Videos

Overview

Each recording is represented by a Drupal node of type "Video". These nodes are just metadata consisting of a link to the pilot's membership record, a link to the contest record, the category, the flight (Known, Free, etc.), and the URL of the video file. There's also a Drupal View that lists the Nationals videos by year: https://www.iac.org/nationals-videos

The videographer uploads the files to Amazon S3 (cheap storage!) and provides the webmaster with an accompanying spreadsheet containing the metadata. The webmaster can use the Drupal feeds module to convert the spreadsheet into Video nodes. A sample import file is attached.

Upload Procedure

1. Navigate to https://aws.amazon.com/console/
2. Click on Sign In (top menu bar)
3. Hopefully you're now on a screen that says "Sign in as IAM user". If not, look for a link that will take you there.
4. Account ID is 893465030589
5. Enter the user name and password
6. Click Sign In
7. Under Recently Visited, click on S3
8. Create a new bucket, e.g., nationals-videos-2023
9. Click on the bucket link to open it
10. Click the Upload button to transfer the videos

Import Procedure

1. Navigate to www.iac.org/admin/content/feed
2. Locate the entry labeled Nationals Videos and click on Edit
3. Under File, click the Remove button
4. Click Choose File
5. Select the desired CSV file
6. Click the Save and import button
7. Check for error messages on the screen, fix the CSV file as required, then go back to Step 1
8. Navigate to www.iac.org/nationals-videos
9. Verify that all fields are present for each row. If not, manually update the CSV file and return to Step 2.

Storage

IAC uses Amazon S3 cloud storage to host its video archives. Their storage rates are quite inexpensive at 2.3¢/GB/month. Note: The video resolution and encoding has a tremendous effect on the file size. In 2018, Forrest Fox was able to shrink his original files by about 90% by re-encoding them.

Misc. notes:

• The Contest column should contain the Drupal node ID (nid) of the contest. If the event has both Power and Glider competitors, there will be two different node IDs.
• The Categories column should contain Four Minute Free for those flights because it is a separate event
• Pilot names must exactly match the values in the Drupal user records. If not, the pilot's name will be blank in the nationals-videos view.