Design, Development and Research

2003-2004 Annual Report

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6.  Digital Video Encoding & Delivery
 

In 2003/2004 the Centre for Flexible Learning started to offer encoding, storing and serving digital media files as a regular service.   Faculty demand for this service has been very high.  This year over 500 media files, mostly videos, have been encoded and placed on the Windows 2003, streaming media server.  70% of digital media is associated with courses.  The balance is associated with teaching and learning support, recruitment and other campus initiatives.  The source of course media is either original video produced by the instructor or provided by a textbook publisher.  In the case of media provided by textbook publishers, course instructors are required to obtain permission for network streaming within a password-protected course web site.  The table below provides statistics relating to the number of files produced and their related departments.

Department

# Files

% Total

University

100

18.5%

Culture Connection.

24

4.5%

NAFTA at ten

8

1.5%

Odysseus

2

0.4%

Video Conference

3

0.6%

CFL

14

2.6%

Projects

3

0.6%

Region

1

0.2%

Miscellaneous

3

0.6%

Courses

378

70.5%

Total

536

100.0%

 

Course Department

# Files

    % Total

Psychology

175

46.0%

Fac. of Education

43

11.4%

Social Work

42

11.2%

Spanish

26

6.9%

Biology

16

4.2%

Comm. Studies

16

4.2%

Nursing

15

4.0%

Visual Arts

11

3.0%

Ophelia

9

2.4%

Japanese

8

2.1%

Music

7

1.9%

Poetry

6

1.6%

Olympiad

2

0.5%

Models

2

0.6%

 Total

378

100.0%

 

 

The media server operating system was upgraded to Windows 2003 server and the media encoding software was upgrade to Windows Media Encoder version 9.

Files encoded using this version are indexed.  Indexing allows users to quickly navigate within a file using the location slider in the media player.

CFL is in the process of purchasing a portable media encoding system for capturing and encoding live events from campus locations.  This equipment will be used for Convocation, State of the University Addresses, conferences and other important events.