VIDEO STREAMING BUSINESS CASE
CWU VIDEO ON-DEMAND
SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION: FEBRUARY 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................ 2
1.
Problem Definition................................................................................................................................. 2
2.
Addressing Problem with CWU existing tools and products (i.e. PeopleSoft) ...................................... 4
3.
Organizational Impact ........................................................................................................................... 5
4.
Technology Migration ............................................................................................................................ 6
5.
Benefits .................................................................................................................................................. 6
6.
Strategic Alignment ............................................................................................................................... 7
7.
Cost ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
8.
Product Life/Application Sunsetting or Decommissioning .................................................................... 8
9.
Alternatives............................................................................................................................................ 8
10. References............................................................................................................................................. 8
11. Recommendation .................................................................................................................................. 9
12. Timing / Schedule ................................................................................................................................ 10
13. Approvals............................................................................................................................................. 10
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Information Technology Services (ITS) Department, along with numerous Stakeholders
across the University including the Library, Public Affairs, the Communications Department,
Multi-Modal Learning, and others have recognized the need for a robust and high-performance
On-Demand Video Streaming service for video content to be delivered both on-campus and offcampus. After establishing the scope of the service, and developing requirements and
standards to be adopted, the group reviewed several potential options for providing this service
including solutions hosted on-premise, and cloud-based solutions. The cloud-based solution
provided by MediaAmp (developed and provided by the University of Washington) has been
identified as the most appropriate and cost effective solution for CWU.
This Business Case Proposal outlines the current challenges being faced by the University (both
administratively and academically) with regards to the management, storage and distribution of
quality video content, and the benefits which will result from a modern and most importantly a
“single” solution for the entire University. Initially, several stakeholders were considering
separate silo solutions, but via a collaborative effort, a single/standard solution for CWU has
been identified. After review of several options for meeting this need, MediaAmp is being
recommended for approval because it provides a turnkey, hybrid cloud-based solution that
meets the needs of CWU stakeholders, controls initial and recurring costs, minimizes any
requirements for additional staff at CWU to support the environment, substantially limits risk,
and can be implemented quickly and efficiently (and in a phased approach).
Sponsoring Department(s): After establishing the requirements and a standardized design,
stakeholders feel that nearly every department on campus will benefit from this Video Streaming
Solution. Current stakeholders who have identified an interest and provided input to this review
include, but are not limited to:
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The Brooks Library
CWU Music Department
Communications Department
Student Clubs & Organizations
Information Technology Services
Public Affairs
Department of Aviation
Military Science (ROTC)
American Sign Language
Date of Business Case Preparation & Submission: January/February 2012
Contact Person Name/Phone: Since this is a campus-wide benefit, and the proposal is to
centrally manage MediaAmp within the ITS Department, the primary contact person is:
Mr. Noah Rodriguez, Director of Networks & Operations
Office Phone: 509-963-2934
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Email Address: RodriguezN@cwu.edu
1. Problem Definition
The University currently does not have an enterprise level, on-demand digital media
management system. Digital Media systems are utilized for the collection, storage, access
control, management and distribution of any digital media (audio, video, image, etc.).
Organizations today are faced with a growing need to find cost effective solutions to the
challenges surrounding these needs, for an ever-increasing library of digital assets. Many
solutions are very narrow in scope; resolving the requirements at an individual, department
or niche level. These niche solutions frequently rely on skilled administration (both
technical and functional), specialized hardware and proprietary software which ultimately
drives up costs and creates confusion rather than clarity for users. Maintenance of these
systems is usually costly and inefficient.
CWU is no exception. Examples of clear deficiencies with digital media distribution at CWU
include:
 Distribution of instructional digital media located within the Brooks Library (and
other locations) is often manual, time consuming and inefficient. Often leading to
instructors choosing to not utilize rich content in their courses.
 Storage and distribution of student developed digital media in Music,
Communications and other Academic Departments is limited if not “non-existent” in
many situations. Student developed content requires a robust solution for storage
and peer/instructor review, and making it available for viewing outside of the
limited classroom environment.
 University developed digital media (photo, video, etc.) by the Public Affairs
Department, requires an on-demand, intuitive and cost-effective solution to
distribute content both on-campus and off-campus to CWU stakeholders. Currently
much of CWU’s award winning content is only available on PEG Channels or other
means with very limited distribution.
 Multi-Modal Learning and Distance Education (DE) require a simple to use system
for “Course Capture” for storing, managing, indexing and distribution of digital
media content for Online and other instructional modalities to enhance the
pedagogy of instruction across the University.
There is no current standard or enterprise model employed at CWU that allows users to
manage their own digital media, store it in a common enterprise /controlled and secure
environment, and be able to self-establish the availability and distribution of the content.
Some departments may currently utilize a simple niche solution, but most digital content is
stored on non-digital media optimized servers.
Needs and Solution: Working collaboratively across all currently identified stakeholders, the
ITS Department identified the current problems and limitations with the current ad hoc
solutions, developed a common set of requirements that met the needs of all stakeholders,
and developed the following Digital Media enterprise level architecture (see diagram on
next page). This diagram was shared with all potential solution providers and was used as
the basis for their proposals and cost estimates to CWU.
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2. Addressing Problem with CWU existing tools and products (i.e. Helix, Media
Streaming video sever)
As the previous section stated, there is currently no common, single, enterprise solution
available at CWU for Digital Media management, storage and distribution. The MediaAmp
solution that is being requested via this Business Case proposal addresses the requirements
and problems with existing tools, as outlined in the above diagram:
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The solution is “content/media source” agnostic. Digital media content creators at
CWU require the ability to develop their content using different tools and services
that are specific to the requirements of their departments and programs. As the
dark blue icons at the far left of the diagram illustrate, content and media source is
not limited by the proposed solution. This is a key factor in the selection of the
MediaAmp solution.
The proposed solution does not prohibit the creativity, raw storage, manipulation or
editing of digital media content by any stakeholder group; and is not limited to any
manipulation or editing software.
The proposed solution encourages and promotes additional stakeholders and digital
media providers and users to utilize the system, as is illustrated by the yellow icons
near the left of the diagram. The solution is fully scalable to meet the needs of
current customers, the future needs of these customers, and the needs of additional
customers which may choose to utilize this service.
The proposed solution provides for the viewing of digital content on any device or
through any application. Viewing of content is not limited, as is currently the
situation with the viewing of Flash content on iDevices. This is illustrated by the
dark green icons to the far right of the diagram.
The proposed solution provides for the security of digital media, based on
requirements unique to individual stakeholders and content. For example,
copyrighted material will be easily limited in viewing to viewers who are authorized
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by licensing agreements; while public content will be available globally. This is
illustrated by the light blue icons across the top of the diagram.
The Office of Multimodal Learning, the ITS Department and Brooks Library all see the
MediaAmp solution as a crucial element in remaining technologically competitive with our
peer institutions. MediaAmp has the potential to heighten the CWU brand, providing the
opportunity for increased student recruitment, and providing employers of our CWU
graduates with a more “tech-savvy” work force.
3. Organizational Impact
Since the MediaAmp solution is cloud based, and designed to support a Higher Education
environment, minimal organization impact to CWU is anticipated. If adopted, and to
provide for central funding and integration/liaison with the MediaAmp staff, coordination
and annual funding for this service will be handled by the Networks & Operations
Group/Media Services within the ITS Department. MediaAmp does all the installation; it’s a
Hybrid Cloud solution that is running on their Hardware, and a few pieces of hardware they
install on our network. (not much from our team is needed) It’s more or less a turnkey
solution.
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Potential Partners /Primary Users The entire campus will benefit, and the entire
campus should be considered potential partners. Key partners that have
contributed to date, including the requirements, architecture design and vendor
reviews, are identified in the table below.
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RFP Requirements Contributors – No formal RFP is required because the selected
solution is based on a product and service that has been developed and distributed
by the University of Washington, and is being endorsed by the Washington Higher
Education Technology Consortium (WHETC). To assure that the solution meets the
needs of stakeholders throughout the University, the following primary
departments were part of the “Project Team” which contributed significantly to the
development of the requirements, establishment of the overall architecture, and
review of vendor options!! As a result of buzz across campus as this project was
progressing, other departments participated at a lesser level of involvement, but
have endorsed the design and proposal.
Department
Name
Brooks Library
Geri Hopkins
Multi-Modal Learning
Geri Hopkins, Chris Schedler
Public Affairs
Rick Spencer
COM Department
Michael Ogden
Information Technology Services
Noah Rodriguez, Terilee Germain
Web Services
Jesse Days
Post Launch Organizational Structure: Following the successful launch of MediaAmp
services at Central Washington University, CWU will require a structure to vet and
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approve new customers of the service, set policies, prioritize funding, and liaison
with MediaAmp. While this structure will not be finalized until a contract is signed,
and CWU stakeholders fully discuss and approve the model, the following is
proposed:
1) If CWU chooses to centrally fund all components of MediaAmp, new
stakeholders/users will be required to submit a Business Case to ET for
funding approval, and inclusion in the MediaAmp service.
2) If the MediaAmp solution is to be funded by the stakeholders based on
usage and storage, new stakeholders would be required to fully fund their
portion of MediaAmp, and to coordinate with the CWU-MediaAmp POC.
3) A central “interface” (Point of Contact) between CWU and MediaAmp would
be required for efficient and effective coordination and oversight. It is
recommended that this single interface be located in the Office of MultiModal Learning.
4. Technology Migration
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As was documented in the Problem Section, CWU currently does not have an Enterprise
solution for dealing with Digital Media storage, management and distribution. As a
result, there will be no significant migration. CWU stakeholders will work collaboratively
with MediaAmp to migrate content only into the MediaAmp solution. (See attached
Proposal for Implementation Breakdown)
5. Benefits
The MediaAmp solution is viewed as the best alternative for CWU. Many of the benefits
have been illustrated in previous sections of this document. Several, as provided by the key
stakeholders, are restated here:
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Providing faculty a method to upload video clips and licensed films for asynchronous
viewing by their students.
Giving students a CWU digital collaboration space to work on digital projects, including
upload and playback of recorded presentations, video productions, and fieldwork
recordings.
Increasing student learning retention through 24/7 access to review streamed, in-class
lectures recorded through class capture technology for asynchronous playback.
Updating CWU’s multimodal and ADA learning toolbox for diverse learning styles,
including visual and hearing-impaired students, and non-Native English speakers.
Providing CWU distance and online students the same learning tools provided for faceto-face students in traditional classroom setting.
Brooks Library houses a valuable collection of academic video resources that are
regularly used by instructors. As more faculty are requested to teach online and
blended courses, the use of these valuable resources has become prohibited by the lack
of delivery method to our distance and online students.
Library needs to insure Digital Rights Management (copyright protections) in order for
most educational video vendors to agree to license their products for streaming.
Library needs to provide a system that allows for simple discovery of each item, yet
provides for ample metadata inclusion in the library catalog.
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The new Academic Research Commons, housed in Brooks Library, includes three “media
spaces” in which students may collaborate on digital projects. Students will be well
served with an easily accessed, password-protected server for presenting these
projects.
Provides for authenticated (when necessary), secure, anytime, anywhere, any device
access to CWU digital media for both administrative and academic purposes.
6. Strategic Alignment
This request support/aligns with many of the current Strategic Objectives and Outcomes in
the CWU Strategic Plan. These include:
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Theme 1, Objective 1.1: TEACHING AND LEARNING: Enhance student success by
continually improving the curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular programs.
Theme 4, Objective 4.1: PUBLIC SERVICE AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
Enhance the commitment and the level of cooperation between the University and
external communities.
Theme 4, Objective 4.2: PUBLIC SERVICE AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Increase
participation in university sponsored life-long learning opportunities.
Theme 5, Objective 5.4: RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND STEWARDSHIP: Provide the
facility and technology infrastructure and services appropriate to meet the
university objectives, while maximizing sustainability and stewardship.
7. Cost
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Source of Funding (Project ID) or Description of the Source of Funding. The
specific source of funding has not been identified, and will be sought once the
Enterprise Team has approved the initiative. Options for funding could include:
o Centrally funded as an enterprise solution, available to all digital media
providers across the University at no cost. (Recommended solution)
o Provider/User funded by charging departments for utilization of the service
based on some metric such as storage volume, number of digital media
documents stored, etc.
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Cost Breakdown
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See Attached Proposal for Cost breakdown, and implementation process.
The proposed implementation of MediaAmp will be phased over
approximately a 2 year period. As a result, the actual projected costs will
be:
 ONE TIME COSTS: One time implementation cost of $192,500 (page
6 of attached proposal) would be divided over a 2 year period.
Estimate for Year 1 is $115,500; Year 2 is $77,000.
 RECURRING COSTS: Ongoing maintenance and licensing would be
phased in as services are activated and as more CWU departments
are scheduled to be deployed. Year 1 estimate is approximately
$100,000; Year 2 and beyond estimate is $150,000
 TOTAL COSTS ARE: (current value)
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Year 1: $115,500 + $100,000 = $215,500
Year 2: $77,000 + $150,000 = $227,000
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Year 3: $150,000
Year 4: $150,000
Year 5: $150,000
NOTE: Because CWU is the first University to actively engage MediaAmp in cost negotiation,
and because we are part of the Washington Higher Education Technology Consortium (WHETC),
CWU has been able to negotiate the one-time implementation costs down from initial estimates
of approximately $350,000; and the recurring/licensing costs down from initial estimates of
nearly $250,000/year.
8. Product Life/Application Sunsetting or Decommissioning: Since this is a cloudbased solution which is not owned by CWU, but is licensed on an annual basis, the
vendor (MediaAmp) is responsible for all hardware refresh, software maintenance,
support and modernization. If licensed by CWU, we recommend that CWU engage
in a three year contract, with yearly extensions for up to an additional 5 years. CWU
should review this contractual agreement at the end of the 3 year contract, and as
required thereafter.
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Annual cost if discontinued after 3 years:
Annual cost if discontinued after 5 years:
Annual cost if discontinued after 8 years:
$197,500
$178,500
$167,812
9. Alternatives (add lines as necessary)
Alternative
Reasons For Not Selecting Alternative
Status Quo
Not feasible based on input from customers
(see problem statements earlier in this
proposal)
Develop Solution In-house
Development
costs
estimated
at
$1,500,000.00 based on conversations with
vendors. This does not include the ongoing
Maintenance and Support cost for all
Hardware, over $200k per year. (Plus
fulltime FTE to support)
Kaltura (alternate vendor)
This solution is an “on-premise” system
which requires CWU to provide the
infrastructure, which would require initial
cost of hardware of an esimated $300K,
plus the annual support cost of $75K. A
portion of the solution would be in the
cloud, Annual cost of Licensing Kaltura is
$250K, and it would require additional
inhouse staff to support the environment.
10. References
University of Washington
Washington Higher Education Technology Consortium WHETC – Had a presentation of
MediaAmp as a collaborative solution for all the Universities.
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UW School of Nursing
11. Recommendation
MediaAmp has been identified as the preferred solution for the following reasons:
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Developed by the University of Washington, the developers are already familiar
with academic institutional systems.
Brooks Library is currently a member of the Orbis-Cascade Alliance, a consortium
including 37 member libraries across the Pacific Northwest, so we already have a
good working relationship with UW.
UW Libraries is running a trial implementation of MediaAmp currently, which
means the template for cataloging metadata should be easy to adapt.
Based in the Seattle area, MediaAmp offices are less than two hours away, so on-site
support visits are highly feasible.
MediaAmp provides the most appropriate solution, requiring the least investment
and staffing from Central Washington University, at the most cost-effective pricing
model.
MediaAmp is currently being considered by all other Universities in WA State (via
the Washington Higher Education Technology Consortium) as the standard for
online/on-demand video streaming. As the SBCTC’s is an early adopter of the
CANVAS LMS, CWU is an early adopter of MediaAmp
If the MediaAmp solution is not adopted, CWU’s ability to compete for the younger,
more diverse, visually oriented and tech-savvy student is at risk. Furthermore, without
a more user-friendly streaming media system in place, many online instructors will
cease to use academic video resources that were once integral to their courses,
potentially alienating a sizeable population of students who have grown up as visual
learners.
12. Timing / Schedule (add lines as necessary): The timing is highly dependent on when
funding is identified, and a contract is signed. This will allow us to set a schedule with
MediaAmp for implementation/licensing for CWU. Based on expectations for funding
and staffing, we are anticipating rolling out MediaAmp to CWU over a 2 year (two Fiscal
Year) timeframe. During these 2 years, each of the stakeholder areas would be
transitioned to MediaAmp using the 5-Phase process outlined in the MediaAmp
proposal. Based on the interest and urgency identified by key stakeholders, the chart
below identifies a potential breakdown of which stakeholders would be transitioned
during each of the 2 years of the project.
Task
Target Date
Secure Funding
ET Approval
Year 1 (Library, Multi-Modal Learning, Public Affairs, and COM)
Approval + 1
month
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Task
Target Date
Year 2 (All others would be prioritized during year 2 of the effort)
Approval + 1 year
Year 3+ (Any newly identified stakeholders following initial launch)
NOTE: MediaAmp’s process for transitioning customers to their solution is based on a 5 Phase
model, outlined in their proposal. CWU is recommending transitioning the major stakeholders to
MediaAmp over a 2 year period. Each transition area will utilize the 5 phase approach below. It is
important to note that some stakeholders, such as the Library and Multi-Modal Learning, have
multiple areas which will each require the 5 phase deployment plan. Some areas are able to be
accomplished in parallel.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Discovery & Qualification (1-3 weeks)
Design & Architecture (1-3 weeks)
Development (1-3 weeks)
Deployment (1-3 weeks)
Closing
13. Approvals
The following actions have been taken by the University Enterprise Team:
Date
Action Taken by Enterprise Team
Upon approval by the University Enterprise Team (ET), CWU procurement policies and
procedures should be used to initiate a purchase. Please contact the Purchasing office at
x1001 with any questions regarding the procurement process.
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