibility and reliability of GNU/Linux. In 2002 Sergey graduated from the Samara State Aerospace University as mathematician-engineer of applied mathematics, his master's project was on image processing. At that time he published articles on Internet connection setup in Slackware in Russian online magazines Computerra and linuxrsp.ru.

Oleksandr Melichenko works as a team leader for Laboratory of Security Technology, CJSC since 2001. He took part in the software competition aimed at developing high performance video streaming server for the FPGA-based reconfigurable network cameras. He develops some additional open source packages for this cameras. As a team leader he has responsible for management the day-to-day work effort for a development team (programmers, hardware engineers). His scope of activity is a low level programing, embedded systems, Internet security device development and other. Since his graduation Zhytomyr Technolgical Institute in 1998 he worked for a Ukrtelecom as a senior software engineer in the area of a low level programming and a driver development.

Ilya N.Shpan'kov - the regular author of popular Russian computer magazines "Computerra", "Terralab", "HomePC". Acquaintance with Linux has begun in 2002 - Ilya is one of organizers of the "Russian Knoppix" project. The basic purpose of the project - creation of Russian edition of Knoppix and popularization Free Software in Russia. Since 2004 Ilya is one of participants of a developers team Elphel, Inc. Since 2005 he is a regular employee of the company. The basic direction of activity - creation the Live-CD Knoppix-based specialized development toolkits, interaction with mass media.