1. Behind the Scenes: SURFnet Video Portal The next generation of streaming video services for research and higher education in The Netherlands Egon Verharen Innovation manager Advanced Services

2. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 2 SURFnet The national computer network for higher education and research in the Netherlands –150 member institutions (universities, colleges, research centres, academic hospitals and scientific libraries) –approx. 750.000 users (students, employees) –SURFnet is a subsidiary company of the SURF Foundation

3. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 3 SURFnet 5: advanced wide area network Backbone: 2x 10 Gbit/s Client connections: up to 1 Gbit/s Multicast enabled Native IPv4/IPv6

4. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 4 Not only sufficient bandwidth towards the institutions 20.000 students 10-100 Mbit/s at home in fiber-to- the-dormitory initiatives Growing amount of wide open ADSL users at home (SurfSnel ADSL): 2-8 Mbit/s GEth sw-eth

5. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 5 Where it started Dutch ADSL Trial 98-99 – technical pilot in Amsterdam appr. 1000 residential users (20 % student) –KPN Telecom, NOB Interactive, SURFnet –early adopters, heavy internet-users –fast Internet and video- and audio-on-demand services all based on internet-protocols News on demand Edutainment Polygoon (NIBG) Weather on demand Clips Public television (live & delayTV) Film trailers Events

6. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 6 Where it started and sometimes stopped….: SURFnet NOB (SNOB) pilot 00-02 Only for member institutions > 8Mbit/s delayTV (watch TV one week in return) Live Ned 1, 2 en 3 (Dutch Public Televison) First experiments with DVD quality (MPEG-2) Service had to stop because of rights management of assets! but….. returned in 2003 with FirstMileTV (supported by all public broadcasting companies)

7. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 7 low-end streaming service for member institutions RealMedia, Windows Media and MPEG-1 through Xing Streamworks and Bitcast plugin for Real, Xing mp3 URL clickable streams (can be added to webpages) 500 MB free storage live broadcasting (on request) Where it started: SURFnet Audio- and Videohosting service 99- 03

8. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 8 Where it started: Av@lon pilot (2001) first educational streaming pilot University Groningen (RUG), Netherlands Institute of Sound and Visions (NIBG) and SURFnet 120 hr streaming video and 60 hr audio selected by RUG, provided by NIBG and streamed by SURFnet AV hosting service used for education Themes/courses: disaster journalism, political propaganda in movies, radio and television, and historical movie-analyses Integration in Blackboard Video editing tools (virtuele snijmachine) URL: http://coo.let.rug.nl/avalondemohttp://coo.let.rug.nl/avalondemo

9. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 9 Conclusions Av@lon pilot Streaming makes available educational content easier and more efficiently Streaming technology and internet network infrastructures are ready for educational usage of streaming Order and delivery process needs improvement Multi-disciplinary approach is essential Teachers and students need new skills and support Follow up (2003): DAVIDEON project (1000 hr) development of educational scenarios

10. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 10 Collaboration Projects and knowledge exchange in Webstroom group http://www.edusite.nl/webstroom http://www.edusite.nl/webstroom

11. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 11 Webstroom projects Round 2 (2003-2004) 5 selected projects –Faculty on human movement science (VU Amterdam) –Video reflection for student ( graduate school on teaching and learning UvA) – Video registration of competences (Small Bussines and Retail INHolland) – Cultural Antropology (Leiden University) – Social Law (Tilburg University) more emphasis on evaluation of educational aspects

12. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 12 And much more projects Davideon (Groningen University, Windesheim, VU Amsterdam, NIBG) Digiclass ( NHL, Institute Education & Communication (IEC),University of Groningen, Universitary centre for teacher training college (UCLO) Digital language classroom (Groningen, Leiden, Utrecht and Tilburg Universities) ……. and much more http://www.edusite.nl/webstroom/projecten_nederland

13. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 13 SURFnet Video Portal: since 2003 Combining the results of projects and other initiatives in a next generation streaming video environment –Production –Distribution –Information retrieval –Online video editing and conversion tools –Manuals and instructional content, workshop –Community (forum)

14. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 14 SURFnet guide/manual for producing streaming video Manual in PDF format –UvA, VU and UVT –Production aspects (storyboards, recording and editing audio and video) –Publishing and distribution (on the internet) –Copyright issues –Examples Workshops

15. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 15 Workshop

16. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 16 SVP distribution: Storage of streaming files Windows Media Real media Quicktime MPEG streaming server: Kasenna Mediabase XMP –MPEG-1 –MPEG-2 –(ISMA) MPEG-4 1 GB storage for free/institute SURFnet streaming servers with file management environment

17. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 17 Information retrieval: Search and browse facilities Not easy to find streaming files Solution: attach metadata tag with descriptive information to streaming file based on Qualified Dublin Core standard

18. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 18 SVP Metadata model Title Title.Alternative Creator Subject Description Description.Abstract Publisher Contributor Language Relation Coverage.Spatial Coverage.Temporal Rights Date.Created Date.Valid Date.Available Date.Issued Type Format.Extent Format.Medium Identifier Source Element printed in green are required fields

19. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 19 Information retrieval: Search engine organization Y organization X SURFnet Search engine streaming server Metadata input

20. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 20 Information retrieval: end user web interface

21. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 21 File protection Authentication layer to make streaming files only available to selective user group: Hostname based authentication (no need to distribute username – password to end-users) 1.File is only available to one or more organizations that are part of the SURFnet community. 2.File is available to all SURFnet member organizations 3.File is publicly available (no file protection)

22. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 22 File protection: Admin interface

23. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 23 Example of file protection end user screen

24. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 24 SURFnet media conversie service AVI MPEG-2 MPEG-1 MPEG-4 Real WMV /ASF Quicktime input formatsoutput formats Convert source file to streaming media file types through web application

25. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 25 Transcoding tool: interface

26. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 26 Editing tool: selection Virtual Cutting Machine Developed by Andre Rosendaal (Groningen University) Select part of file Reference to the selection in the original file Fragment

27. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 27 Editing tool: playlists Combine several streaming fragments into one stream File Y selection 2 playlist A File X selection 1 File Z selection 3

28. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 28 Editing tool: interface /s/surfnet/real/tnc2003.rm

29. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 29 Editing tool: interface

30. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 30 SVP asset management

31. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 31 SURFnet Video Portal website http://video.surfnet.nl/ http://videosearch.surfnet.nl/

32. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 32 Enhancements: SVP2 Person and Realm based access control –Through institutes authentication services Presentation tools More mediatypes Improvements in batch upload, batch asset mgt

33. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 33 Person-based access control Using RADIUS infrastructure or A-Select (authentication selection infrastructure)

34. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 34 Person based access control

35. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 35 SVP2 mediafile protection

36. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 36 SVP2 asset management

37. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 37 Batch mgt

38. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 38 International Terena TF-Netcast Task Force Creation of a portal for live-streaming announcements Terena TF-stream Task Force streaming recommendations for audio/video streaming and conferencing over the Internet (ended 2002) JISC and ALT (new streaming pilots) Internet2 (super high quality streaming)

39. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 39 Related topics (not discussed here) videoconferencing (also part of the Webstroom community); VC has its own dynamics SURFnet TV, education TV, TV channels Live streaming of events (conferences, seminars, lectures)

40. ©2004 SURFnet, SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop 2004 40 Conclusion/success factors Technology and networks are ready knowledge dissemination inside and between institutions essential Stimulate small scale pilots (technology education) Multi-disciplinary approach essential Building the chain between: Students Teachers Learning technologists Librarians AV specialists Network technologists Content providers NREN