[Brett Dalton]

This is something that has been discussed on the Lectopia lists and would like to raise it here. The basic idea is to provide a Rich media player that is not solely flash based. I understand that this is no small undertaking but i think that it would be worth doing as it will open up the platform for all sorts of devices and give greater user options.

ESS uses Wowza media server as it's underlying streaming server, with Wowza 2.0 it is possible to stream Flash, Quicktime, Silverlight and HTTP streams (HTML5/Apple HTTP streaming) all from the 1 media server. The same source file can also be used for all of these formats (H264/AAC). From this basis a player written in a platform agnostic language (javascript/AJAX or whatever) for the on page scripting and a dynamically generate code for the media itself depending on platform capabilities which will deliver to the client in the available formats. i.e. if HTML 5 wasn't available, use flash, if flash isn't avaiable use QT etc.

The primary advantages are

- Accessible from any platform
- Possible to support a huge number of mobile browsers without the need to write specialised apps for IOS/Android/WinMobile
- Reduced file storage requirements for media has a single source file for download formats (podcasts/httpdownload) and streaming formats (flash/QT/silverlight/httpStreaming)
- Reduced hardware requirements in situations where streaming to different formats is required, i.e a custom publisher is publishing to a QTSS server as well as the rich media player. This can be achieved all from the one server.


The second thing is the smooth streaming which is in effect dynamic stream switching between bitrates based on available bandwidth. This would potentially present a more reliable product for students and higher quality where the bandwidth is available without the need to explicitly prompt the user. This simplifies the user experience. The down side is multiple files means increased storage and processing requirements.

I know both of these ideas are big asks but i think are worth considering for future product paths.

Thanks
BRETT

[Carl Marrelli]

Hey Brett,

Thanks for the detailed description. We actually talked about this very feature at length last week and began planning to implement it in a coming release. EchoSystem manages products a bit differently than the Lectopia system does. One notable difference is the structure of product types (i.e. Rich Media, Download formats). In a first cut at this we would likely produce two files. We can take a look at this more but best guess is we would not immediately change the structure of product groupings until more significant features warrant such a change. This will indeed impact storage in the short term but will also allow for greater flexibility when the time comes to produce files with different quality settings depending on distribution medium.

Hoping to see you in Perth later this year!

Carl