(Via Mike of Unweb)
The burnstation alpha is tagged and is ready to be further tested. It has been tested and works with Plone 3.3 and Plone 4.

You can install the standalone burnstation prototype by running the buildout (it requires python 2.6) with:
svn co https://svn.plone.org/svn/collective/collective.transcode.star/tags/burnstation-alpha/ burnstation

$ cd burnstation
$ python2.6 bootstrap.py
$ ./bin/buildout

Wait for buildout to end, and start up zope with ./bin instance start and the transcode daemon with ./bin/transcodedaemon start

Install the burnstation product, and upload a video file as a new file in your Plone instance to test it.

Alternatively if you want to test burnstation on top of an existing plumi installation, you can add the burnstation source

https://svn.plone.org/svn/collective/collective.transcode.burnstation/tags/alpha/)

to your buildout egg sources.

You will need to grab the transcodeMpeg2 and makeIso scripts from the collecctive.transcode.star egg and put it in the /scripts folder. or you can run the plumi-burnstation buildout for a new plumi-burnstation instance:

$ svn co https://svn.plone.org/svn/collective/plumi.buildout/tags/plumi-burnstation-alpha/ burnstation
$ cd burnstation
$ python2.4 bootstrap.py
$ ./bin/buildout Start up zope and transcode daemon, install plumi and then install the burnstation product.

Plone Burnstation was produced by EngageMedia and Unweb.

More info at http://plumi.org/wiki/BurnStation

EngageMedia and Unweb have been keeping busy this week testing and tweaking the Burnstation prototype system. As a proof of concept it’s being kept quite basic, especially its user interface and error trapping. The tweaking has involved making it a little clearer to operate and correcting a couple of issues that would prevent it from creating an ISO file.

We set up a summary page on the wiki showing an overview of the work remaining, some of which was not logged as tickets in Plumi Trac. We also occasionally included some high level notes here to give more of an overview than just viewing the tickets in Trac.

We’re now very close to releasing the prototype as the final tasks remaining are primarily around documenting the How To Guide and the work required to produce a production version. We’re expecting to get everything wrapped up in the next couple of days.

The user interface provided with the Burnstation prototype presents minimal information to the user. There are no icons or layout considerations in the portlet & the Add to Burn Queue link that the prototype provides.

When a video is added to the queue, the user is returned to the home page and must remember to look at the Burn Queue portlet to confirm that the video has indeed been added. As the ISO file is being produced there is no “time remaining” indication and the user has to keep refreshing the home page to see if the “Get ISO” option has appeared in the Burn Queue portlet.

We discussed options for improving the user interface but it was agreed that because this was a prototype system, the user interface could be kept to a minimum as:

• The purpose of the prototype is to confirm that videos can be combined into an ISO file that is subsequently burnt to DVD for distribution.
• A barely functional user interface is sufficient to allow testing of the concept.
• Initial users working with a basic prototype are expected to be able to review documentation & operate the system without requiring extensive user interface guidance.