indes-broadcast

context

This project was developed in the context of the course "Interfaces e Design" from ISEP.

the requirements

The goal was to somehow simulate, in a creative way, the same interface TV operators use to monitor a channel broadcast, changing the camera that's currently streaming and queuing up pre-recorded content.

the decisions

We chose to go with electron as it was a quick and good way to access what we needed to create a quick prototype (the development time was around just a couple of hours). Access to the cameras is a given, due to chrome's API, Youtube's interface should be relatively transparent, and so does accessing the file system thanks to node's fs.

features

• You can choose an image to act as a placeholder before you start your broadcast
• The top cameras are your webcams - click them to broadcast their content (red means they're NOT livestreaming, green means they are)
• On the left side is the youtube Area
  • You can copy Youtube video ID's onto the textbox to store them in the list
  • And reorder the list and play the video in test more, before sending it to the "live area" where it's livestreamed to your audience
• The local video are is the same as Youtube but with local videos
• The IP cam let's you select an IP camera from the list and place it on the thing
• You can record videos using your android device and display them in the app - for this you'll need the android app IP WebCam

to start the project

Take a look at the releases and download the version compatible with your system. (Warning: due to lack of time, these have not been fully tested)

requirements

• node@6 or latest and npm
• git (kinda obvious)
• electron-forge

in terminal:

1. clone the repo git clone https://github.com/thaenor/INDES_broadcaster.git
2. cd INDES_broadcaster
3. npm i
4. And npm start will start the electron app

If you get any errors in this proccess try npm install -g electron-forge

More information please see the electron forge documentation

Project structure

all code is in ./src index.html and index.js are the barebones that kickstart electron The javascript that runs on node engine just kickstarts the main and tutorial window. the client manages the front end and uses the classes localList and YotuubeList classes to manage those respective queues. video.js handles starting the local cameras

future updates

• research Youtube's API and evaluate ways to get a broadcast going - (this seems like a separate project on it's own as it probably requires a proxy server to convert WebRTC to RTMP... it looks seriously complicated)
• Consider refactoring the front end to redux
• Consider introducing ipc's to handle processing

Project developed by: Francisco Santos, Ricardo Silva - ISEP/INDES 2017