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Bryant University, Smithfield, Rhode Island
Ongoing
THE PROBLEM: In 2006, Bryant University purchased 100 educational videos from Films Media Group on topics ranging from global politics to psychology. These videos were meant to be a resource for the university's professors, but because the school lacked an efficient way of making the videos easily available, there was a danger the resource would be underutilized. As a result, the school's IT department set out to find an appropriate video-on-demand (VoD) solution.
THE SOLUTION: After evaluating several options, the college settled on a VBrick-based solution. "It was by far the best product on the market for on-demand video," said Daniel Greene, Bryant's Media Production Specialist.
The system configuration adopted by the school consists of just two VBrick dual encoders: one in Windows Media format and the other in MPEG-2. The school also purchased VBrick's Media Server software which runs on VMware virtual server. For its VoD server, the school initially used a separately purchased IBM computer, but more recently switched to using the 500G of space on the school's Storage Area Network (SAN).
Particularly important to the school was VBrick's auto-ingest capability and its customizable file management tools. The auto-ingest capability made it easy for the college to upload its initial collection of 100 videos with minimal manual involvement. "To load them in one at a time would have been a real pain," said Greene. " With VBrick, we were able to simply hook the hard drive containing the videos up to the server and let the VBrick go through the uploading processes on its own."
Once uploaded, the school's library staff was able to use the VBrick file management tool to create a customized organisational scheme for the videos that matched the library's cataloging system. They also entered the metadata for each video, which students and professors use to properly cite the content in research papers. As the system is integrated with the school's Active Directory, members of the school community can access the video library using their regular passwords. Initially the video library was made available only to the academic buildings on campus, but eventually it was expanded to all the dorms as well.
The school also purchased a set-top box, "mostly just as a toy to see what we could do with it," stated Greene. The purchase quickly proved its worth as a tool for delivering live broadcasts of special events and several television stations to computer desktops and monitors across campus. To generate the live feeds, a video stream is sent from the MPEG-2 encoder to the set-top box and out through the campuses cable headend.
Benefit:
With the new VBrick system in place, professors have found it easy to browse the school's rapidly growing video collection.
"In the past," said Greene, "if a professor heard of a video that they thought might be of interest for their class, they'd have to physically go to the library, get the video, and bring it back to watch it. If they discovered it wasn't as good as they hoped, they'd have to repeat the process. Now they can just log onto one location from anywhere on campus and get access to several hundred videos at once. It saves a lot of time and makes it easier for them to discover videos they didn't know existed."
The system is encouraging an increasing number of professors to add videos to their syllabuses. The school's video library has already tripled in size. For students, the system not only makes it possible for them to watch the videos from the comfort of their dorm rooms, but makes it easy for them to watch the videos again when preparing for tests.
Greene is especially proud of the quality of the video VBrick delivers. He explained that initially professors were skeptical of the system, fearing it would only deliver You Tube-like performance. However, they quickly became fans when they realised the system was delivering DVD-quality to users' desktops. Noting that most of the videos loaded into the system today are in MPEG-2 format, Greene said, "I like to keep the quality of the video high to protect the reputation of the system."
While the system was initially purchased as a vehicle for providing access to the school's newly stocked video library, over time it has also become a vehicle for broadcasting video of live events as well as distributing four cable channels via the IP network: Discovery, History, Fox News, and CNN. The live event broadcasts have included football games, commencement ceremonies and speeches by guest speakers.
"Everyone across the board has been happy with the system," stated Greene. "They love the quality of the videos and the easy access. Looking ahead, the challenge is to respond to the requests for even more video and access to even more cable channels. For us in the IT group, it's definitely one of the more interesting products we get to work with day-to-day."
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Industry: Education
Partner: VBrick
Equipment: WM and MPEG-2 Encoders
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