Streaming Media Hosting

The Office of Information Technology's (OIT) Streaming Media Hosting service features two servers. realmedia.oit.duke.edu is running Real's Helix Universal Server software, and quicktime.oit.duke.edu is running Apple Computer's QuickTime Streaming Server.

The streaming media hosting service relieves university departments of the burden of maintaining their own streaming servers, allowing them instead to focus on content creation and innovative uses of technology.

• Accounts
• Reporting Problems

• Guidelines
• Supported Formats

• Best Practices
• File Storage
• Live Events
• Encoding Services

• Consultation
• Duke Video Community

Accounts

The service is available to the following Duke affiliates:
• faculty
• staff
• students (via a faculty or staff sponsor)
• departments
• schools
• other units across Duke

Departmental or unit accounts require a primary "gatekeeper" who is responsible for requesting the account and for determining who else has access to the unit's streaming directory.

Once an account is created, customers will have access to transfer securely via SFTP their encoded video files to a specified directory on the server that maps to a specific URL. Access to upload or manage files on each server can be restricted via a single username and password per directory.

Request an account. Please allow 3 business days to receive confirmation on your account request.

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Reporting Problems

Please report problems related to your Streaming Media account by calling the OIT Help Desk at 919-684-2200. Please include as much information as you possibly can. Indicate the urgency of your request by choosing one of the following priority levels: LOW (please place this in the problem queue and respond during the coming week); MEDIUM (please respond within two days); HIGH (I can't do my work, please address this right away) and URGENT (I think the server died or something is terribly wrong. Please address this immeidately).

Depending on the etiology (source) of the problem, we can typically resolve your problems in short order.

Fred Westbrook is the staff person responsible for assisting you in resolving any problem you may have. If you have reported a problem and not heard back, or the problem was not resolved in a satisfactory manner, please contact Fred directly: frednash@duke.edu; or call him by phone at 919-684-8374.

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Guidelines

Failure to comply with the following guidelines could result in the removal of content and the revocation of the content owner's account.

• Customers placing content on the servers are responsible for obtaining the proper permission and/or legal releases. Content must also comply with university acceptable use guidelines.
  Information on encoding.
• Content hosted with this service must be encoded at a data rate of 1Mbps or less or it may be removed.
• Customers are expected to remove inactive content from the server on an annual basis. OIT reserves the right to remove any content that has not been accessed within a period of one year. Before deleting content, OWS will contact the owner.

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Supported Formats

Streaming media files must be in one of the following formats:

QuickTime Server
• QuickTime (.mov)
• MPEG-4 (.mp4)
• 3GPP (.3gp)
• MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (.mp3) via Icecast-compatible protocols
• .smil

RealMedia Server
• RealAudio (.rm, .ram) or RealVideo (.rm, .rmvb)
• Macromedia Flash (.swf)
• MPEG-4 (.mp4)
• MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (.mp3)
• .smil

The streaming servers are not configured to support HTTP download of media content.

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How to Stream: Best Practices

With this resource we invite you to follow step by step guides about how to do Streaming at Duke. Each step offers the basics. The steps begin with capturing video and end with creating links to your streaming media on Duke's streaming servers. Advanced content is just a link away at each step. Go to Best Practices.

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File Storage

File storage space for each individual account is limited to 500 MB and can be increased if requested. Departmental account file storage space is determined on a case-by-case basis. Additional storage space will be available on a fee basis.

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Live Events

Both the Real and QuickTime servers have the capacity to reflect live broadcasts generated by encoding programs such as QuickTime Broadcaster and Real Producer. Customers can request that their account be set to reflect their live broadcasts and can request these broadcasts be archived for on demand access. OWS must be notified at least two weeks prior to any live event to ensure a successful broadcast. Departments must ensure that their encoder provides an acceptable stream and coordinate the encoding parameters with OWS staff as necessary. A successful test broadcast must be performed at least 24 hours in advance of the event to be certain the broadcast is functioning as expected. OWS may not be able to accommodate efforts that do not follow these general notice and testing guidelines.

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Encoding Services

OWS can direct you to on campus resources for encoding.

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Consultation

Consulting for the OIT Streaming Media Hosting Service provides customers with an introduction to the basics of streaming media, assistance with streaming media encoding, and introduction to best practices for streaming media, related file formats and encoding.

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Video Community

Members of the Duke University community interested in digital video, especially across the network, may participate in the Video public mailing list which keeps participants up-to-date about services for video users, training, and collaborative efforts related to video. https://lists.aas.duke.edu/mailman/listinfo/video

Folks who participate in the list meet seven times a year for workshops, to review new technology or best practices.

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