Xjadeo is a cross-platform Free Software video player that displays a video clip synchronized to an external time source (MTC, LTC, or JACK transport). Xjadeo version 0.8.0 just came out and brings a lot of significant changes, most notably:

* openGL display
* video-frame indexing
* built-in UI / context menu

With openGL, video scaling is now performed in hardware, with playback synchronized to the screen's vertical refresh. Video files are now scanned and indexed on load which provides for reliable seeking to video frames for a wide variety of codecs. This also detects broken video files early on. User interaction has been overhauled, most notably by adding a menu that facilitates discovering key bindings.

The complete changelog is available at:

https://github.com/x42/xjadeo

The xwax 1.5 release adds quick startup times by scanning the music library in the background, and allowing crates to be re-scanned during a session. There are also some performance improvements.

The latest maintenance release of Airtime, version 2.5.1, is recommended for all Airtime users. This release offers improved reliability of program scheduling with linked shows, and fixes to the station and user timezone handling.

Released at the same time, the Broadcaster theme for the Newscoop CMS integrates Airtime widgets for now playing metadata, weekly show schedules and HTML5 audio playback. This theme is available under GNU GPLv3 from https://github.com/newscoop/theme-Broadcaster

Robin Gareus has released an update to his LV2 meter plugin collection which includes retro needle-meters in VU, DIN, EBU, BBC styles and more. There are also meters for EBU R128 loudness, stereo phase correlation and scope meters. GTK+ and OpenGL versions are installed in parallel.

I was invited to speak at Campus Party Europe this year, and gave a presentation on London's role in sound system culture, as well as open source, digital vinyl and innovation. I also looked at why digital DJ'ing often doesn't sound as good as it should, and the possibilities for stem mixing in high quality formats.

The latest Airtime release includes support for Ogg Opus low-latency streaming. You'll need to be running Icecast 2.4 beta for this to work, which you can get in packaged form for your GNU/Linux distro of choice from: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=icecast&project=home%3Ad...

Another neat feature in this version of Airtime is a visual crossfade editor which uses the Web Audio API to display the waveforms. This requires Chrome or a forthcoming Firefox release to work, but it's very promising.

xfade.lv2 is a Free Software audio plugin for stereo cross-fading 2 x 2 input channels to two output channels, written by Robin Gareus:

https://github.com/x42/xfade.lv2

You can read more about the motivation behind this plugin in a blog post by DJ Barney:

http://djbarney.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/professional-ab-crossfader-mixi...

Mixxx 1.11.0 includes a new, more accurate beat detector and HID controller support, which I'm looking forward to trying out. There is also a new sample grid skin which could make Mixxx suitable as a cartwall application for radio stations: http://mixxx.org/whats-new-in-mixxx-1-11/

Airtime 2.3.1 is out, with a bunch of improvements for production users:

http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/release/1765

The Airtime 2.3.x series introduces full interface localization, streaming stats, and automatic silence trimming (non-destructive) for uploaded audio. It's been great to see the interface translations contributed by the community, and goes to show that non-programmers can make major contributions to the reach of Free Software.

My former colleague at LinuxUser & Developer, Terry Hancock, is working on an open alternative to Blu-Ray distribution for independent media: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2144275086/lib-ray-non-drm-open-stan... The Kickstarter appeal only has three days to go and is very close to its target. Pledge some money and be one of the first people to watch a movie in the new format!

I believe that watching a DJ perform live has got a lot less interesting since the move to mixing on laptops. Why is it that the DJ keeps asking us to put our hands in the air? Why is there more and more emphasis on big visuals instead of the music? Is it because both the DJ and crowd understand that it's really the computer doing the work, with automated beat and level matching? Watching someone on stage bent over a laptop, they could be checking their Facebook page, for all we know.

Sometimes I get asked if Sourcefabric's Airtime broadcast automation system includes a compressor or a limiter in the output stage. In support of Dynamic Range Day, I am glad to report that it does not. It might seem like a purely technical matter, but this issue really has a major impact on the way that people experience music on the radio. Airtime does not need to compress or limit music, because contemporary digital music is already suffering from greatly reduced dynamic range.

In the January 2012 issue of Wired, there's an article about frequent YouTube contributors which contains an interesting statistic about the stickiness of web media. Although individual YouTube video channels can reach audiences in the millions, exceeding the instantaneous audience of many TV channels, the average usage of YouTube is only fifteen minutes per day per person. This compares with five hours usage per day for the average US TV viewer. Obviously, that statistic has implications for both audience engagement and advertising revenue, especially since YouTube ads are easily skipped.