A Smart-CA Architecture for Opencast Matterhorn

Abstract

Opencast is a flexible and customizable video capture and distribution system that facilitates mass videotaping of lectures and classes, an open source alternative to proprietary automated recording systems. The current Opencast architecture is highly centralized, integrating very simple recording devices within the classrooms with a powerful central processing system. As a natural evolution of Opencast we describe in this paper a new architecture in which much of the image processing tasks are transferred from the central servers to a new generation of powerful recording devices. Those devices, smart capture agents, contribute to enhance the capabilities of the Opencast systems along different directions: better scalability, lower complexity and lower purchasing and operating costs.