Development of video services at Kingston University “Doing it on the cheap, and finding a direction” ARLIS VRC 9 th September 2008 Matthew Grove Andy Belsham Information Services Content Management Team

Background Challenges Solutions Future plans What I will cover this afternoon.

Introduction 20,000 students about 3,000 of which are overseas Two major Faculty interests Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture Courses Film studies Web TV modules Television studies Animation Demand at Kingston University

Introduction Aspirations Blending learning model Courses need resources off and on site 24 X 7 All Kingston students receive the same quality service Meeting that demand Actualities Physical collections Variable demand

Back in the day… Paper based Technician dependant Under managed Labour intensive Off-Air Recording Service

VHS: The death of a format Student ownership of VHS players and a declining market Fragility of the media Internal strategic drivers

Strategic Discussion What could be done? Fact finding tour, having been shown the cheque book Evaluation Obstacles to investment Pressure on student PC facilities Steep learning curve for academics and students Restricted development prior to ERA+ Drop VHS and develop something “cutting edge”.

Adoption of DVD More robust Students had players Technology was affordable Nobody had to make any difficult strategic decisions Burning to DVD

DVD : The death of another format? Evidence of shift in demand Growth in student expectation for electronic resources for all courses.

Strategic Discussion II – The Return Unveiling of ERA + Discussions on future value for money when funding an in-house solution Access ‘v’ collections. Move away from DVD and do something “cutting edge”, you know, like YouTube.

What is the plan Use PVR Hard disc recorders DVD duplicators for multiple copies Investigate what we already have in place to work with. Whist we are waiting for the ultimate solution to arrive.

Helix Universal Streaming Server What did we have in place? A Real Networks, Helix Universal Streaming Video Server – capable of delivering multi-format streaming video to both wired and wireless devices across the Web. Used within Kingston University to deliver high quality video content in support of Teaching, Learning and Marketing purposes. Then Andy and his streaming server came along

What do we have now? CAPTURE PC’s RM Intel P4, CPU 2.40GHz, 1.00GB RAM with Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T-500 PCI Card and DVB –T Tuner (Freeview) ENCODING PC RM Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 x CPU 1.86GHz, 1.98 GB RAM with Real Producer Encoding Software and Automated Batch Encoding Script TV.TV Electronic Programme Guide Subscription to G-TECH G-RAID 2TB Ext HDD +

What do we have now? CAPTURE PC ENCODING PC TV.TV EPG G-TECH G-RAID Ext HDD AERIAL SOCKET TV Signal Programme Schedule MPEG2 Video Files Real Media Files Streaming Video DVD BURNER MPEG2 Video Files

Who helped us out with setting it up? Rob Thomas +44 (0)

How much did it cost? TVTV Subscriptions £ (1yr) Encoding PC £ Capture PC’s £ 0.00 Hauppauge PCI Cards £ G-Tech G-raid 2TB HDD £ Consultancy £ 2,000 GRAND TOTAL £ 2,

Strategic Discussion III - The Rethink Not signed up to ERA+ yet! Possible to restrict via UK IP on streaming server Bite the international bullet by investigating and negotiating alternative delivery managed via VLE CMS. E books and Learning objects development New models of course delivery require new types of content. Something other than copyright cleared articles. Current plans

Strategic Discussion III - The Rethink There is no ultimate solution, no single “killer application”, and one size does not fit all. Develop a framework that supports a variety of solutions for presenting video content. Support a variety of “channels” for content

Channel 1 Content we hold within the University and we have rights to show With ERA+ and secure access via the portal Hosted on our streaming server

MENU Channel 2 Quick and dirty approach to just get it up there Suitable for some project work Easy to access Provided it is rights free YouTube for low-fi

Channel 3 Great presence for marketing Agree a public showcase with Apple Create an iTunes library for your students Easy downloads iTunesU for iTunes users

Channel 4 For sensitive or exclusive content We have easy access management by particular course or cohort. We can report who used what and when. When course completes, so does the access. “Locked down” in VLE

MENU Channel 5 This is science fiction at present but we have some services like Screenonline, Naxos Music Library etc. The required infrastructure managing this access is already in place. EZproxy, Shibboleth etc. Services exist for private individuals, are we near negotiating institutional access for HD movie downloads? Authentication solutions provided for subscriptions

MENU Channel 6 Physical media is still the most accessible approach for many They are reassuringly reliable They come with booklets and shelve notes! DVDs maintained as backup

MENU Menu Management should be supported by licensing information, like ERM All this content should be made easy to find Both in context (on the VLE) or by searching in the portal Provide metadata for a range of discovery tools

Thank you Comments, suggestions, prosecutions… Matthew Grove E Services Manager Andy Belsham Team Leader Web & Multimedia