1   Ensemble  Video    -­‐  Temple  University  Case  Study  

Ensemble  Video  Delivers  Anytime,  Anywhere  Video  Across  Four  Temple  University  Campuses      

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.”  

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  

reducing  tech  support      

At  a  Glance  

CASE  STUDY

2   Ensemble  Video    -­‐  Temple  University  Case  Study  

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?”  

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  

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.  

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.”      

“We needed an affordable platform

that was compatible and

easy to implement. Ensemble had it.

The pilot was simple and low

cost.”

Play  curriculum  video  on  any  device,  anywhere.  

3   Ensemble  Video    -­‐  Temple  University  Case  Study  

“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.

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  Access  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.  

Results  

Temple  University  Case  Study  

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.  

4   Ensemble  Video    -­‐  Temple  University  Case  Study  

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.  

 

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.  

The  choice  of  Ensemble  Video  has  been  a  success  for  Mehta’s  team.  

Company  

Ensemble  Video  PO  Box  6505  Syracuse,  NY  13217  

Phone  

(315)  753-­‐0094  

Web  

www.ensemblevideo.com  

Viral  Mehta  Assistant  Director  Web  &  Media  Services  Temple  University      

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.”