2007 Campus Technology Innovators: Rich Media
TECHNOLOGY AREA: RICH MEDIA
Innovator: Drexel University
Creating a user-friendly digital drop box to
enable seamless publishing of rich media
elements for academic use
At Drexel University (PA), rich media has long
been an integral part of the school's academic
offerings. Yet, deploying that content was often a
painstaking process; university instructors and
staff would bring audio, video, graphic, and textual
content to the school's Faculty Development Center (FDC) to
have it made web-accessible, and such requests would require
hours of FDC personnel time to handle, via a manual process.
The need to minimize the staff handling time necessary to
encode and publish rich media, as well as a desire to simplify
access to the university's archive of web-based, on-demand
rich media, led John Morris, director of academic technology
innovation, and his team to develop the Rich Media Conversion
Project (RMCP). By creating a user-friendly, automated
digital drop box, RMCP greatly simplified the process of
getting audio, video, text, and other rich media objects into
highly compressed and streamable formats, suitable for web
delivery. "The great thing about RMCP is that it satisfies both
major constituencies: IT and Drexel's faculty," enthuses Morris.
"It satisfies IT by significantly reducing staff time associated
with the publishing of rich media, and it satisfies our academics
by significantly simplifying their publishing of rich media."
Streamlining a complex process. Built entirely inhouse
(originally written in PERL and now being
converted to ASP.NET2), RMCP is a user-friendly
web-based graphical user interface (GUI) that
automates the rich media deployment process.
Using AJAX components linked to back-end systems,
the GUI allows authenticated users to create
new content channels (i.e., categories);
upload rich media content and metadata to new
and existing channels; select appropriate encoding
schemas based on input media type; create
and manage playlists that can aggregate cross-channel
content; and manage content access rights. An
Apache web server houses the web application,
authorization information, and system metadata, and a
proxy/load-balancing platform receives input files and encoding
information from the web application, and passes the
dataset on to the appropriate encoder software. The various
encoders convert the original input into specified format(s),
deploying the resulting content files to a RealNetworks Helix
Mobile streaming server, as well as
creating and deploying XML syndication and HTML web
access files.
AT DREXEL, RMCP greatly
simplified the process of
getting audio, video, text,
and other rich media objects
into highly compressed and
streamable formats.
RMCP's complexity is transparent to the user; Morris and
his team worked closely with faculty and staff content authors
to create a system that does not overwhelm users with too
many choices, yet retains flexibility and power. For example,
the technologists decided to restrain fine-grained control in
many instances of the encoding and publication process, in
favor of sensible default choices.
Easy as 1-2-3. Take, for instance, the conversion of an AVI
file to RM 56-kbps, 256-kbps, and MP3 formats, all in one
"drop." A user simply launches the RMCP web interface and
enters his university username and password. He selects a
channel, types in an event name, provides a brief description,
and clicks the browse button to locate the AVI file on his computer.
He then selects the desired output format(s) and clicks
the send button to complete the process. When the encoding process is complete, the RMCP system sends the user an
e-mail indicating the URL for the individual content item (it can
also provide a URL for a user-defined catalog of content
items, or a URL for an iTunes/RSS-valid XML file suitable for
podcasting or syndicating to a news feed reader).
Listening to the users. Each step in the project development
has been a direct response to user needs. For example,
when faculty wanted to organize and control their rich
media elements, the team enhanced RMCP to include channels,
playlists, password protection, public/private characteristics,
etc. When users asked for syndication capabilities, the
team added RSS features. Morris notes that the system's
RSS functionality is particularly significant, because it enables
end users not only to subscribe to a particular content channel,
but also to receive notification of any updates to the content
(additions, deletions, or modifications).
Reaping the benefits. "The real beneficiaries are the viewers
of rich media elements: students, employees, the university
community at large," stresses Mike Scheuermann, Drexel's
director of online learning. Indeed, in 2006, more than 7,600 rich
media objects were created and deployed through RMCP. That
means Drexel's 16,800-plus students can access myriad multimedia
video and audio clips, lectures, demonstrations, and the
like—in their favorite formats, compatible with video iPods,
cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, and RSS feeds.
Morris adds, "Once in a blue moon, all the stars align. This
is the case with RMCP; we have the alignment of faculty, faculty
development and support, IT developers, and systems
administrators—all for the common good."
