JISC Digital Media Blog

New report on HTML video

Posted by Tim O'Riordan on Friday 27 January 2012 at 11:20am
Tags: codec | file formats | flash | standards | video |

The development of an open, universally adopted standard for web video has long been the holy grail for web developers and anyone interested in hosting and distributing video themselves - certainly since Apple dropped Flash support in 2010 for some of its products¹. In this search the video element of HTML5 (the latest revision of HTML - currently under development) is seen by many as the answer together with the adoption of at least one video format that is playable on all browsers. However, a new report from LongTail Video, the people behind the popular web video player - JWPlayer - indicates that agreement on this standard remains some way off.

In The State Of HTML5 Video² LongTail provide a snapshot of browser support for HTML5 video and Flash, mp4 and webM file formats. The report covers embed tag attributes, and support other features like full screen playback, adaptive streaming an accessibility. Essentially, their research indicates that with the exception of Internet Explorer (IE), all browsers support HTML 5 video (the anticipated release of IE10 will support this element). It identifies the biggest challenge to adoption remains the fragmentation of video format support, and reveals that none of the browsers support fully-featured accessibility in HTML5.

1. JISC Digital Media, 2010. HTML5 vs. Flash (à la VHS vs Betamax). Bristol: JISC Digital Media. [Online] Available at: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/blog/entry/html5-vs-flash-a-la-vhs-vs-betamax [Accessed 27 January 2012]

2. LongTail Ad Solutions, 2012. The State Of HTML5 Video. New York: LongTail Ad Solutions. [Online] Available at: http://www.longtailvideo.com/html5 [Accessed 27 January 2012]

Image: HTML5 Logo / The World Wide Web Consortium / CC BY 3.0

All Our Yesterdays

Posted by Zak Mensah on Thursday 26 January 2012 at 3:23pm
Tags: sustainability | video |

Jeremy Keith - All Our Yesterdays from Build on Vimeo.

Taken from the talk summary:

Our communication methods have improved over time, from stone tablets, papyrus, and vellum through to the printing press and the World Wide Web. But while the web has democratised publishing, allowing anyone to share ideas with a global audience, it doesn’t appear to be the best medium for preserving our cultural resources: websites and documents disappear down the digital memory hole every day. This presentation will look at the scale of the problem and propose methods for tackling our collective data loss.

Webinar Wednesday 18 January on video post-production

Posted by Steve Hull on Wednesday 11 January 2012 at 10:00am
Tags:

analogfilmseminar / Gerda / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This webinar will focus on the post-production phase of the video creation process, where the video is constructed from the footage that has been shot and any other relevant materials that have been collected.  Topics to be discussed will include basic and more advanced editing techniques, music, delivery formats and accessibility issues.  A brief Q&A session will close off the webinar.

Weekly links 6th January 2012

Posted by Zak Mensah on Friday 06 January 2012 at 11:54am
Tags: Weekly Pickings |

• JISC TechDis Tuesdays
  TechDis Tuesdays are online fortnightly workshops that cover a short video conversation on a specific accessibility theme
• New technologies for e-learning in 2012 and a little beyond, Tony Bates
  Tony Bates looks at what is coming in 2012 "Keep running. The technology innovation treadmill grinds on with no sign of letting up."
• Recording student presentations using ReVIEW
  Loughborough University. Dr Dave Elder-Vass is a Lecturer in Sociology and a recent user of the ReVIEW automated lecture capture system. Here he describes his experiences and those of his students.
• Everything you need to know about buying a camera
  The verge continue to bring out great guides and this one on choosing a camera is worth a look

Image credit: cherries / Jessica Lucia  / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Basic Lecture Capture - a low cost solution

Posted by Tim O'Riordan on Wednesday 04 January 2012 at 11:06am
Tags: equipment | video |

In November I presented edmediashare.org at Media and Learning 2011 with independent consultant Theo Kuechel. The conference was a great event with many thought-provoking presentations from leaders in the field of media in education. Presentations in the main auditorium were professionally recorded by the on-site video crew, but those given in break-out rooms (like mine) were not. Fortunately I had my lightweight video recording kit with me and was able to quickly set up and shoot my part of the presentation - which the Media and Learning 2011 Team have recently uploaded to their Vimeo account:

You can see that the resulting image is not great - the slides are mainly illegible and I am only partially lit. However, because I wore a lapel microphone the sound is reasonably good (considering I used a very cheap radio mic kit) and with the PowerPoint slides added later, the final result is quite usable.

The kit:

Kodak Zi8 camera shooting 1080P at 29.97fps
A wide-angle lens
Lane LWM-300II VHF radio microphone kit
Gorillapod Original tripod
16Gb SD card.

Total cost: approximately £140.

Sadly, Kodak have discontinued all of their cameras that had external microphone inputs. However, the Zi8 and it's replacement - Kodak Playtouch - are currently available from some online stores.

The Lane LWM-300II is recommended for use in education by Reflections Kit. It uses a VHF carrier frequency range (110-130MHz), is susceptible to interference and (as you can hear) carries a fair amount of noise.

Weekly links 16th December 2011

Posted by Zak Mensah on Friday 16 December 2011 at 9:27am
Tags: Weekly Pickings |

• Making better videos: shooting your video
  Our 2/3 free online surgery was held this week and the recording and resources are now available.
• Video Production - lecture capture
  A guide to setting up video and audio for lecture capture. Viewers are asked to reflect on camera positioning, framing, sound recording and safety.
• jiscPUB report: Digital publishing landscape, exemplars and recommendations
  The paper provides background on the state of ebook publishing today, and concludes with a set of recommended projects that aim to improve digital scholarly publishing in the UK.
• Developing Digital Literacies: final JISC national workshop
  A free workshop from the JISC e-Learning Programme on developing digital literacies is taking place on 22nd February 2012 in Edinburgh.
• Lighting Techniques for Video Interviews
  A 7min video demonstrating various lighting techniques
• The pirates of YouTube
  Cory Doctorow Guardian piece on how companies are pirating Youtube videos
• Why Apple Is Winning the Mobile Video Format War … For Now
  Interesting article from the creator of the widely used JW Player for embedding video on why we encode how we do
• JISC Netskills Workshop News
  Spring programme is now online and open for bookings

Image credit: cherries / Jessica Lucia  / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Webinar Wednesday on video production

Posted by Steve Hull on Monday 12 December 2011 at 9:21am
Tags:

My First Car Rig / Kelly Herrin / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This webinar will focus on the production phase of the video creation process, where the actual shooting of material occurs.  It will look at ways to ensure that you get the best possible results at the lowest possible cost  (and with the least possble headaches).

On the 18th of January at 1:00 pm we will hold the third webinar in the series which will look at the post-production phase, where the video is constructed from the footage that has been shot and any other relevant materials that have been collected.

Weekly links 9th December 2011

Posted by Zak Mensah on Friday 09 December 2011 at 9:30am
Tags: Weekly Pickings |

• JISC Regional Support Centres 
  The 12 sister services now have a new web home.
• Making and using clinical healthcare recordings
  This site contains guidance material aimed primarily at students, teachers or doctors who wish to use a patient recording or patient data for learning and teaching.
• CMU Researchers One-Up Google Image Search And Photosynth With Visual Similarity Engine
  The researchers have determined an interesting way of comparing images.
• JISC e-learning programme webinars
  As part of the following JISC e-Learning programmes we shall be running several webinars that are free and open to interested parties:  Assessment and Feedback, Developing Digital Literacies,     Curriculum Design, Course Data,  OER
• Grading the Digital School: Online Learning, Personalized
  The NYtimes reports on the Khan Academy
• Living Books about Life
  The project will develop a sustainable series of co-edited, electronic open access books about life - with life understood both philosophically and biologically - which will provide a bridge between the humanities and the sciences.
• Linking the physical to digital
  Steve Boneham from one of our sister services has posted about a recent session that included: QR codes, augmented reality and NFC.
   

Book now
Nex week we'll be running a FREE 1hr online session on guidance for shooting video - Wed 14th Dec at 1pm

Image credit: cherries / Jessica Lucia  / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

How Green is Your Digitisation?

Posted by Jon Moore on Tuesday 06 December 2011 at 2:00pm
Tags: news |

Photo Credit: JISC

The article examines the literature and research already available  on the subject of Green ICT to establish just exactly what the environmental implications are for those involved in digitisation.  It looks at Government policy on carbon reductions; the scope for digitisation to reduce emissions by lessening our dependence on carbon intensive products and activities like travel and use of paper; and goes on to assess the green implications of an ever increasing quantity of digital data created for learning, teaching and research.

The article argues that as digitisers we have a responsibility to involve Green issues in our discourse and to adapt our digitisation methods, processes and workflows to maximise the possibility of an environmentally sustainable future for digitisation.

The article was launched at the first ever national webinar on Green issues, hosted by the JISC RSC  London on the 5^th of December 2011.  A download of the conference, where you can hear the paper being introduced, will be available from their website shortly.

Read "Digitisation and the Environment".

Using medical recordings an online guide

Posted by Jon Moore on Monday 05 December 2011 at 11:11am
Tags: e-learning | finding audio | finding images | finding moving images | news | standards |

Clinical images, videos and other recordings are vital to good teaching and learning within the health care professions. Increasingly these are originated outside the institution that wishes to use them. This raises a number of legal, ethical and other issues relating to their re-use and this new online guide has been created to ensure that guidance on good practice is easily accessible in the community.

The materials have been created by a collaboration of cross-sector organisations and individuals, including the General Medical Council (GMC), Wellcome Trust, Institute for Medical Illustrators, University of Bristol and  Newcastle University.

The materials aim to help users of clinical healthcare recordings to:

• Understand how to deal with consent issues in using recordings of patients in learning and teaching resources;
• Understand the difference between copyright ownership and licencing and how to use resources shared under licence;
• Demonstrate best practice in ‘digital professionalism’ and manage risks when creating sustainable teaching resources;
• Be better placed to share resources with colleagues.

The guidance is aimed primarily at students, teachers or doctors who wish to use a patient recording for learning and teaching.  It will also be of interest and use to other clinical and healthcare workers as well as to university staff where patient recordings are being made available for learning and teaching.   

The new advice and guidance materials were launched at a workshop in London at the Wellcome Trust, which will be followed by a free lecture from Sir Donald Irvine on the importance of patient centred medical education.

The advice and guidance materials will be available online from today, visit Making and Using Clinical and Healthcare Recordings for Learning and Teaching.

Weekly links 2nd December 2011

Posted by Zak Mensah on Friday 02 December 2011 at 4:46pm
Tags: Weekly Pickings |

• Call for proposals: Digital Infrastructure to Support Open Content for Education
  £10,000 - £25,000 per project
• Second in our new series of online surgeries [FREE]
  Making better videos: shooting your video - 14th Dec 2011 at 1pm
• EUscreen offers free online access to videos, stills, texts and audio
  From European broadcasters and audiovisual archives. Explore selected content from early 1900s until today.
• RSC South East advent
  Links to goodies and resources
• BBC Nature - video collections
  Lots of good footage that can be embedded in the VLE and on the web
   

Image credit: cherries / Jessica Lucia  / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Weekly links 25th November 201

Posted by Zak Mensah on Friday 25 November 2011 at 2:37pm
Tags: Weekly Pickings |

• ALT-C 2011 video sessions
  Keynote and invited speaker sessions from the 2011 ALT Conference, 6-8 September, 2011, Leeds.
• The Open Video Landscape
  90+ Web Sources You Might Have Missed
• OER Rapid Innovation Call: Preview
  A sneak peek at an opening funding call
• Dance archives
  DDA currently gives public access to five distinct collections from the National Resource Centre for Dance (NRCD), as well as Siobhan Davies RePlay (SDR).
   

Image credit: cherries / Jessica Lucia  / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0