Project summary
Ensemble Video, the service provider behind Texas State’s Mediaflo video content management system (VCMS), was acquired by another company who has chosen to retire the service. The last day Ensemble Video will be supported and available for use is September 30, 2022. We are actively searching for a new VCMS for Texas State, and what we are seeing thus far is anticipated to bring an enhanced feature set to all faculty, staff, and students.
Migration is a priority
When a change in service providers is necessary, one of the first things we all think about is, “What will happen to all of the work performed and stored in the previous system?” The short answer – the VCMS evaluation team fully intends to select a service provider that will offer a meaningful migration service.
We are strongly advocating on behalf of Texas State faculty and staff for the migration to be the least disruptive to Texas State business as possible. The migration goals are (1) to copy Mediaflo content to the new system, (2) for the existing library structure to remain as much as possible in the new system, (3) to redirect existing Mediaflo links to the new platform, and (4) for existing embedded video to remain working.
As migration plans firm up, we will send updates with next steps and instructions to faculty and staff who use Mediaflo. To prepare for this change, we encourage you to look at videos in your Mediaflo account and download or delete what is no longer needed.
Project and implementation timeline
The IT Division is partnering with various campus departments and conducting a thorough and quantitative search for Texas State’s next VCMS provider including faculty members and staff representatives from the Office of Distance and Extended Learning, University Libraries, and University Marketing.
We plan to contract with and begin implementation of the new VCMS by the end of spring 2022 for use by the start of the fall 2022 semester. Migration could begin towards the end of the spring 2022 semester and is not anticipated to disrupt existing content in Mediaflo during that time.
Wish list for a feature rich VCMS
The new VCMS will likely bring enhanced features and functionality to Texas State. Here is a quick list of what we are seeing in some vendor demonstrations that are getting us excited about what Texas State’s next VCMS could look like. Note that not all vendors offer 100% of these features.
The following are potential features:
- Available to all faculty, staff, and students with unlimited video storage
- An easy-to-use TXST branded modern public portal
- Ability to record video from a web browser or a desktop app (and maybe a mobile app too!)
- Ability to auto-transcribe and easily edit captions in multiple languages
- Create and edit audio descriptions
- Integrate with third-party human captioning services
- Canvas integration
- In video quizzes, video assignments, writing to the gradebook, and embedding video within pages
- Video collections displaying specifically in a Canvas course
- In-course analytics specific to student viewing stats within a course
- Course copy retaining video collection and resetting in-course analytics for students in the new course
- Enhanced viewer experience
- View multiple sources (e.g., webcam and presentation) independently and switch focus between sources
- Searchable transcripts
- Search content presented but not spoken (e.g., optical character recognition, or OCR, from a PowerPoint slide)
- Timeline specific commenting
- Closed captions
- Variable playback speeds
- Viewing or downloading related documents (e.g., meeting agenda or event flyer)
Next steps and future communications
This month, the VCMS evaluation team is completing product demonstrations and gathering requirement feedback from each potential vendor. Once a recommendation is made and the contract is executed, we will hit the ground running with implementation and migration planning and execution. Stay tuned for future updates and instructions on how to prepare for the move and how to learn to use the new service. We thank you for your patience as we work to bring a new, robust VCMS to Texas State. If you have questions, please contact the IT Assistance Center.
Jen LaGrange Aguirre is a business process analyst with the IT Assistance Center.
