I guess I should pipe in, since I am now official and all that. The most important thing to a properly run convention is stability. New and shiney is nice, but stability is king!
That being said, I am currently addressing the situation, and running a series of tests to provide a complete solution (from encode to con playback) that satisfies both a conventions desire for stability and a creators desire for flexibility, while still optimizing for quality. I want to support HD content, but I want to make sure that in the rush to support new videos, we don't abandon our archive of videos and ignore our past. I am being very careful to test as much as I can.
My goal is to provide a future proof solution that a convention can use as a tool set, instead of a rigid instruction manual, to provide a consistent playback of creator submitted videos, and provide a method for the creator to validate what the playback will look like before submitting. But until I am satisfied with any replacement solution, I am sticking with what I know works.
While I have
not exactly been very public about my work,
I have been reaching out where I can to gather opinions and to solicit feedback. If you have ideas or concerns, I do carefully consider all feedback, even ones I don't agree with (I don't assume I know everything), and will research and adjust my testing accordingly. If you wish to help in other ways, provide me "test case videos" that are particularly bad or unique that i can use in my regression testing, or
buy me test equipment that I can use to certify the playback.
Ultimately I would love a 1920x1440 10k lumen projector in the VAT and in the Main Events Room at AWA, and a super beefy computer to handle it. But I need to be realistic, and my solution will hopefully scale to support a smaller conventions SD projector to a Europa Con's 4K projector, and provide a consistent experience for both.