Web Standards Community Members,

Hello! This is Mike Williams, I’m the service owner for Video and Conferencing Services. I noticed that some folks on this list have some questions about the current state of video at the U of M, and I’d like to provide some clarification. Here is where we stand today:

1.  YouTube is to be used for public media and for distribution through your public websites. I would suggest that if you are sharing access to video between several developers within a department, that you create and use a department account.

2. Kaltura is in production and has just celebrated its first year within Moodle. We have well over 4,000 videos published today across our courses. If you have faculty who use media in their Moodle courses, then Kaltura is the place for them. As for extending this platform to other use-cases that are currently supported by Media Mill, we do not see that happening in the near term.  

3.  Media Mill and Media Magnet will continue to run and be supported until we can find a suitable replacement for the core functions they provide. Some investments we are making now include:  

• Upgrading Media Mill storage to OIT's new bulk storage solution (approximately 80TB) to provide greater stability. (Planned completion summer 2013)

• Creating/identifying alternative solutions for functions currently provided by Media Mill. As an example, we are working on a centralized transcoding platform that can be used to transcode video from one format to another. (Scheduled release date is summer 2013)

4. Google Drive is looking more attractive every day as a place to store media. Google recently announced that your drive space will be growing. Drive might be a very good solution for those looking to host media and still maintain secure access. Drive also will convert your media into playable formats for both the desktop and mobile devices, and embed/iFrame code is generated along with HTML5/device detection. If you haven't played around with this, I suggest downloading a Big Buck Bunny video and giving it a try. Of course, the original file you upload will count against your Drive space, but the derivatives won't.

For more information about these services, or to talk with others at the University who work with or have an interest in media, I recommend joining our University Media Community of Practice Google Group and community. We meet monthly in the STSS building and would enjoy hearing about your needs, troubles, and successes.

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Mike Williams

Service Owner

Video and Conferencing Services