Ensemble, Format, & Flip Directions

Ensemble
Format Conversions
&
Using the Flip Cam

Craig Mantin

Ensemble Basics Craig Mantin

1) Go to: http://ensemble.lhric.org and login.

2) To add a video select “add a video”.

3) Complete the Description & Keyword Fields. When done select Save & Continue.

4) Add Credit information. When complete select “Continue”.

5) Select the type of media. Browse to your saved file. Save and continue.

6) Upload the file.

7) Select categories. Save & Continue. If you don’t see a category you can always
add one later.

8) Publish by selecting “Finish”

9) In the Web Publishing Tab you can view your site.

Use “Install Plugin” to create an
embeddable page arranged by
categories

10)  Here is the site I was working on using Quick Publish.
  The newest video is on top.

11)  Here is the video I just uploaded.

12) If you are looking for the embed code for a video it can be found on the bottom
of that videos page. Use the code to embed the video in your blog, wiki, echalk
page, etc.

Ensemble Supported Media Formats:
Quicktime
Windows Media (Will only open & playback in Media Player)
Flash Video
MPEG-4 (H.264)
MPEG-2
Real Media
Audio formats including
WMA & MP3

There are many options available within Ensemble. Please refer to the
Ensemble Documentation which can be found at the end of this PDF.

‐Craig

Format Factory – The How To Craig Mantin

1) Go to the Teacher Common Drive through My Computer.

2) Navigate to the Format Converter Folder and open.

3) Double click the Format Factory exe. The application will open.
Super is also a converter but not as simple or as elegant as Format Factory. It is there just in case.

3) Select the video format you would like to convert to. I am selecting FLV (you will need to
scroll to see FLV).

4) Select “Add File” and navigate to the file you want to convert.

5) Select OK

6) Highlight your file and then Select Start. You will see the conversion status bar and will be
informed when complete.

Highlight
by clicking
file once.

7) Notice the Output location (H:My DocumentsFFOutput) this is where your converted video
will be placed.

8) You are ready to work with your converted Video.

Enjoy,

-Craig

Using Flip Video Craig Mantin

1) Connect Flip camera via usb to computer. From My Computer Select Flipvideo

2) Open the DCIM Folder

3) Open the 100Video Folder

4) Open the 100Video Folder which will reveal your video.

Important Format Info:
If you are bringing your Flip video into Movie Maker it should work as an AVI (that’s
the default Flip SD Format). If it does not work you most likely need a codec.
Another option would be to convert the format to WMV by using the Format Factory
program.
Movie Makers output is in the WMV format but this is not the best choice for uploading
to Ensemble. Use the Format Factory program to convert to FLV (there are other
acceptable choices see chart below).

If you are not going to use movie editing software be aware that you can not go directly
from the Flip to Ensemble because Ensemble does not recognize the default AVI format.
Again you will need to convert using Format Factory. FLV is the suggested format.

Ensemble Supported Media Formats:
Quicktime
Windows Media (Will only open & playback in Media Player)
Flash Video
MPEG-4 (H.264)
MPEG-2
Real Media
Audio formats including
WMA & MP3

-Craig

Version 3.0
Content Administrator Guide

This document is a guide to assist Content Administrators as they upload, catalog, publish, and share
videos using the Ensemble Video enterprise video publishing and sharing system.

October 2009

Ensemble Video Content Administrator Guide
Ensemble Video (www.ensemblevideo.com) is a patent-pending Internet video content management system
that offers organizations a cost effective solution for managing high volume, Web-based publishing and sharing
of video content.

Ensemble Video enables organizations to upload, import, catalog, manage and publish any length and any
quality video content such as copyrighted material, course-ware, staff meetings, training sessions and other
video information so they are accessible on Internet and/or Intranet Web sites.

With Ensemble Video, content administrators can easily publish video content to any Web site where the
Ensemble Video HTML “Plug-in” has been embedded or Simple Publishing API has been implemented. While
Ensemble Video is a simple, straightforward system that content administrators can easily learn and use, it has
powerful features for publishing and sharing Internet video-on-demand content.

Ensemble Video V3 Content Administrator Guide October 2009 Page 2 of 30

Table of Contents

Page 4 Getting Started
4 Log In To Ensemble Video
4 Change your Password or Personal Profile
5 The Tabbed Interface

Page 6 Media Library Tab
6 The Add/Edit Wizard
7 Description
8 Credits
8 Manage Media
9 Audio-Video
11 Captions
12 Images
12 Image Galleries
14 Attachments
14 Links
15 Sharing
16 Publish
16 Conditional Publishing
17 Internal Publishing
18 Subject Details (Advanced Mode)
19 Manually Enter Media (Advanced Mode)

Page 20 Shared Library Tab

Page 21 Web Publishing Tab
22 Quick Publish
23 HTML Plug-in
24 Embed Code
25 Manage Categories

Page 26 Administration Tab
26 Sharing
27 Copy and Transfer
28 Direct Publishing
29 Bandwidth Labels


Getting Started
Log In To Ensemble Video

Point your Web browser to the Web address of the Ensemble Video implementation for your organization or
consortia. At the login screen enter your username and password. If you are unsure of your
username/password, contact your help desk or Ensemble Video system administrator.

Change You Password or Personal Profile

To manage your profile or change your password click on the user name link at the very top of the page,
then click on Edit my profile or Change my password.

If your implementation uses LDAP authentication so users log in with an enterprise username/password,
you will not be able to change your password in Ensemble Video.


The Tabbed Interface

Ensemble Video uses a Tabbed interface, so you can easily navigate to different areas of the interface by
clicking on the headings for each Tab. When your first log in, you will see a list of media items that you have
in your library – this is the Media Library Tab. All Ensemble Video interface Tabs are visible in the center of
the page when you log in, just above the listing of items in your media library. They are also available at the
top of each page.
There are some parts of the Ensemble Video interface where you won’t see the Tabs in the middle portion of the
page, but they are always available at the very top of the page.

Here a quick summary of each of the tabs in the Ensemble Video interface:
Media Library Tab – Searchable department media library with functions for adding, editing, deleting,
and copying video content.
Shared Library Tab – A library of videos shared to your department from other departments that are
using your implementation of Ensemble Video. You can view and publish these videos.
Web Publishing Tab – Here is where you define and manage the Web publishing destinations where you
will make your video content available to external viewers.
Administration Tab – Provides controls you can use to customize content settings and set video sharing
permissions.

The rest of this guide is organized to review the functions of each of these Tabs in turn.


Media Library Tab

In the Media Library Tab you can create, manage, and publish video entries (also called “items” or “titles”).
Ensemble Video can be used to manage any number of media libraries across an organization or consortia,
but when you log in, you can only mange media items in your own library. Each thumbnail image represents
a video item, and buttons to the right enable you to Edit, Share, Copy, or Delete an item. To create a new
video entry, click the button (upper right).

The Add/Edit Wizard
Adding or editing an item in your library moves you into the Ensemble Video Add/Edit Wizard, where you go
through a series of forms to create and describe your content. There are five main forms in the Wizard:
1. Description – Where you enter descriptive information
2. Credits – Where you add credits (Narrator, Director, Producer, etc.)
3. Manage Content – A set of forms where you can upload/manage audio-video, closed captions,
images, attachments, and Web links.
4. Sharing – Select the Web destinations where you want to publish your video item.
5. Publish – Make the item live for internal and external viewers. Can also be used to “un-publish”
video entries.

Let’s review the function of each form in the Ensemble Video Add/Edit Wizard, in order, starting with
Description.


Description

Complete the information in the Description form. Required fields (as indicated by the red asterisk) are
necessary in order to save the entry to your video library. Once you have completed your entries, click
at the bottom right corner of the panel to proceed to the Credits form.

When adding a new video entry to the Ensemble library, clicking or at the
botton right of each form will step you through the process of creating and publishing a new video entry. When
you are editing an existing video, you can jump directly to a specific Add/Edit Wizard form via the quick
navigation menu links on the left.


Credits

Continue your library entry by completing the Credits form to (optionally) include information about the
production of the video entry. You can add credits by clicking on the button. When you are
finished, click to apply changes and proceed to the Manage Content form.

Manage Content


The Manage Content form provides you with the ability to upload and manage your content. This form is
different from all other forms in the Add/Edit Wizard, since it has a drop down that lets you navigate to sub-
forms for different content types. Let’s review the function of each of the Manage Content sub-forms,
starting with Audio-Video.

Audio-Video

When you first navigate to the Manage Content form, you can upload Audio-Video file(s). This is the default
sub-form, and very often you will just upload your video, then click to navigate to the
Sharing form, without accessing other Manage Content sub-forms to upload/manage other types of
content.

The Audio-Video form is similar to the other forms available via the Manage Content dropdown menu. You
navigate to the video you want to upload via the button to select file(s) to upload.
Then click on to upload your file(s). Click on the “X” to the left of a file in the upload list if you add it
to the list, but then decide you don’t want to upload it.


For video entries imported through a Watch Directory or from a TANDBERG Content Server you do not have to
upload your video.

A media server location where your content will be transferred, once it is uploaded, appears in the
dropdown immediately above the Upload interface element. This is where the content will be accessed by
your viewers. Be sure to select the correct server location for the type of content you are uploading.

When you upload a video, a set of still images are automatically extracted and selected for display as
thumbnail and preview animation. If you upload another video, you can use checkboxes in the Options
section to determine whether or not to delete previously generated images and replace them with new
previews and thumbnails extracted from the video you upload.

Once you upload your content, a summary of the file(s) you uploaded appears below the upload section.
You can remove video file from the list by clicking on the button.

Removing a video file from a video entry does NOT delete the video on the media server. Also, if you upload a
video which has the same file name as a file already on the media server, the new video file replaces the video file
on the media server.

The encoding bit rate of your video will appear under Bitrate if the system was able to extract that
information from the video when it was uploaded or imported. Video encoding bit rate cannot be extracted
for all types of videos. If no value appears, and you know the correct bit rate, you can enter it in the form.
Click on to save your changes.


For videos that are not viewed with an embedded player, the Bitrate and Bandwidth label are used for the
link text in a published video. You can select different link text via the Bandwidth label dropdown menu.

Bandwidth description labels can be customized in Ensemble Video’s Administration Tab.

Captions

.

In this Manage Content sub-form, you can upload a W3C DFXP Timed Text caption file. The captions will be
automatically displayed with video content that is played via the Flash-based player. Just click on the
button to navigate to your closed caption file, then click .

Closed captions are only supported for Flash Video (flv) and H.264 encoded files (mp4, m4v, and f4v) that are
played with the embedded Flash-based video player. The Flash-based player must be configured as embedded
player for these file types – this is done by your Ensemble Video system administrator.


Images

The Images sub-form is for selecting thumbnail and preview animation images for each video in your library.
You can also use this sub-form to upload and publish an image gallery.

Preview images create an animation to give viewers and idea of what a video is about before clicking on the link to
view the content, for Windows Media and other content where there is no embedded player. For Flash Video, and
other content that uses an embedded player, the Preview images are typically not used.

When you upload or import a video file, a series of still images are automatically extracted, and you can
select the preview animation and thumbnail frames from the extracted images. Just check the boxes in the
“Preview” and “Thumb” columns. For “Previews,” you can select multiple images. For “Thumbs,” select a
single image.

There are some instances where Ensemble Video is unable to automatically extract still images. In cases where no
images were extracted, you can upload your own images or logos, which you can then select as Thumbnail and/or
Preview images.

To delete one or more images, first select the check-box in the right-most column of the Manage Images
area adjacent to the image(s) you want to remove. You can select ALL images by clicking on the check-box to
the left of the button at the top of the Manage Images section of the form. Then click on the button
to remove selected images.

Image Galleries

An image gallery is an entry in your library with ONLY images in the Manage Content section. To create one,
just go to Manage Content, use the dropdown to navigate to the Images sub-form, and upload the images
for your gallery.


In the Image sub-form, you can click on an individual image to launch a an image viewer. Hover over the
right hand portion of the image and click “NEXT” to browse to the next image in the gallery.

You may want to edit the Title and Description of the images in your gallery. You must click
to save your changes to the Title and Description fields. This information will be used in
the image navigator your viewers will see when they display the published image gallery using Quick Publish
or the Ensemble Video HTML Plugin.

The Ensemble Video image navigator includes:
- A slider for navigating photos in the gallery
- A link to view all images, so you can select a video by viewing them all in a grid below the slider
- A link to start (and stop) a slide show
- Links to download an image or to view an image at full resolution


Attachments

In this Manage Content sub-form, you can upload associated files that will be accessible with your published
video. The form uses the same controls as documented previously for uploading, documenting, and
removing audio-video and images.

Links

In the Links sub-form, you can add Web site links you would like to appear on video detail pages for your
viewers. Enter Title, URL, and Description (optional) and click on . You can add as many links as
you’d like. You can remove links from the list with the button.


Sharing

External publishing is a key function of Ensemble Video. The Sharing form let’s you specify the external Web
destinations where you want to share your video, so it’s available to your viewers.

Simply check those Web sites and corresponding content categories where you want your content to be
displayed. Remember that you must choose at least one category per Web site to publish your video at that
Web destination.

Web destinations (Web sites and categories) are defined and configured in the Web Publishing Tab, which is
covered later in this guide.

Ensemble Video departments outside of your own department, for which you have been granted share and direct
publishing access, will also appear on this form. Inter-departmental sharing/publishing is covered in the Sharing
Tab and Administration Tab-Sharing portions of this guide.


Publish

Before you publish your video, use the button to experience your video and description data
in the same way your viewers will see it. If you wish to make any changes, click on the appropriate quick
menu button on the left to edit your entry. When you are happy with the entry, return to the Publish form,
check the Publish Content check-box, then and your library entry will be live on all Web
destinations selected in the Sharing form.

Before your library content can be published to a Web site, an Ensemble Video HTML Plug-in or Quick Publish
method must be chosen and implemented. Specific information regarding Ensemble Video’s publishing methods is
presented in the Web Publishing Tab section of this document.

Conditional Publishing

When you go to publish a video or photo gallery, you can specify a date/time for when the item is auto-
published and/or automatically un-published. Just click the check-box for “Display Until” and/or “Display
After” and adjust the date/time fields to suit your needs.


Internal Publishing

Content Administrators have the option to publish without selecting a publishing destination or department
in the Sharing section. These videos will not be accessible to any outside viewers, but instead will be visible
to Viewers who log in to your Ensemble Video department library.

The items in your Media Library will be seen as:
Not Viewable – only available to Content Administrators
Viewable – available to Viewers only
Published – available to Viewers, and also published on public Web destinations and/or
shared with other departments


Subject Details (Advanced Mode)

This form is only available in Advanced Mode. To switch to Advanced Mode, click on Switch to Advanced
Mode in the Add/Edit wizard menu on the left-hand side of the page.

You can add additional details to your videos using this form. You can specify a collection (useful for
organizing related video entries), or you can enter one or more geographic, corporate, or personal name
identifiers.

Enter information in the Collection field, and click the button. Or go to the other Descriptor
areas, enter your descriptor and click . You can add multiple entries for each Descriptor. When you
have finished adding descriptors, click to save your changes and move to the Credits
form.

Descriptors are not currently searchable. A future version of Ensemble Video will provide search access to
descriptor fields.


Manually Enter Video (Advanced Mode)

This form is only available in Advanced Mode. To switch to Advanced Mode, click on Switch to Advanced
Mode in the Add/Edit wizard menu on the left-hand side of the page.

In some departments, videos may already have been uploaded to an external media server, or you may
want to catalog and publish a live stream. When that is the case you can manually specify the URL of a video
or live stream. Just type, or paste, the URL into the Media Path area and click . Once you add a
URL manually, it will appear in the Manage Content Audio-Video sub-form, and you can delete it there if you
need to.


Shared Library Tab

Ensemble Video’s Shared Library Tab is where you will find video entries shared from other departments.
These are items that your department Viewers can view, and your department Content Administrators can
publish to department Web destinations. To publish a Shared video to your Web sites, click on the
button beside the shared video you want to publish.

Select your choice of one or more Web sites and Categories (you Must select a category for your video to
show up on the selected Web site), then select Save Changes. The shared video will be made available on
selected Web sites, and you will be returned to the Shared Library Tab.


Web Publishing Tab
One of the principle benefits of Ensemble Video, is the ability to create a publishing destination outside of
the Ensemble Video interface. The published content is presented in a format that lets viewers easily search
and browse your videos. You can publish to Internet Web sites or Intranet Web sites.

The Manage Web site menu allows you to manage publishing destinations, also referred to as “Web sites”.
You can update existing Web sites, create new ones or delete them here.

To add a new Web site, click on the button on the right side of the panel.

Type in a name for the new Web site – it does not have to be a web URL, just a name that will be familiar to
you when you are publishing a video to it.


At the Logo URL box, type in the URL, including “http://”, for the location of this Web site’s logo file. This
will permit Ensemble Video to display the Web site’s logo on the Quick Publish Web site (see below). You
can decide to do this later. If you do not enter a location for a Web site logo, the name of the Web site will
appear by default at the top of the Quick Publish page.

Once you have completed entering the Web site information, click the Add button, and you will be returned
to Web Publishing Tab main page.

To edit existing information about a Web site, simply click on the Edit button that corresponds to the Web
site you want to change, make your changes and then click Update to accept the changes.

You can delete a Web site by clicking the Delete button next to the Web site.

Once you’ve defined an Ensemble Video Web destination, you need to determine how you will create an
actual Web site that accessible to users outside of Ensemble, where you will publish your content. The two
easiest mechanisms for doing this are Quick Publish and the Ensemble Video HTML Plug-in. Quick Publish
creates a Web site publishing destination automatically, on the Ensemble Video server. The HTML Plug-in
can be used to embed a publishing destination on a Web page on another Web server.

Users who have Web programming skills (Javascript, PHP, Coldfusion, .NET, etc.) can use the Ensemble Video
Simple Publishing API to create a Web destination with a custom viewer interface, or integrate with an external
Web application. The API is documented on the Ensemble Video wiki at http://wiki.ensemblevideo.com.

Quick Publish


You can generate a Quick Publish Web site by clicking on the button. This creates a basic
Web site on the Ensemble Video server, which you can publish to. Click on the Web Site link which is created
in place of the Quick Publish button to view the page. You can copy the URL of this page, and paste it into
another page as a link.

A Quick Publish site is minimally customizable. Instead of having the title of the Web destination at the top,
you can specify a Logo/Image URL when you create or edit the Web destination (see explanation on
previous page).

HTML Plug-In
If you want to publish videos to a specific web page or pages on a personal or company Web server, you will
need to install the Ensemble Video HTML “Plug-in” code into a Web page on that server.

This code can be found by clicking on the Install Plug-in link next to your Web site name.

You or your Webmaster can paste the HTML code in the Quick Start section of the “Install Plug-in” page into
a Web page on your Web server where you want to publish video content in a searchable library format.

You can also download a Cascading Style Sheet file to your Web server so that you can customize style
elements.

With the addition of some simple parameters in the HTML code, the Ensemble HTML Plug-in can be
customized to display the video library on a Web site in several ways, such as browsing by category, or by a
showcase layout, which has a top-level page that includes a “featured video,” “new videos,” and categories.
Click on Plug-in Examples, in the Advanced section, and you will see links to various configurations together
with sample code which you can copy and paste into your Web site.

For complete documentation on all the HTML Plug-in parameters, see the Ensemble Video Wiki at
http://wiki.ensemblevideo.com.

Embed Code

When using Quick Publish or the HTML Plug-in, you will notice on the bottom of a viewer access page for an
individual video that there is an “Embed Code” link. If you click that link it uncovers some HTML code you
can paste into another Web page to insert the video player, or preview images/viewer link if there is no
embedded player, for that particular video. There are two versions of the Embed Code:
Javascript – supports preview animations in the target page, for video formats that are not played with
an embedded player.
HTML – This version does not support preview animations in the target page. However, it works in Web
Content Management Systems that strip out JavaScript code; and you can modify the player dimensions
if you want to embed your video at a size that is different than native resolution.

Manage Categories

For small collections of videos, or when you use Quick Publish, categories are not needed. But if you have
more than couple of dozen videos, and you are using the Ensemble Video HTML Plug-in to publish your
content, categories can be very useful. You can customize video categories as needed.

When you create a new Web destination, a category called Default Category is automatically created. You
can change the name of this category at any time by clicking on the View Categories link next to a Web site
name, in the main screen of the Web Publishing Tab, then clicking on the Edit button. Change name of the
category, then click Update.

You can also add more categories by clicking on the button on the right side of the panel.
You will be prompted for a name for each category that you add. You can also use the Manage Categories
form to delete a category by clicking on the Delete button.

You can navigate through any of your other Web sites while you are in Manage Categories, by clicking on the
Web site drop-down menu and selecting a Web site.


Administration Tab

The Administration tab provides access to the various areas where you can customize content settings and
set up sharing permissions.

Sharing

The Sharing control allows you to specify other departments you will allow to share videos with your
department. Adding a share will show your department in their Sharing menu, and allow them to publish to
your department. When they do this, their shared videos will appear in your Shared Library Tab.


To permit another department to share content with your department, click on the button.
Then select a department from the list shown in the highlighted area. Select Add to My Shares to update
your Sharing.

You can delete a Share selection by clicking on the Delete button to the right of the Share name.

Copy and Transfer

The Copy and Transfer options determine whether other Departments can Copy or Transfer a video to your
Department. Checking the box will allow Copy or Transfer rights.

Clicking on this button for an item in your Media Library launches a wizard that enables you to
share a copy of a video with a department that has granted you Copy permission. The receiving
department gets a complete copy of the video entry in its video library, and can edit it as needed. There
is an option to copy the media to the receiving department as well, in which case media is copied
directly to the default video source (for more on configuring video sources, see the Ensemble Video
“Organization Administrator Guide”).

This is only visible if another department has granted you Transfer permission.
Clicking on this button in the Media Library Tab launches a Wizard for creating a new video entry such
that is automatically transferred to a receiving department video library after it’s been created. Any
associated video file(s) are uploaded to the receiving department’s media server, and the receiving
department has full rights to edit, publish, share, or delete the item. This is useful for a video
production group that is contracted to create video content for other departments.


Direct Publishing

Direct Publishing allows you to give other Departments access to publish to one or more of your
department Web destinations, directly, without your intervention. To give another department Direct
Publishing permission, they first have to have Sharing permission (explained in the previous section).
To add to your Direct Publishing Departments/Web sites, click on the button on the right
side of the panel.

Select from a department in the list (which has been given Sharing permission already) and one of your
department Web sites, and then click on Add to Direct Publish. The department you selected will have
Direct Publishing permission, via check-boxes in the Sharing form of the Add/Edit Wizard, so they can
publish directly to the specified Web site.


Bandwidth Labels

The Bandwidth Labels control permits you to create and edit labels for the media links you will use with
your content.

For example, if you create a video then compress it several times, each with a different target bitrate, you
need only to catalog it once, then link to different versions of it according to its bandwidth using the
Bandwidth Labels you use here. You can also create custom labels where you specify some instruction or
content type, such as “Quicktime Download” or “Audio Only”. Your viewers will then have the ability to
choose which version suits their connection best so that the video will play flawlessly.

The default descriptors include:
High Bandwidth: For use with content that is encoded (e.g., at 2mb/sec.) for viewing on high bandwidth
connections like local intranet, T1, etc.
Regular Broadband: For use with content encoded (e.g., at 750kb/sec.) for viewing on a typical
broadband connection like DSL or cable.
Mobile: For use with content that is encoded (e.g., at 256kb/sec.) for lower bandwidth wireless
connections.

To create a new Bandwidth Label, click on on the right side of the panel.


Type in the new label name, and then select Add. To edit an existing Bandwidth Label, click on the Edit
button, make your changes, and then click Update. To delete a Bandwidth Label, click on the Delete button
next to the name of the Bandwidth Label you wish to delete.

Below is an example of a video detail page, from a Quick Publish site, with multiple Bandwidth Labels.


Ensemble, Format, & Flip Directions

More Related Content

Similar to Ensemble, Format, & Flip Directions (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Ensemble, Format, & Flip Directions