Mediastream update – moving to MediaLecture from Relay

This update is for your information and planning – no changes are being made during the remainder of this academic year.

As mentioned earlier this year (see article), Techsmith Relay (often called ‘Camtasia’) is withdrawing from the UK market and Information Services are preparing a new solution for video/screen capture in 2018/19. Many of you will be familiar with MediaStream, the university’s media streaming site (https://mediastream.brighton.ac.uk/) and the new solution ‘MediaLecture’, is fully integrated into this and adds some additional benefits.

Techsmith Fuse app 

As part of the move to MediaStream we will need to transition previous video content held on the Relay server.

What does this mean for me?

In 2018/19, instead of using Relay and the Fuse app, you’ll use MediaLecture. Our help and support pages will be updated, and Learning Technology Advisers will be able to provide guidance on using the new tool.

There is not a new app to replace Fuse, but on a mobile device you can upload your files directly to MediaStream using the web browser on the device.

If you have been using the “MediaStream (default profile)” option in Relay or Fuse, your videos are already on MediaStream and are unaffected by this change.

If you recorded videos using Fuse or Relay, and used the ‘All Formats’, ‘Audio Only’, or ‘Assessments for Review’ options, and those videos are still in use, we will need to move these to MediaStream in order to provide you with new links to ensure they continue to work.

The eLearning and Central Media Services teams are working to create a list of videos that are currently linked to from studentcentral and other key services, and will be contacting schools/individual tutors accordingly over the next month. Tutors will then be able to notify us which videos are still in use and need to be moved.

Why not just move all videos to MediaStream?

There is a huge amount of video content on our old Relay servers, much of which we feel is probably no longer required. Moving only what we need makes sense and provides a sustainable approach.

What happens next?

If you have existing video content on the Relay servers that you wish to be moved, please contact Central Media Services on cmsbookings@brighton.ac.uk. Staff who have videos linked to from studentcentral will be contacted directly.

From Monday 2nd July, the profiles ‘Assessments for Review’, ‘Audio Only’, and ‘Upload and Decide Later’ will be removed from Relay, with MediaStream being the only option. At this stage your existing videos will play, you just cannot add any new videos to the old servers. Any videos created after 2nd July should be sent to MediaStream.

From Monday 3rd September, Relay/Fuse will no longer be available to university staff. MediaLecture will be available to staff wishing to create new videos.

Access will remain in place to old content until Dec 2018 when we aim to decommission the server. By this point, all content still in use will need to have been moved to MediaStream.