The AirMedia Presentation Gateway from Crestron was just officially announced at InfoComm last week.  It can support up to four simultaneous presenters at the same time and currently works with Windows and OS X, as well as Apple iOS and Android mobile devices.  It looks like it will be available in August and we’ll try to get a demo unit to test.

There has been some buzz in the streaming industry around HEVC (High Efficiency Video Codec)/ H.265, a new codec many consider a potential successor to H.264.

HEVC/ H.265 is still in its early stages, and this codec has not yet gained much traction in the digital media ecosystem. However, we are starting to see signs of at least some forward progress, such as Rovi’s recent introduction of their MainCocept HEVC SDK

(http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=90025).

At this stage, it appears that HEVC/ H.265 offers only about a 30% improvement over H.264, and that does come at a significant expense in terms of additional CPU required for processing. At this stage, these factors probably mean that and even if there were support for this new codec in consumer tools right now, users weighing costs vs. benefits might not have a great deal of incentive to go to the trouble of re-encoding existing H.264 media libraries.

We will continue to monitor news in this space and and keep you informed of new developments with HEVC/ H.265, but at this stage there doesn’t appear to be any reason to alter existing workflows.

Along they way we’ve also encountered products that may not be a great fit for DukeStream 2.0, but are nonetheless interesting. On the recommendation of Duke Libraries and CIT, we looked into Avalon Media System, currently in v. 1.0, and which we heard is being billed as a “Kaltura killer.” Avalon piqued our interest given that we are currently using Kaltura as a plugin for Sakai and are interested in new contenders in this space. Avalon bills itself as an “open source software system to enable academic libraries and archives to easily provide online access to their video and audio collections.” This would seem to place this tool in the Media Asset Management product niche, targeting libraries where “super users” manage media more than end users of enterprise systems who are simply looking to publish video (i.e., YouTube and Vimeo).

Based on our initial look, we identified the following issues that would be obstacles to our implementing Avalon for DukeStream 2.0 at present:

• Workflows seem typical of MAM/ DAM systems and as such may be more complicated than we could offer to general users. For example, the interface for uploading and editing files has 6 separate pages you click through sequentially to edit things like metadata, title and description, and access control. We are looking for something more consolidated.

• Opensource/ homegrown model makes it not a good fit for DukeStream at present because of constraints around development resources and our preference for buying rather than building for this scenario

• It looks like authentication isn’t currently enabled for the embedded player (i.e., embedding into 3rd party web sites). For this, they are looking at secure token-based authentication for the media player as per (https://wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/display/VarVideo/Authentication+-+Authorization)

• No specific mention of Shibboleth integration for the wider system (but also no mention that it is excluded–merits further looking into)

• Uses FFMPEG to transcode a wide range of input formats (https://wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/display/VarVideo/Avalon+Media+System+Supported+Source+Formats+and+Codecs) (WMV not listed, but actually worked in testing), but appears to only output to Flash. We are assuming the output is H.264/ .mp4 since fallback to HTML5 is listed as a player requirement as per https://wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/display/VarVideo/Video+players

• Only supports Adobe Flash Media Server and Red 5 streaming (support for Wowza not listed)

• Current player in test environment looked to be underdeveloped (no embed code option); however, integration with Matterhorn Engage player is specified, and this player does support embed code. Likely a matter of some custom configuration. One user on the forum commented that video playback performance on the test site was slow and suspected the player to be at fault, though this has not been confirmed.

• Current limit of 250MB for uploads in test site

• Confusing to get to a “My Media” view where a user can see all of their media. This may be another indication that the product targets MAM superusers who are more technically able than the average user who wants to upload video.

Overall, we were impressed with Avalon and intend to follow the progress of this project as it evolves. However, given the issues listed above and the fact that other candidates seem closer to our requirements, Avalon isn’t a tool that could be considered for DukeStream 2.0 at this time.

As discovered at the recent NAB show, we’ve had the opportunity to demo the new 13″ Wacom Cintiq and think this new form factor is pretty great. They’ve done away with the power brick which makes it much less complex to connect and the size works really well – especially with a laptop.

http://www.wacom.com/en/products/pen-displays/cintiq/cintiq-13hd

I’ll probably have the tablet for another week or so so email me directly if you want to check it out.

WACOM also let me know of this tablet:

http://www.wacom.com/en/business-and-education/products/pen-displays/dtus/dtu-1031

I wasn’t familiar with it so I wanted to forward it along. Not sure of the use cases but maybe for point of sale or even as a way to have an alternate interface into a digital signage application.

If anyone has a use case and would like me to assist with coordinating a demo, let me know (oit dash its dash info at duke dot edu)

During our meeting with Ryan and Brian we learned of a new Crestron wireless content sharing technology device that they are working on.  It will allow content sharing over the network to a small footprint box that has HDMI out similar to an Apple TV.  They are claiming that several operating systems (Windows, Mac, iOS and Android OS) will be supported.  That is all we know for now but we are very anxious to learn more.

http://www.ivsimaging.com/Products/CostarIV-PTZHDUSB.aspx

Ian told RedShark:

…the App is a bit of a test to see if we (three of us, film, web, digital heads) could apply all our skills into one project and make a really easy, modern, good-looking Clapperboard App that was affordable and actually a help to our work-flow.. not a hinderance.

We’ve aimed it specifically at the semi pro DSRL shooter, still and motion shooters, student film makers and indie documentary teams..  personally I’m quite excited just to have my first App!

We’ve had over 2000 downloads form all corners of the globe since last saturday and more good feedback than we ever could of imagined.

This success will let us fund iPhone and Android versions this coming summer.

To find the app on the Apple App Store, search “clapperboard”.

Make sure to turn the sound down at first when you check out the demo here: http://youtu.be/Jkuutgfe8Hs

http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/9723?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CoolTools+%28Cool+Tools%29

The main distinguishing feature of this microphone appears to be the inclusion of a built-in headphone amp (with volume control), so that you can monitor your voice in real time, and in doing so up the quality of your delivery style.

Some additional features include (according to many reviews) significantly improved audio quality over other popular USB mics (including other Blue mics), and four different polar pattern settings (Cardioid, Stereo, Bidirectional and Omnidirectional), and a simple and solid build.  On the negative side, this is a very large microphone, at about a foot high, and one review I read noted that maybe a couple of the knobs are a little flimsy.

There is a pro version of this microphone that is 2.5x the price, but includes professional recording via analog XLR, a separate analog circuit path, and better sampling rates and frequency response.

Details on the End of Life timeline are summarized below:

• August 6, 2013 – Last day to order new C20 codec and peripherals
• August 6, 2014 – Last day of new software release for C20 codec
• August 6, 2014 – Last day of routine failure analysis for C20 codec hardware
• August 6, 2014 – Last day to order a NEW SmartNet support contract
• November 1, 2017 – Last day an existing SmartNet contract can be renewed
• August 31, 2018 – Last day the C20 codec can be covered under SmartNet support contract

As an alternative, the Cisco SX20 is the current model that Cisco is concentrating their development efforts on for this smaller type of conference room system. It has proven to be a very capable replacement while providing similar if not enhanced capabilities while remaining very affordable for a true HD video conferencing system. For a comparison, please take a look at Jack D’Ardenne’s blog post from last year.

As always, please contact oit-its-info@duke.edu if you have any questions concerning this announcement or other video conferencing products.