Educators: Earn a free Gold upgrade by joining the PBwiki Back To School Challenge.
Digital Video discussion at National media Market, Oct. 7, 2007
~summary by Susan Weber and Barb Bergman
A packed room of librarians and vendors made for a lively discussion of the many issues and questions that surround digital video delivery.
It was clear that there are many competing needs, and that there is no one solution that will work for all library types. About the only thing that all could agree on was that the Digital world is here and there is nothing to do to stop it, so we should work with vendors to ask for what we want.
Many different needs and models in existence. Examples of applications:
St.. Thomas – buying files. Students authenticate with password
- will be using FMG’s delivery system
- were thwarted at implementing this by their IT Dept. who cited bandwidth issues
At another K-12 site, use AIMS for their content.
They use Gigaman to widen bandwidth
Can’t stream – they have to download
In California, a 15-county consortium for K-12
Has own interface: California Streaming
License digital format
Consortial license is based on # of students
Use 2 servers – schools still need to have fast bandwidth to use.
Do own digitization and also purchase it done.
N.J. – Wm. Patterson – classrooms set up, training provided.
Teachers love it & use it.
Integrate with Blackboard
Have State portal – Shibbolah
Do own digitizing – Final Cut Pro and WMP
Virginia – CCECT –have own network with servers
Non-vendor specific interface
K-12 – Regional Centre – has district Centre – then schools
Treats licenses same as rights to make copies
Use Power Media Plus – can add own content.
Had to upgrade TV’s and get black boxes to connect them
Overall:
What are needs?
- Is need for in-class use or to provide 24/7 access outside class?
o Very needs for image quality, bandwidth, etc.
- K-12 seemed more interested in purchase of content services such as Learn 360 or Discovery Education. Higher education, in general, wanted to continue to select specific content.
- Some institutions prefer to license content and use a service to host it, while others prefer to load and host content locally.
- get policies in place to avoid live streaming problems. Ex: School districts requiring overnight download instead of live streaming which places too much demand on their system.
- students get access at home
- catalogue integration essential (full cataloguing access via ILS)
- quality of image not a big concern
- growth in distance learning & request for student access outside is driving the demand
- Vendors seeing a shift in willingness of content producers to allow digital rights, but there are still some producers who won’t sell digital rights (ex: Granada)
Frustration on both sides about lack of standards or even guidelines for formats.
Many formats being used:
WMP, Quicktime Flash, MPEG4, Real
Ex: Cost of a digital server with Digital Curriculum, about $10,000.
Equipment – faculty don’t want to use in classroom anymore, want easy set-up, push buttons. But pros/cons: which is more convenient: bringing DVD to class or having to bring laptop to access content in class.
Students want access 24/7. Don’t seem to care too much about image quality.
Access:
K12 highly interested in content being tagged and linked to education standards
Want MARC records
Want to have listed in library catalog for visibility and Boolean search options -- existing video delivery services have poor searching capabilities. Easier for users if searching integrated into an existing system, i.e, the library catalog
Intelecom – Funded by California Colleges consortium
Costing models
1. One time cost or ongoing?
2. Pay-per-view– problem is – how do you budget for that constant change?
3. Serials model of charging for campus FTE’s has proven to be very expensive, would be very difficult for video content if similar price inflation were seen. Ex: Why would sciences have to pay for access to early childhood material?
4. Use – how, where,? Multiple usage based on duplication license model
5. Consortial. Ex: NetLibrary model – allowed to view 3 times, purchase on 4th.
Entire collection allowed up to 3 uses
Concerns raised from the room: Buyers don’t want to buy something over and over.
Term licensing becomes a serials issue, which can make purchasing problematic. Video is already an expensive material (in comparison to library book purchases). Can’t add something new without letting go of something old.
From producers: 1 electronic copy sold to an entire school Board/District will be used for entire district, viewed by many. 1 copy of VHS is not the same as 1 electronic file. (possibility of multiple simultaneous users). Could have major impact to the market.
Pricing
- Textbook model – students pay a materials fee
- Format specific – if you buy MPEG4, and the format changes, you have to rebuy, just like VHS to DVD.
- Eyeballs – pay only for simultaneous users
- Schools should pay for streaming same as did for Duplication rights
- Tiered schema – with a couple of options dependent on size
Ex: Bullfrog uses the Carnegie Classification model for pricing.
Wish list of features from buyers
- Reasonable price – not a subscription with annual fee
- Format consistency / a standard
- Chapters and/or clips with metatagging
- Good & simple interface and/or integration with buyer’s existing systems
- Captioning
- Info on how to cite a clip
- Easy authentication (IP-range access or through course management system)
- portability of file
- metadata for clips. Question: what standard? XML? Dublin Core? MARC?
- School find it important to have content tied to learning standards. Present problem for providers -- which curriculum? State? Who does this? Costs involved if outside
Page Information
|
Wiki Information |
Recent PBwiki Blog Posts |
Create your own educational wiki!