Kaltura Video Portal

Table of Contents

Logging In

The Video Portal and Blackboard share one library. Anything you add in one place is available in the other, so there is no need to upload a file twice. The Video Portal allows you to share content with anyone whereas the Blackboard interface only allows you to post and share video within Blackboard.

To access the Video Portal, go to video.syr.edu, select the login area at the upper right, and sign in with your NetID and password. All active Syracuse University faculty, staff, and students have access. For guidance, refer to https://knowledge.kaltura.com/help/my-media.

For adding media and embedding it in Blackboard, see Adding Media to Your Kaltura Library and Embedding Kaltura Videos in Blackboard.

Media Retention

Adding Media

Select Add New at the upper right to see the options for getting media into your library.

Media Upload is for files you created elsewhere and are ready to stream. Drag and drop the file, or browse for it. You can select several files at once to upload them together.

Express Capture records in the browser, with no software to install. You can capture your camera, your microphone, your screen, or a dual stream of screen and camera that viewers can rearrange as they watch.

Kaltura Capture is a desktop application that records your screen, cameras, and microphones locally and then uploads the finished recording to your library. Because it records to your hard drive rather than to the network, it is the better choice for anything longer than a few minutes.

YouTube creates an entry in your library that points at a video hosted on YouTube. The video plays in the Kaltura player, which lets you organize it alongside your other media and gives you Kaltura analytics for it. The source file stays on YouTube; if the owner removes or unpublishes it there, the Kaltura entry stops working.

A Kaltura video quiz option also appears here. WeVideo is the preferred tool for interactive video at Syracuse University — see WeVideo (formerly PlayPosit).

Express Capture

Select Add New, then Express Capture. Allow the browser access to your camera and microphone when prompted. Use the camera, microphone, and screenshare buttons to choose your sources — each button also lets you pick among multiple devices — then select the red record button to begin. The elapsed time appears at the bottom of the interface.

When you select Stop, you have three choices: Record Again discards the take and starts over, Use This uploads it to your library after you give it a title, and Save a copy downloads the file to your computer. Once uploaded, an Express Capture recording behaves like any other entry — it is captioned automatically, and can be embedded, shared, and downloaded.

Express Capture works on laptop and desktop computers only. On a phone or tablet, record with the device's camera app and upload the file instead.

Kaltura Capture

To install Kaltura Capture, log in to MediaSpace, select Add New, and then select the Kaltura Capture option. Approve the download if your browser asks. On Windows, run the installer and follow the prompts; on macOS, drag the application icon into the Applications folder. Once it is installed, return to MediaSpace and select the same option again to launch it.

In the Kaltura Capture window, the three drop-down menus select which cameras, screens, and microphones to record. Kaltura's Kaltura Capture user guide has step-by-step instructions with screenshots.

Processing Time

Kaltura re-encodes each upload into several streaming qualities, and the lower qualities finish first. A recording is usually playable at standard definition within about the length of the recording itself, while the high-definition versions continue to process for some hours afterward. You can embed and share an entry while this is happening; viewers see a brief processing notice, and the video appears on its own once it is ready.

If a newly uploaded video looks soft or blurry — most noticeably on screen recordings of slides or spreadsheets — the high-definition version has probably not finished processing yet. Check again later before troubleshooting anything else.

Captions and Transcripts

Every entry is machine-captioned automatically. Automatic speech recognition is good but not exact; review and correct the captions on anything your audience is expected to rely on. Captions are typically available within 24 hours.

Requesting Captions in Another Language

Open My Media and select the entry, choose Caption & Enrich from the Actions menu, leave Service and Feature at their defaults, select the source media language, and select Submit. The request appears under Existing Requests, and you will receive an email when it completes — usually within 24 to 48 hours.

Deleting Captions or Transcripts

From My Media, open the entry for editing, then use the Captions tab for caption files or the Attachments tab for transcripts. Select the x in the Actions column for the file you are removing and confirm.

Live Captioning

Third-party speech-to-text tools can caption a live event, but their accuracy is uneven. ITS recommends professional captioning whenever an accommodation has been requested or University policy requires an event to be captioned. See Guidelines for CART and ASL Interpreting.

Downloading Media

Downloads are disabled by default and must be enabled per entry by the owner. From My Media, open the entry for editing, select the Downloads tab, check the formats you want to make available, and save. Select Go To Media, then use the Download tab on the entry page to retrieve the file. Enabling downloads makes the file available to everyone who can view the entry.

Changing Media Ownership

Ownership can be transferred — useful when the person who created a video is leaving the University and someone else needs to maintain it. Ownership changes must be made in MediaSpace; the option is not available through Blackboard.

Open My Media and select the entry, choose Edit from the Actions menu, and open the Collaboration tab. Select Change media owner, enter the NetID or Kaltura group that should own the entry, and save. The same tab is where you add co-editors, co-publishers, and co-viewers, which is often the better choice when you want to share management of a video without giving it away.

Channels

A channel is a collection of media with its own membership and privacy settings. Channels are useful for gathering media on a single theme, or for making a set of videos available to a specific audience that does not map to a Blackboard course.

To create one, select your name at the upper right, choose My Channels, and select Create Channel. Give the channel a descriptive name, and an optional description and keywords, then choose how open it should be:

• Open: other Kaltura users can both view and contribute media.

• Restricted: other users can view the media; only invited members can contribute.

• Private: only the users you invite can see the media at all.

Two further options are worth considering before you save. Moderate content holds media submitted by others for your approval before it becomes visible, and Enable comments in channel lets viewers comment on the media.

Adding Members to a Channel

From My Channels, select Edit on the channel, open the Members tab, and select Add Member. Enter the person's NetID and choose a role:

• Member: can view channel content.

• Contributor: can view content and add media.

• Moderator: can view, add, and moderate content.

• Manager: can view, add, moderate, and manage the channel itself.

Adding Media to a Channel

You can publish media to a channel as you upload it, or add it later. Open the channel from My Channels and select Add Media. From there you can search your existing library and publish the entries you select, or record or upload something new directly into the channel.

Playlists

A playlist is an ordered list of entries that can be viewed in MediaSpace or embedded in Blackboard as a set. For someone else to watch the videos in your playlist, each video must be either unlisted or published to a category or channel that person can already see — the playlist does not grant access on its own.

Open an entry, choose Add to playlist from the Actions menu, and either select Create Playlist to start a new one or check the existing playlists you want to add it to, then save. A confirmation message lists the playlists the entry was added to.

Viewing Media Analytics

Kaltura reports performance over time, viewer engagement, access by country, and device breakdown for entries you own or co-edit. Open My Media, locate the entry, and select the analytics icon. Kaltura's entry-level analytics documentation explains what each measure means.

Zoom Cloud Recordings

Zoom cloud recordings are copied into your Kaltura library automatically once Zoom has finished processing them. Expect the entry to appear roughly two to four times the length of the recording after you stop recording. Zoom keeps cloud recordings for 120 days; the Kaltura copy is what remains available after that.

Restoring Deleted Media

Media you delete goes to a recycle bin and can be recovered for a limited period. See Kaltura's instructions for restoring items from the recycle bin.

Media Stitching

Kaltura can join separate entries into one continuous video without re-uploading them. See Kaltura's media stitching documentation.

KMS GO Mobile App

Kaltura's mobile app, KMS GO, is available for iOS and Android. The first time you open it, enter http://video.syr.edu when prompted for the site address, then sign in with your NetID. See Kaltura MediaSpace Go (KMS GO) Mobile App for more detail.

Learning More

Kaltura maintains extensive documentation for MediaSpace, including the MediaSpace user guide, MediaSpace Essentials, and their general FAQ.

Support

For help with Kaltura MediaSpace, contact the ITS Help Desk at 315.443.2677 or help@syr.edu, or visit the ITS Service Center.