February/March 2020 Mediasite Administrator Update(Archive)
March MUG meeting
Our next NC State Mediasite User Group (MUG) meeting will be 10:30 a.m. on March 11, 2020, in Parks Shops 130. You’ll see an invitation on your calendar soon. Among the discussion items will be content capture system evaluation and retirement of old Mediasite instances.
Content Capture System Demos
As part of our due diligence in managing NC State’s enterprise-level content capture system, a review of current enterprise-level systems is overdue. Four vendors have been identified as potential product manufacturers for solutions that meet the needs of NC State and our robust use of content capture. A review of learning management systems will be undertaken after the content capture system review is complete.
We encourage you to attend and/or view the scheduled system demos:
- 3/5/2020 — 3 – 5 p.m. Poe 202: Echo360
- 3/6/2020 — 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Park Shops 130: YuJa
- 3/9/2020 — 1 – 3 p.m. Park Shops 130: Mediasite
- 3/10/2020 — 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Park Shops 130: Panopto
- We will live stream and record each presentation.
- Presentation recording links will be sent to the Mediasite Admin Google Group.
- Feedback forms will be available for attendees and viewers.
- Feedback will be accepted through March 16, 2020.
Instance Retirement
We are working on “retiring” the first instances to move to mediasite.wolfware: Mediasite; DELTA; OIT; CALS; CNR; and Textiles. We’ll be contacting College level Mediasite Administrators with details.
NC State Endpoint Security
As was discussed at our December MUG meeting, as part of NC State’s endpoint security, Mediasite recorders should be on private networks. This provides an extra layer of security for Mediasite recorders.
Dan Deter spoke about this in our December 2019 MUG meeting.
The meeting recording is here:
Title: NC State Mediasite User Group – December 12th, 2019
Date: Thursday, December 12, 2019
Time: 9 AM EST
Duration: 1:04:06
Link: https://mediasite.wolfware.ncsu.edu/online/Play/3dae0a516b3c4a3988c16d6847599d5d1d
Remove Old Recorder Connection URL’s
- All recorders publish to mediasite.wolfware.
- Please delete any unused “old instance” connection URL’s on your recorders.
- The old entries, even though not being used, make the recorders show as “Recording” on the old instances.
- We’ll inform Sonic Foundry, but deleting the entries — which will never be used again anyway — is the fastest way to eliminate the problem.
Deleting Presentations from Recorders
As a best practice for Mediasite recorders, we recommend setting the Disk Management threshold no lower than the default threshold of 25 GB level, as in the screenshot below. This is the point at which the oldest recorded presentations are automatically deleted.
The setting goes as high as 50 GB. Of course, the higher the setting, the more presentations retained, and naturally the length of time they remain depends upon the recording schedule.
There is also a box that can be checked to automatically delete presentations daily, which we do not recommend. It’s handy to have presentations remain on the recorder hard drive, even if for a few days, in case one needs to be republished.
Of course you can also manually delete presentations from recorders. If you do so, please note there is no recorder Recycle Bin from Mediasite recorder 7.3.3, Build 2663 onward. Instead of going to a recorder recycle bin, this is what will happen:
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When deleting a presentation, a popup should confirm the deletion, and then the presentation will be permanently deleted.
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This does not affect the Management Portal Recycle Bin; only presentations on recorder hard drives.
Closed Captioning Convenience Contract
Our NC State contract is Contract 63-JGD10298. Vendors and rates are listed in it.
If you have any closed captioning, make sure you’re receiving the correct rate.
New Apple OS and My Mediasite
As we’ve noted for several months, the newest Apple Mac OS, Catalina, does not support 32 bit applications. The Mediasite Desktop Recorder (MDR) is a 32 bit application.
We’ll notify the Mediasite Admin Google group when a 64 bit MDR is available.
All recorders publish to mediasite.wolfware
As previously noted, all Mediasite recorders should now publish to https://mediasite.wolfware.ncsu.edu/online/
Please remove old connection URL entries from your recorders.
Please refer to the Mediasite Wolfware Single Instance Transition document for more information.
NC State Endpoint Security Standards
Just a reminder again regarding NC State Endpoint Security. Rather than go through all of it again, please see the July 2019 Mediasite Admin update for details, and/or watch the MUG presentation listed above.
My Mediasite Notes
Please note that the My Mediasite URL for all users is: https://mediasite.wolfware.ncsu.edu/online/MyMediasite
Upgrading Recorders
Renaming Recorders
All recorders on the mediasite.wolfware instance must be named with the new naming convention this summer, which is below. Please reference the updated
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.
- The 7.1 recorder version series is followed by the 7.3.xx series.
- The next server version after the 7.2 series will be 7.4.xx.
- Note however, that dot extensions can be even or odd, such as server version 7.2.3
- And build versions can be anything
Links to Resources
Sonic Foundry Mediasite University
Sonic Foundry Moodle/Mediasite videos
My Mediasite Version 7.2 videos
Sonic Foundry Technical Support website (requires login based on support contract)
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 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 – mediasite.wolfware
- Mediasite.wolfware server version: 7.2.2 Build 3474
- Recorder disc image 7.3.3
- Recorder version 7.3.3 Build 3002
- Mediasite Desktop Recorder 2.5.1193
Production – College/Department Instances
- Server version: 7.0.30, Build 3808
- No recording or publishing to this server.
- Playback only.
- Instance decommissioning process begins 18 months after transition to mediasite.wolfware
Testing (7.2.3)
- Test server: 7.2.3, Build 3945
- Recorder disc image 7.3.3
- Recorder version 7.3.3 Build 3002
- Mediasite Desktop Recorder 2.5 Build 1193
SOFO most recent release
- Server version: 7.2.3, Build 3945
- Recorder disc image 7.3.3
- Recorder version 7.3.3 Build 3002,
- Mediasite Desktop Recorder 2.5 Build 1193
- Catch 2.3, Build 268
- Join 3.1.1 Build 3250
- Monitor 2.0 build 151
Testing Your Production Workflow
- Test server: 7.2.3, Build 3945
- Recorder disc image 7.3.3
- Recorder version 7.3.3 Build 3002
- Mediasite Desktop Recorder 2.5 Build 1193
- You have access to the 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 63-JGD10298 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
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