Speaker Guide

We have an extensive speaker guide regarding content and preparation available online: rustfesteu.github.io/speakers-guide/

RustFest Global is happening online, so everything will run a bit differently. Below you will find (hopefully) everything you will need to know regarding the technical setup for your presentation at our upcoming event. Please read this guide carefully, and reach out with any questions over email.

Pre-AV-check quick tips and notes #

• Reminder that you are welcome to send us a pre-recorded video for the extra flexibility, or if you have a complex setup or want to have a higher-resolution video published. We can play your talk and you can join interactively for the second half (e.g. to answer questions) too.

• If you want to brand your pre-recorded talks to better blend into the stream, you can find several background images: background 1, background 2, background 3, background 4. Also the colors: #0b2731 (background) and #fb7cde (magenta, text color).

• Remember to bump up the fontsize of your editor/terminal/etc. Test by taking a screenshot, resizing it to 480 pixels tall and saving with high JPEG compression, if your text is still legible, you should be good.

• Check your screen sharing configuration using this tool. You can do this anytime, always test if you are switching computers/browsers/operating systems etc.

• It is sometimes better to share your whole screen (vs just app windows). If you plan to jump between apps during your presentation, you should plan sharing your entire screen or pre-recording the talk. Multi-monitor setups can help, but are also tricky to configure correctly.

• You can connect from two separate computers simultaneously (e.g. use laptop for Web camera, or speaker notes etc. and separate computer for slides or live demo).

• Avoid using the built-in mic of the laptop. It's prone to be noisy, picks up fan & keyboard noise, overzealous noise cancellation might mess with the sound of your talk.

• Prefer headphones over speakers (esp. the laptop's own speakers), to avoid echoes and distortion on the stream.

One-Two Mic Check - Recommended hardware #

Some quick tips about configuring your hardware setup for your presentation:

• Remember: we offer an up to 200 EUR reimbursement if you need to purchase better quality hardware for your session.
• Your face/head will only be visible in a small corner of the screen 90% of the time so unless you need a special webcamera for e.g. hardware demos the built-in webcamera of your computer will provide sufficient clarity.
• If you would still prefer getting a better quality webcam or have a compatible DSLR camera that you would want to use with a HDMI capture dongle, we can reimburse you (keeping in mind the above limit).
  Note: we cannot, fully or in part, reimburse DSLR camera or similar equipment purchases. When in doubt, just drop us a mail and ask before you buy!
• Ensure your room/face is well-lit. In badly lit scenes webcameras tend to drop the frame rate significantly which might result in grainy and choppy video quality.
• Please, if possible, avoid using the built in mic in your laptop/computer. The built-in mics often suffer from unwanted reverberations, echoes and even when they not their quality is really subpar. Please invest into a good headset, comfortable headphones/earphones with a solid microphone or/and a good desktop microphone.
  Use your reimbursement limit to cover these costs, and whenever unsure what to get feel free to reach out to us and we're happy to discuss and recommend suitable hardware. Your audience will thank you for not sounding like Darth Vader. Note: we also cannot reimburse VSTI plugins, vocoders or other audio manipulation software purchases if you decidedly do want to sound like Darth Vader. Just saying.

If there's anything we haven't covered above, please feel free to reach out anytime and we'd be happy to discuss!

Please Note: if financial difficulties or other circumstances prevent you from ordering the required devices yourself (and then getting a reimbursement), please reach out to us and we would be happy to arrange for the devices to be purchased and shipped directly to you!

In the Studio - What will happen during your talk? #

Please Note: most of this applies only to live streamed (non-pre-recorded) talks. If you plan to have your talk pre-recorded and played back, refer to the next section.

At RustFest Global we will be using the fully-in-browser streaming studio solution called StreamYard for the live stream. All speakers will be joining this virtual "studio" using a standard web browser — please refer to the Live Talks section below to check which situation applies to your streaming requirements to learn more about what this means for your session.

Preparing for your Session #

Here you will find all technical details you need to configure your talk for our online event. If anything is unclear or we missed something, just ping us and we'll be happy to clarify!

Pre-recorded talks #

Just remember: we don't require that all presentations are given live. If it makes you more comfortable, or your technical means (e.g. internet connection speed, hardware, etc.) prevent you from joining us live, you are more than welcome to provide a pre-recorded presentation (any common video formats and resolutions are accepted, please ensure a minimum resolution of 720p (1280x720 or equivalent)).

You can also provide us with a pre-recorded presentation of their session as a backup. This is not required, and the goal is not "quality assurance" or anything like that, it simply makes for a good fallback should something go wrong during your live presentation.
It may also contribute to helping us make RustFest Global more accessible by giving our transcription service provider an "early look" into the content which helps the live transcription accuracy. This is also the reason we ask our presenters to send us their slides by at least 3 days in advance (even if they are not final, or might change before the final presentation takes place).

So just to reiterate: no matter which of the below solutions you choose for your live presentation, you are always welcome to also provide a pre-recorded version.

PS: the above also applies after-the-fact. That is, should something go wrong during your presentation, you are welcome to send us a re-recorded presentation after the live event, to be used for the public release of your presentation.

Live talks #

If you've decided to give a live presentation, no matter which of the below options you opt for, one way or another you will be joining us in our virtual StreamYard studio using WebRTC technology, most likely using a web browser.

This means you will receive a Join link from us that will allow you to connect to our virtual studio via a low latency connection using your web browser. We recommend using Firefox or Chrome (certain use cases below will mandate using Chrome, though), and although StreamYard supports mobile browsers, for screensharing to work you will almost certainly need a desktop browser.

Check out StreamYard's Guest Instructions guide to get a better idea about the experience, and as always, if you still have questions, just reach out to us.

After joining the live stream you will be introduced and your video feed and screen share shown on the screen. We are able to present just you, you and your screen (see screenshot below) or screenshare only on the stream. If you have co-presenters it's possible to show you both at the same time or switch between the two (or more) of you. For more details on the actual conference experience please join our Talk Rehearsal sessions (details below, and in the email sent to you).

If you don't need computer audio (music, video, etc.) #

This is the simplest, most straightforward solution if you only have slides and no special sound requirements (like playing sound effects, music or similar). You will use your browser to join using the Join Link, and asked to share your microphone and webcamera:

After this, you can share your screen by clicking the appropriate button in the UI. StreamYard has an entire guide on screensharing, please check it out.

In most cases, sharing your whole screen is the easiest solution. If you want to share a specific application window, using a multi-monitor setup or have speaker notes you might want to test which exact options give you the best result, you may use this WebRTC screen sharing test page to do this, so you come prepared to the rehearsal sessions (just click the "Start" button in the top to get started!).

Note: StreamYard has experimental support for Green Screens, a.k.a. chroma key or "background replacement". Keep in mind that this feature is not super reliable, only supports static background images and is only available on the Chrome browser, so if you really really want high-quality greenscreen support, you may want to explore some of the RTMP or OBS-based solutions presented further below.

PS: according to our tests, this should work on all operating systems supported by the respective browsers, so you shouldn't have any issue if you are using an (up-to date version of) Windows, Mac OS-X, modern Linux distribution or Chrome OS.

If you need computer audio/music on the stream #

Just screensharing without audio will get you what you want, at least in most cases, but here are some use cases when you will need audio support (Note: when we say audio support, we mean a second audio source, besides your microphone, usually your computer's audio output — think of it as a "virtual" version of plugging in an audio cable into your computer on the podium):

• Demos or programs generating live audio
• Video playback with relevant audio parts
• Intro music 😏

In all these cases you will want to be able to send a second audio feed besides your microphone to our studio and into the world. This can be accomplished (with limitations) using Chrome (this is the less setup-heavy configuration), and generally, using some form of hardware mixer or a software loopback device.

Audio sharing using Chrome Tabs #

If you are using Chrome for your presentation, this (and at the time of writing only this) browser allows you to share a specific browser tab and also forward the audio of the tab into our studio. Read StreamYard's detailed screen sharing guide for the specifics if you think you need this feature, but the TL;DR is:

• You must use Chrome / Chromium (some Chromium-based other non-Chrome browsers might also work)
• You may only share the audio of a browser tab, and only one tab at a time.

Note: This does make sharing generic audio/video possible (just browse to YouTube inside the tab and start playback, or drag any (supported) audio or video file into the browser and hit the "Play" button), but please keep in mind the quality degradation, lower FPS and higher system requirements due to the re-encoding process. For higher-quality results, you might want to explore a more powerful compositing solution, like OBS.

Audio sharing using dedicated hardware or a software loopback device #

Another option is using what's collectively called a "loopback" device. Both software and hardware solutions exist for this problem which basically can be summarized as "merge two audio streams (devices) into a single audio device and expose that to the Studio".

Hardware solutions like the Yamaha AG03 audio mixing console connect to the computer using an USB connection and provide great flexibility in what inputs (such as various microphone, instrument inputs and the computer's own audio output) they expose on their output, which special output can be selected when joining the conference Studio and this takes the hassle out of fiddling with a software configuration, thus are more expensive, but also a more robust solution.

Various software solutions also exist for making this stream-coalescing possible purely within the computer. Depending on platform, the cost, flexibility, robustness and user-friendliness of the configuration process varies greatly, but here are couple examples for Windows, Mac and Linux as a starting point.

Custom configurations with OBS/RTMP/YOLO/BBQ #

Please Note: most of the configuration options proposed below are tinker-heavy and require patience/research, additional hardware or both. If you are not comfortable with this, please consider the simpler solutions listed above. As always, either way, if you have questions or need help, please reach out

So to get this out of the way early on, StreamYard doesn't support direct ingest of RTMP streams. This is just a fancy way to say, "you can't use streaming software like OBS Studio or eCamm Live to stream directly into our studio". It's a bummer, we agree, so why are we bringing this up? Well, because these software provide enormous freedom and possibility for a custom experience — not to mention those who already have their preferred setup pre-configured and would just want to use that for their session. Here is a (far from complete) list of things one might want to have on their session, and is possible using these tools:

• Complex mixing of multiple audio & video devices (e.g: multiple (web)cameras for live demos, live audio performances, etc.)
• High-performance green screen mixing with complex backgrounds (e.g. video)
• Easy switching between multiple pre-created screen layouts
• Embedding and overlaying live/interactive content (e.g. web content) (please keep in mind the ~20s latency of the live stream, as well as our Code of Conduct when thinking of embedding interactive live content)
• Hight-quality recording AND streaming at the same time (see below why)

Okay so all of this sounds cool, but how de we get it into RustFest Global? Here are some options that can help make this happen:

• Software option using a "virtual OBS camera": Depending on your preferred OS, it is possible to set up OBS as a "Virtual Camera" on the system: Mac OS / Windows / Linux
• Software option using NDI: With an NDI setup and the NDI Virtual Input free tool.
  Please Note: NDI Tools is Windows & Mac OS only. Due to resource intensity of this solution, it may be worth considering having the NDI producer (OBS) and consumer (Virtual Input) running on separate machines, connected preferably via a wired connection.
• Hardware option using HDMI capture device: By using a HDMI capture device that outputs the incoming audio/video feed acting, as far as the operating system is concerned, as a normal web camera (e.g. the Elgato Cam Link).
  Because this can be resource intensive we recommend two separate computers. One computer is running OBS Studio in projector mode, with its output going to a free HDMI port of the computer running OBS. This HDMI port is then connected to the other computer via the capture dongle, and the computer uses it to join the web-based (WebRTC) call of our cloud streaming studio.
  If you need to purchase a compatible HDMI dongle please get in touch to ensure the one you are planning to invest in supports the Virtual Video Camera output. We can purchase the required dongle for you, or reimburse your costs if you decide to order on your own.

Note: due to the current pandemic and work-from-home situation a large chunk of audio/video/streaming-related hardware components (especially the popular ones) are sold out, backordered or hard to find. Please take this into account when choosing a solution.

Regardless of which above mentioned method you decide to use, you are more than welcome to send us a pre-recorded high-quality recording of your presentation ahead of the event, which you may opt for us broadcasting to the audience instead of a live broadcast, or for use as a fallback in case there are unexpected technical difficulties during the live stream. You may also opt to have this recording released after the event when talks go public if there were any issues during the stream, or you are unsatisfied with the live recording in any way.

Pre-conference A/V-check #

If you do a live talk, we ask you to join one of the pre-conference tech check session. As a speaker you will receive details on these via email. A tech check provides us with enough lead time to correct any issues we may run into during the check. Doing a tech-check is required, non-optional and is in the best interest of both the speakers, audience and the conference as a whole, please take it seriously.

Please Note: the tech check is not about a full rehearsal of a completed talk. We don't expect (nor can we feasibly support) you to present the entire session during the rehearsal, but you may present a short excerpt, long enough to check for potential issues, skip to potentially problematic segments (segments with video, live audio, interaction, etc.).