case study - Ensemble Video

Ensemble Video Delivers Anytime, Anywhere Video Across Four Temple University Campuses CASE STUDY
At a Glance Institution Name Temple University Department Computer Services Institution Type Higher Education Challenges Need to play streaming video on any device, anywhere
Need an easy-­‐to-­‐use, integrated, highly available video platform
Benefits Implement easy-­‐to-­‐use tools to save faculty time Increase flexibility for students and faculty Save IT time and money by automating video content and 1 reducing tech support Summary Temple University in Philadelphia relies on its Computer Services Department for most IT needs, from the telecommunications network to complex web applications. The Web and Media Services group manages all video and streaming media services. Viral M. Mehta, Assistant Director for the group, oversees video production and streaming for curriculum and public content for Temple University. Over the last five years, Mehta’s team has met growing demand for curriculum and public event content by using Ensemble Video for its speed, flexibility and easy access. “Five years ago, we shot, produced and edited video manually, and then encoded and uploaded via SFTP to our streaming servers,” said Mehta. “We quickly saw the need for a platform to automate the process and efficiently serve our non-­‐technical administrative and faculty users.” Ensemble Video -­‐ Temple University Case Study Ensemble Video Platform Delivers Cost-­‐Saving IT Solution for Temple University, Streaming Video to 17 Colleges and Distance Learning Network Philadelphia’s Temple University implemented Ensemble Video to stream video curriculum, providing anytime, anywhere access for over 37,000 students in 17 schools and colleges, across four regional campuses and the university’s DL Network. Now faculty can easily create curriculum, and even record class activity on iPhones and post to the Ensemble Video Platform for student review to improve learning. Challenge As Assistant Director of the Web and Media Services team at Temple University, Viral M. Mehta manages the video and streaming media projects, shooting and producing video for curriculum and public content. Five years ago, Mehta’s team of three used manual processes. As faculty or administrators requested content, the group recorded video, performed basic edits and encoding before manually uploading the file to the network via SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) and by creating an Adobe Flash container for playback. Mehta recalls, “Demand grew fast, and 1:1 production was too difficult for users.” 2 The team needed a way to easily create clean video for fast upload to a network system of recorded classes or events for the entire Temple community. The goal was to find a platform solution that would run on Temple servers behind its hardware-­‐based load balancer. Because content is accessed by students and the public from multiple locations, it must be available 24/7. Search Temple’s IT department needed a video platform solution compatible with software and systems in use across all schools and libraries. Echo360 and Mediasite were used for lecture capture and webcasting, while Pro Media Carbon was used to transcode and compress on demand video and streaming live events. “When we evaluate technology, we want a solution that lets us be highly responsible to the needs of users,” says Mehta. “So it has to be simple in set up and not something with high maintenance. I take a business perspective of finance and time restrictions. How many are using it? Can IT support expanded use and give consistent service over time?” Play curriculum video on any device, anywhere. Implement. Ensemble had it. The pilot was simple.” Ensemble Video was implemented across the campus system, serving faculty and administrator requests for curriculum content, and providing video of public events. “We needed an
affordable platform
that was
compatible and
easy to implement.
Ensemble had it.
The pilot was
simple and low
cost.”
After searching high-­‐end infrastructure solutions for the academic setting, the team tested the Ensemble Video Platform in a project at Syracuse University. Mehta says, “We knew we needed an affordable platform that was compatible and easy to Ensemble Video -­‐ Temple University Case Study Results Temple University Case Study Easy Access and Distribution of Video Curriculum Solution Ensemble Video was selected for its integration with the Wowza Media Server, Echo 360, and Camtasia Relay to enable content capture and streaming to any web device. The goal was to roll out Ensemble to serve the faculty and administrator needs as a no-­‐fee service, so tech support was minimal. Mehta’s team advanced the Ensemble Video implementation, integrating with existing systems and security, using Lightweight Directory A ccess Protocol (LDAP) with Single Sign On (SSO) to give users one point of access to all content, from any location. It was a successful implementation across the complex Temple University system. “We would not have been able to do this without the tech support at Ensemble – it’s phenomenal,” says Mehta. “We have dozens of vendors, and have not seen this level of rollout support from another vendor. Ensemble wants you to be successful.” Results Today, the premise-­‐based Ensemble Video platform provides continuous access to public and curricular content. The Web and Media Services group has realized time and financial savings by selecting Ensemble Video, which allows a small team to provide maintenance and support for a growing number of students and faculty, accessing an ever-­‐
increasing flow of video content in new ways. Since implementing Ensemble Video, Temple’s use has expanded to include content from the central university library, and specialized curriculum streamed from the Health Sciences and Law Library catalogs. Ensemble Video also supports other vendor applications. 3 Ensemble Video enables streaming of on-­‐demand radio from two student-­‐run stations, as well as live streaming of key campus events, such as conferences, guest speakers and commencement. “Our goal is to provide technology solutions like Ensemble to our users and make them as easy as possible to access and use. The Ensemble platform also takes care of other critical campus issues, like copyright protection, which the system manages with access controls.” With the explosion of mobile devices, Ensemble Video is even more valuable for fast content creation. “Our goal is provide
technology solutions like
Ensemble to our users
and make them as easy
as possible to access and
use. The Ensemble
platform also takes care
of critical campus
issues, like copyright
protection, which the
system manages with
access controls.
Ensemble Video -­‐ Temple University Case Study Viral Mehta Assistant Director Web & Media Services Temple University One faculty member teaching speech requires multiple student presentations during the semester. Mehta’s team helped her with an easy way for students to review their progress. Using a third-­‐party vendor iPhone app to record in class, she hits “send” and a workflow takes the video to the Ensemble Video platform, processes it to an MP4 file, and sends it on to Blackboard LMS for enrolled students to see.
Future A future goal for Temple is to make Ensemble Video a central repository for all media on campus. At present, many college departments and administrative centers use Vimeo accounts, and several use YouTube because it is free. Now that the campus is seeing the benefits of a central system, the Web and Media Services team has an enterprise license to grow the Ensemble Video user base and repository. 4 The University Library archives are also a reason to centralize video content. One library has over 15,000 videos from TV and needs a cost-­‐efficient way to house, stream and restrict use. Mehta’s team already uses Ensemble Video security and can accommodate the archives. HTML videos are another archive case. Currently, some 2,000 videos need to migrate to a central management system to ensure longevity and efficient access. Mehta is also involved in evaluation of plans to expand Distance Education as the demand increases. He is also on the steering committee that ensures Temple meets the requirement s of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which includes closed captioning of video for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Ensemble Video integrates with captioning services to help colleges support this requirement. Also ahead, the team plans to explore more ways to include student-­‐created content, and more methods for faculty to “flip” the classroom, such as using the iPhone and third-­‐party applications to post to Blackboard. Faculty and students demand video, not only to present course curriculum, but for the benefit of capturing activity for study outside the classroom. Faculty and students are getting tremendous benefit. “People love it,” he says. “There are some power users who are wanting to create fancy videos, but most are delighted when we can tell them to just ‘hit send’ and their work is done. With that automation, the IT work is easily done, too.” Company Ensemble Video PO Box 6505 Syracuse, NY 13217 Phone (315) 753-­‐0094 Web www.ensemblevideo.com The choice of Ensemble Video has been a success for Mehta’s team. Ensemble Video -­‐ Temple University Case Study