July 2019 Mediasite Administrator Update(Archive)

NC State Endpoint Security Standards

NC State has implemented an Endpoint Protection Security Standard https://policies.ncsu.edu/rule/rul-08-00-18/ which requires all computers which access university data to receive regular security updates and patches. This is a very good thing that protects all of us from malicious software and hacking. 

Phase 1 requires all Windows and Mac based computers to either be managed by a Configuration Management System such as System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or JAMF Pro (for Macs) by June 30, 2019, or for an Exception to be approved for the device https://oit.ncsu.edu/it-security/eps-implementation/.  

Mediasite recorders, though Windows based, are not managed with SCCM, because Sonic Foundry incorporates Microsoft Windows updates & security patches in Mediasite updates.  Therefore, all Mediasite recorders will need to have exceptions submitted and approved https://oit.ncsu.edu/it-security/it-exception-request/it-exception-request-form/. 

As Mediasite Admins, it’s in your best interests to ensure that all recorders have SCCM exceptions. Note that there may be an IT person in your college who handles this function for all your college/department computers. If so, please contact that individual regarding this.

My Mediasite Notes

Correct URL

Please note that the My Mediasite URL for faculty/staff content creators is: https://mediasite.wolfware.ncsu.edu/online/MyMediasite 

If a faculty or staff member tries to use the URL starting with mymediasite.online…etc., they will get a 404 or “no access” message, because that URL was retired last year. 

Student Access for Assignments

Students cannot access the mediasite.wolfware instance. Students who need to access My Mediasite for assignment creation must use: https://student.online.ncsu.edu/online/mymediasite 

Special Cases

Teaching graduate students can sometimes run into problems accessing https://mediasite.wolfware.ncsu.edu/online/MyMediasite. It depends on how their particular college has them categorized in SIS. If they are listed as faculty, they have no problem. If they are listed as students, they are denied access. Mediasite Admins have two options if that happens:

1. get the grad student categorized in your college as faculty in SIS (which may be preferable if other permissions to other “faculty only” systems are needed), or 
2. if re-categorizing the grad student isn’t possible, contact us at mediasite-help@ncsu.edu and tell us who the grad student is, unity ID, etc., and we’ll grant them My Mediasite access. 

Mediasite.wolfware server upgrade June 29, 2019

We will upgrade the Mediasite production server Saturday morning June 29, 2019. We do not anticipate any service interruptions during the upgrade process. Updates will be posted to SysNews. 

The upgrade will take us from Video Platform 7.2.2 Build 2883 to 7.2.2 Build 3196. Build 3196 was released May 31, 2019 and incorporates Build 3192, which was released May 14. 

There are only a few bug fixes in 3196, but 3192 has a number of new features and bug fixes across the board. Go to the Sonic Foundry website, sign in to Tech Support, and under “Documentation” find the “Video Platform 7.2.2 Build 3196 Release Notes.” Scroll down to Build 3196 and you’ll see Build 3192 directly under it. (I’d link directly to the Release Notes, but I’ve discovered that links to Sonic Foundry sites behind the Customer Authentication only work for the person who has authenticated, so you’ll have to do that yourself).

MSX 2019

The Mediasite conference is four months away, at the end of October, but you can lock-in a lower price now without needing to pay now. Details follow.

Conference: The annual Mediasite conference (formerly known as “Unleash”) has always been held in Madison, Wisconsin, Sonic Foundry’s (SOFO) home. This year the conference heads to sunnier climes and the unique city of Austin, Texas. MSX 2019 takes place Monday, October 28 – Wednesday, October 30, 2019, at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in downtown Austin. 

Registration: Register now, pay later: There is an option you can select in the registration process to register now and pay by July 31. At the time of this writing (last week of June 2019), MSX registration is $795. At some point it will go up to $995. Sonic Foundry has priced registrations in blocks, so there isn’t a specific date when the price will change. If you know you’re going to go, it’s in your best interests to register now and get a lower conference rate. If you can’t travel but want to attend, virtual access is available for $150. 

Discount: Very important! In addition to the current reduced rate, we have a discount coupon code to use for an additional $200 off MSX 2019 registration. Use the code TM200 when you reach that point in the registration process for the discount.

Training: Boot Camps are offered (for an extra $399) on Monday afternoon October 28, from 12:30 – 4:30. Sonic Foundry is offering Beginner and Intermediate Mediasite Admin “Boot Camps” for those who want a 5 hour immersive training experience. The Boot Camps run concurrently.

Beginner Boot Camp will focus on creating content with My Mediasite; Intermediate Boot Camp is for Mediasite Administrators. SOFO offers virtual boot camps throughout the year. The MSX Boot Camps are in person. Go here for Boot Camp descriptions, but note that registering for MSX Bootcamps is done via your MSX registration.  

The MSX 2019 Agenda is available. Monday activities are in the afternoon. There are tours of a Dell data center and the UT McCombs School of Business. 

Hotel rooms at the conference hotel, the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center are separate from Registration, but use the Travel  link through the MSX 2019 website to get the SOFO discounted rate of $199.00 per night. The conference website states: As a MSX attendee, you are responsible for your own lodging. A room block with a discounted rate of $199/night is available until September 27, 2019.

More information from SOFO is below:

Our flagship community conference, Mediasite Experience 2019, is moving to Austin, Texas! This social event of the year in our close-knit Mediasite community is a revamped, ultra-exclusive summit-style two-day event, replacing our Unleash user conference that was held in Madison, Wis. for the past 12 years. Hundreds of customers in healthcare, higher education and the enterprise from all around the world will collaborate in Austin and online to learn how to increase the impact and adoption of video in their organizations. We made a strategic decision to choose Austin as the first new location of MSX, because we wanted a city that shared many of the same attributes as Madison. We’re excited to head south, deep in the heart of Texas, next October and start new traditions. 

Registration for Mediasite Experience 2019, which takes place Oct. 28 to 30, is open now.

Mediasite.wolfware transitions

• The colleges/departments below migrated to mediasite.wolfware during the May maintenance window. 
  • CVM
  • CHASS
  • McKimmon
  • IES
• Content on the pre-existing instances remains accessible
• Content can be moved by request, but note that all existing links will break. Moving pre-existing content to mediasite.wolfware requires new links.
• COE will transition later.

Re-naming Recorders

All recorders on the mediasite.wolfware instance must be named with the new naming convention this summer, which is below. 

Naming Conflict:

In some colleges/departments the naming convention below is already being used by the classroom PC. If that is the case, please name the Mediasite recorder with the suffix -01 (even though there’s only one recorder in the room) to distinguish it from the classroom PC.

New Recorder Naming Convention:

Recorder Owner-BldgRoom 

For example: OIT manages the one recorder in Schaub Hall 106 

Recorder Name: OIT-SFS106 

For multiple recorders in a single room: 

Recorder Owner-BuildingRoom-Recorder Number 

For example: DELTA manages two recorders in Park Shops 130 

1st Recorder Name: DELTA-PS130-01 

2nd Recorder Name: DELTA-PS130-02 

Current campus building abbreviations can be found here: https://facilities.ofa.ncsu.edu/bldg/buildings/ 

Mediasite University Training Materials

• Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite U has a new look, new materials and a new URL.
• The URL is https://learn.mediasite.com/ and SOFO log-in is not required to view the material
• Courses are divided into 4 categories, for these roles: Learner, Instructor, Application Administrator and Server Administrator.
• Each module has multiple videos. For example “Up and Running with Your Recorder” has 21 separate video “lessons” covering how to set up and connect recorders, with a separate lesson for each recorder hardware version. 

There are new training videos for content creators to which you can direct your faculty:

Uploading Your First Video Presentation: https://learn.mediasite.com/course/uploading-your-first-video-presentation/  

Sharing Your Mediasite Presentations: https://learn.mediasite.com/course/sharing-your-mediasite-presentations/ 

Editing Your Video Presentation: https://learn.mediasite.com/course/editing-your-video-presentation/ 

Recording Your Screen With Mediasite Desktop Recorder: https://learn.mediasite.com/course/recording-your-screen-with-mediasite-desktop-recorder/  

Enhancing Your Presentations With Engagement: https://learn.mediasite.com/course/enhancing-your-presentations-with-engagement/  

Note from Sonic Foundry

Recorder software images and versions are dot odd numbers, and 

Server versions are dot even numbers.

• After the 7.1 recorder version series, the next recorder iteration will be 7.3.xx, 
• The next server version after the 7.2 series will be 7.4.xx.

Links to Resources

Sonic Foundry

• Sonic Foundry Mediasite University
• Mediasite YouTube channel
• Sonic Foundry Moodle/Mediasite videos
• My Mediasite Version 7.2 videos
• Sonic Foundry Technical Support website (requires login based on support contract)

DELTA

• DELTA Knowledge Base Articles
• DELTA Mediasite Help Desk: mediasite-help@ncsu.edu
• DELTA Mediasite Testing Environment
• DELTA Wolfware Maintenance Calendar
• DELTA Learntech Help Desk learntech@ncsu.edu

NC State

• NC State Help Desk help@ncsu.edu
• NC State SysNews https://sysnews.ncsu.edu/
• NC State Closed Captioning Contract Information

Current NC State Mediasite server, recorder disc image and software versions

Production – Single Instance

• Mediasite.wolfware server version: 7.2.2 Build 2883
• Mediasite.wolfware server version after June 29: 7.2.2 Build 3196
• Recorder disc image 7.3.2
• Recorder version 7.3.2 Build 1915
• Mediasite Desktop Recorder 2.5 Build 1081

Production – College/Department Instances

• Server version: 7.0.30, Build 3808
• Recorder disc image 7.1.14 (only COE recording)
• Recorder version 7.1.14 Build 5028 (only COE recording)

Testing (7.2)

• Test server: 7.2.2, Build 3196
• Recorder disc image 7.3.2
• Recorder version 7.3.2 Build 1923
• Mediasite Desktop Recorder 2.5 Build 1193

SOFO most recent release

• Server version: 7.2.2, Build 3196
• Recorder disc image 7.3.2
• Recorder version 7.3.2 Build 1923
• Mediasite Desktop Recorder 2.5 Build 1193

Testing Your Production Workflow

The Mediasite testing environment is available 24/7.

• Test server: 7.2.2, Build 3196
• Recorder disc image 7.3.2
• Recorder version: 7.1.14 Build 5028 (works, but unable to push from Portal)
• Recorder version 7.3.2 Build 1923
• We have a new, single test instance.
• You have access to your test instance, 24/7.
• The URL is https://mediasite-test.delta.ncsu.edu/online/manage
• If you experience any difficulties, email mediasite-help@ncsu.edu.

All Sonic Foundry Release Notes, bug fixes and known issues are available on the Sonic Foundry Support website. 

Closed Captioning

When working with a captioning provider, always reference the NC State Convenience Contract 298479 to ensure you receive the discounted rate. Information about NC State closed captioning is on the OIT Accessibility website: https://accessibility.oit.ncsu.edu/choosing-a-captioning-company/

More Information

For any Mediasite information or to send Mediasite help requests, email mediasite-help@ncsu.edu.

Mediasite maintenance windows and any enterprise-wide issues are posted on Sysnews: https://sysnews.ncsu.edu/ 

DELTA Updates and Maintenance Schedule: https://wolfware.ncsu.edu/updates-maintenance/

Sonic Foundry Contact Information

General information mediasite@sonicfoundry.com. 

Customer Support website: Mediasite Customer Assurance Portal 

Customer Support phone: 877.783.7987