Video Activities

In the following section, examples are given to illustrate specific issues. Many units not in the examples are using the same technologies, some more extensively than those discussed. However, they are having the same difficulties and are examining the digital alternatives. 

CONTENT ACCESS AND MANAGEMENT

Outreach Engineering and the OIR Media Resource Library are two examples of units that make content available on videotape and film. The various media include several formats of videotape, laser disks and 16mm film. The items require significant storage space, are subject to wear with a limited service life, must be physically handled, picked up or delivered for each use. While they may only take an hour to view, they are unavailable to be checked out by others during the time they are being delivered or returned, as well as during the time they may sit unused on someone's desk.

In Academic Year 1999-2000, the College of Engineering's (COE) outreach activity recorded and stored approximately 3,600 hours of video, and shipped and received an estimated 15,000 videotapes via courier services. The COE plans call for a complete transition to high quality digital recording, archiving, and high speed delivery using high capacity video servers during the next two-to-five years as resources become available. The capability to digitally store and retrieve educational content, and make it readily accessible (i.e. education-on-demand) to both on- and off-campus students via the campus backbone and the Internet, is key to the success of the college's outreach activities. Current plans also call for the use of CD-ROM and DVD technologies as intermediate steps towards the digital future.
OIR has a library of over 7000 items and faculty members check out around 10,000 items each year. A move towards DVD media is currently being started.
Redistribution rights for licensed video (e.g. commercial cable television channels, documentaries, etc) must be acquired before it can be provided to the end users. Several distinct systems exist at UF that carry these channels. The units that operate these systems must negotiate their own contracts for carriage. A system to deliver the channels to each unit operator for redistribution must be installed. At best, it is very difficult to provide these channels a-la-carte. This means that acquiring the rights for large groups of channels is the only practical approach. 

The cable TV system that is operated by Campus Video Service reaches 43 buildings. Most of these buildings do not have any other method to receive commercial cable television channels. Many of the channels on this system are locally produced and not available to users on the other cable TV systems at UF. Although units served by this system have requested various commercial channels, redistribution rights have been acquired only for WCJB (ABC Channel 20), WRUF (PBS Channel 5) and the student operated low-power station WLUF (Channel 10). These rights have been granted without charge. No procedure currently exits to acquire and charge for additional channels. Even if a procedure were established, it would represent yet another duplication of the efforts already undertaken by several other units.
Many cable television channel providers are transmitting their signal digitally. Some encourage redistribution on a campus data network to be viewed using computers. Further investigation into redistribution over the data network is needed.

 

Recommendations Establish a virtual digital multimedia server based on open standards. It should support modular cross-platform text, graphics and video content, and provide extensive indexing, searching, accounting, and authentication functions. It should include the ability to provide content from the repository through delivery systems such as the data network, CD-ROM or DVD. It should also closely integrate existing access procedures for non-digital media.  Initiate a formal investigation into the conversion from multiple cable TV systems to the data network for redistributing locally originated content and commercial television channels.