Home   >   News   >   INSIDE: Video Management and Productivity Solutions

INSIDE: Video Management and Productivity Solutions

By on May 21, 2011
image-31-300x336

It has been almost 5 years since version 1.0 of Ensemble Video, and in that time we have continually improved and refined our rich media management solutions into a set of cohesive, high value offerings that can help any organization effectively manage its rich media content.

Currently, Ensemble Video offers a competitive set of online video solutions to our customers in the form of on-premise deployment, cloud hosted solution, managed service model (organizational hosting) and an end-to-end workflow.

If you aren’t aware of our all of our solutions, read on! 

I. On-Premise Deployment

imageThe original version of Ensemble Video was designed as an on-premise software system for large organizations that want to support self-organized, cooperative sharing of video media assets across central or distributed locations. Typically, our on-premise customers have many users managing hundreds to thousands of videos across departments and locations. You can view the features here. The preferred on-premise Ensemble Video system usually contains three integrated components:

  1. Ensemble Video: Ensemble Video is the video content software that stores the information, automates the media management and enables sharing.
  2. Rhozet Carbon Coder: Ensemble Video uses Rhozet Carbon Coder to transcode and compress media uploaded or ingested into Ensemble Video.
  3. Wowza Media Server: Ensemble Video uses Wowza Media Server to stream the video content to your user’s desktop and mobile devices.

The on-premise solution is designed to give enterprise customers full control and flexibility in the areas of administration, media management, media sources and publishing options. Additionally, an advantage of the on-premise Ensemble Video solution it integrates with a wide range of video technologies and tools across your LAN to support diverse video applications.

The on-premise solution offers the greatest flexibility, and while Wowza Media server is often the preferred media server, our customers also use Flash Media Server, Windows Media Services, and Web-based servers such as IIS and Apache to deliver media. Servers can be centralized or distributed, and under control of various institutional departments, if needed.

Example On-Premise Customers:

University of Illinois: The University of Illinois is a true enterprise installation. The have over 35,000 students and over 30 separate departments using Ensemble Video to manage, publish and share video for a variety internal and external purposes. View a University of Illinois video showcase powered by Ensemble Video.

SUNY Cortland: SUNY Cortland is a relatively new installation with a unique application: SUNY Cortland is using Ensemble Video to observe and record speech and language disorders. SUNY Cortland professors can make searchable notes on secure videos so students can quickly and easily navigate to specific disorders.

Future On-Premise Customers: The future customers of our on-premise software are organizations or groups with a large number of employees and/or students who need to manage and publish a variety of rich media assets. These will be technically proficient institutions that have a robust technical infrastructure, people to manage that infrastructure, and a budget to maintain the hardware, software and human resources. Oh yeah, they also want control!

What it if you don’t want control? As you can imagine we run into a variety of prospective customers with a variety of needs, so the on-premise solution is not always ideal. I can’t tell you how many CTO’s and CIO’s that I meet say, “We don’t want to bring anything on campus if they don’t have too.” Their budgets have been slashed, their staff is overworked, and they need to reduce duplicate investments and systems across their organization. Basically, they want what many others want, a simple and effective video platform with the lowest total cost of ownership.

II. Hosted SaaS in the Cloud

image-1The team behind Ensemble Video takes pride in our ability to deliver exactly what you need to address your video and rich media challenges. One current challenge we help you address is doing more with less. Yes, it is possible.

Ensemble Video’s software as a service offering provides organizations with “on-demand” software delivered over the Web. The software as a service model allows organizations to access the core functionality of Ensemble Video at a very reasonable price point. Ensemble Video’s hosted software pricing is based on a monthly or yearly fee and it removes the need for your organization to handle installs, set-ups, upkeep and maintenance.

Typically, our SaaS customers have one-to-many users managing hundreds to thousands of videos across one to many departments and they work in one-to-many locations. The hosted Ensemble Video system contains three integrated components:

  1. Ensemble Video: Ensemble Video is the video content software that stores the information, automates the media management and enables sharing.
  2. Rhozet Carbon Coder: Ensemble Video uses Rhozet Carbon Coder to transcode and compress media uploaded or ingested into Ensemble Video.
  3. Wowza Media Server: Ensemble Video uses Wowza Media Server to stream the video content to your users.

The online SaaS version of Ensemble Video is designed to give anyone access to the functionality and flexibility of Ensemble Video. Our SaaS customers require administrative controls, media management, media sources and the publishing options of Ensemble Video, but they may not have the infrastructure, team, volume or budget to utilize the on-premise solution.

Example Cloud Customers:

Radiant Technology Group provides innovative technology and integration services to solve strategic visual communication needs. With offices in Columbus and Cincinnati, Radiant is a leading resource for audio-visual and information technology solutions throughout Ohio and the Midwest. Radiant is using Ensemble Video to support online marketing and communication purposes across the business.

Briarcliff Manor School District is located north of New York City just outside the Catskills. They are using the hosted version of Ensemble Video to open up their classrooms with educational streaming video and downloadable podcasts. Additionally, the district leadership is recording and sharing public and private meetings.

Attend LLC is using Ensemble Video to power the world’s first and foremost global Content Ingest Network to solve the problems of uploading and transporting large files. Once files are ingested, users gain secure access to manage, archive, collaborate, share, publish, transcode, render, edit, distribute your media using secure private infrastructure In-The-Cloud.

Future Cloud Customers:

Our online version of Ensemble Video will be used by a variety of customers with a variety of needs. We are talking to media producers, businesses, schools, colleges and government organizations. Ensemble Video in the cloud is a great solution for one-to-many users who need to manage, secure and publish a variety of rich media assets. These customers are not interested in bringing a technical solution on to their network (they may not have a network) and they will require a simple and flexible solution with a low total cost of ownership.

The total cost of ownership is the main reason our customers are selecting Ensemble Video. We are finding many organizations are currently searching for the best way to provide modern rich media solutions at a reasonable cost.

III. Managed Service or Consortium (Organizational Hosting)

image-2One great way to achieve the lowest total cost of ownership is to participate in a cooperative arrangement among groups or institutions. Ensemble Video is aware that consortiums have unique needs and our software is designed perfectly for deployment in a consortium . Our consortium partners host the Ensemble Video on-premise software in their data-center and they provide access to Ensemble Video for multiple organizations across the consortium.

For example, we have regional information centers across New York State that host Ensemble Video in their data centers for multiple school districts. Regional college consortiums in New York host Ensemble Video for multiple institutions. This organizational hosting and resource sharing is powerful, cost efficient and truly demonstrates the power and value of Ensemble Video.

I know I’ve covered this before, but I want to make sure you understand how this works. Typically our consortium customers serve many organizations; they have a data center, sufficient technical staffing and a budget. Our consortium customers work with several organizations that also need to manage hundreds to thousands of videos across users, departments and locations. The preferred consortium Ensemble Video system usually contains three integrated components:

  1. Ensemble Video: Ensemble Video is the video content software that stores the information, automates the media management and enables sharing.
  2. Rhozet Carbon Coder: Ensemble Video uses Rhozet Carbon Coder to transcode and compress media uploaded or ingested into Ensemble Video.
  3. Wowza Media Server: Ensemble Video uses Wowza Media Server to stream the video content to your users.

Our consortium customers host and maintain the above Ensemble Video system in in their data-center and they provide/sell access to Ensemble Video for multiple organizations.

Example Managed Service Partners

Annese & Associates is a 40-year-old business in New York State that provides communication services and solutions to customers throughout the state. Annese recently began offering a video collaboration suite that includes a hosted version of Ensemble Video. Many of Annese’s customers depend on them for technical solutions and infrastructure, so offering Ensemble Video to these institutions to manage and share video is a perfect fit.

Lower Hudson Regional Information Center (LHRIC) is a non-profit consortium providing educational and administrative technology services to 62 school districts in New York State. Always on the cutting edge, the LHRIC is offering Ensemble Video to districts that want to transform teaching and learning with rich media.

State University of New York Information Technology Exchange Center (SUNY ITEC) a special purpose organization within the State University of New York system that supports multi-campus, technology-related activities to improve the quality, quantity and cost- effectiveness of SUNY-wide computer services. SUNY ITEC is now offering Ensemble Video to all SUNY institutions so they can each provide a low cost online video solution to their community.

IV. End-to-End Workflow

image-3A brand new solution in 2011 is the automated end-to-end video workflow powered by Ensemble Video rich media management software and MediaPOINTE’s digital media recorders. Ensemble Video and Advanced Media Design collaborated and engineered an impressive end-to-end video workflow.  As you can see in the diagram, video can be captured by the MediaPOINTE DMR and automatically transferred to Ensemble Video for secure or public publishing. This is an open, flexible and standards based lecture capture system.  Many others are leveraging this workflow to simplify event broadcasting, medical research and observation.

usbkeycardAdditionally, you can add a USB keycard into the mix for easy, automated operation. With the keycard, users don’t have to be technical experts. They simply insert their personalized card to begin recording, and pull it out to stop recording. The system records content, and automatically sends the recording to the user’s Ensemble Video media library. A profile on the keycard determines the recording format, and where the captured content will reside in Ensemble Video. This is a very exciting and useful development as organizations are constantly finding investing end-to-end systems like this to removing labor intensive scheduling, coordination and technology support.

Summary

As you can see, Ensemble Video’s unique video solutions will help organizations wring value out of their organizational video as well as meet the diverse needs of stakeholders. That is why colleges, schools districts, media producers and businesses use Ensemble Video every day to manage, coordinate and syndicate their video and image assets. If you have any questions or want to learn more about our competitive set of online video solutions, please contact us! –SEN

About Scott

You must be logged in to post a comment Login