VIVA Task Force on Multimedia Collections
Project Update 11/3/2006
Background
VIVA has licensed over 500 hours of streaming video from PBS. The license for the PBS video
collection stipulates that the video must be streamed and that individual users must login with
passwords and user ids. The VIVA Task Force on Multimedia Collections is pursuing a parallel
strategy of supporting local hosting on individual campuses and a Shibboleth federation with central
hosting provided by the University of Virginia.
Shibboleth Update
For the Shibboleth project to move forward it will first be necessary for a small group of institutions
to begin testing the service. Jim Jokl the network administrator at UVa has requested that we
involve schools that are less likely to require technical support during this phase of the project. IT
organizations at participating schools must be willing to install Shibboleth Origin software on their
campuses and join the InCommon federation.
We have sent Jim Jokl a collection of 11 encoded PBS videos (the 1918 Flu video at 300 and 800
kbps and the episodes from the Civil War series, also at both bit rates) so he can test them with the
piece of software that enables the Shibboleth Service Provider software to interact with the Darwin
streaming server. Jim is working on building a Shibbolized Darwin server on the standard platform.
It is proving to be a challenging task. The developers at NYU have assured him that they are
continuing to enhance the software and he is optimistic about progress.
The project at NYU for which a Darwin/Shibboleth connector was developed involves a pilot in
which Shibboleth is used to authorize federation members for access to audio streams from the
Database of Recorded American Music (DRAM) a foundation-funded partnership involving New
World Records and NYU. Technical details on the Shibboleth implementation for that project are
available at: http://dlib.nyu.edu/~ro15/shib
IT departments at the following schools have agreed to participate in phase one of the project.
School
IT Contact
Email
Task Force
Member
Email
Library
Director
Email
JMU
Dale Hulvey
Dick
Johnson
hulveydb@jmu.edu
Ralph
Alberico
alberira@jmu.edu
Ralph Alberico
alberira@jmu.edu
UVA
Jim Jokl
jaj@Virginia.EDU
Judy
Thomas
jet3h@virginia.edu
Karin
Wittenborg
kw7g@virginia.edu
William
and Mary
Courtney
Carpenter
ccarpenter@wm.edu
Troy Davis
mtdavi@wm.edu
Connie
McCarthy
ckmcca@wm.edu
UMW
Chip
German
chip@umw.edu
Roy Strohl
lstrohl@umw.edu
VCU
Mark Willis
mdwillis@vcu.edu
John
Ulmschneider
john_ulmschneider@
vcu.edu
johnsorv@jmu.edu
Jimmy
Ghaphery
jghapher@vcu.edu
Sweet
Briar
David Rigg
drigg@sbc.edu
Aaron
Mahler
amahler@sbc.edu
John Jaffe
jgjaffe@sbc.edu
An online forum for discussion, issue tracking, software downloads etc. has been set up at the
VCCS to support the project. Those interested in being added to the forum should contact Ralph
Alberico or Gene Damon.
Iris Moubray, procurement agent at JMU, working on behalf of VIVA has looked over the UVa
contract with InCommon and her recommendation is that individual schools duplicate the language
in that contract. The relatively small annual expense of $1,000 should make it possible to do that
without much difficulty. Since the term of the contract is a calendar year, it is recommended that
phase one participants refrain from joining InCommon until after Jim has built the Shibbolized
Darwin streaming server.
Encoding Update
The task force has established a standard for the encoded files. Our preference is to encode them as
.mp4 files which is an open standard but logistical and quality control issues may necessitate
encoding them with the somewhat less open .mov wrapper. The basic attributes of our encoding
standard are:
800k Stream
512x384 Frame Size
Up to 30 Frames per Second (if source is less, we'll use less)
Video - H.264 @ 700kbit
Audio - AAC @ 96kbit Stereo
300k Stream
400x300 Frame
20 Frames per
Video - H.264
Audio - AAC @
Size
Second
@ 256kbit
40kbit Mono
On Sept 23, 2006 the VIVA Steering Committee approved expenditure of up to 19K to outsource
encoding of the PBS files. A Best Value Acquisition (BVA) unsealed RFP for transcoding from the
source files to the aforementioned specs has been issues. VCU and Regent have sent JMU hard
drives and we have copied the source video files for them to begin encoding in Real and Windows
formats respectively. We hope that they will be able to do their encoding in a manner that produces
Real and Windows media files that can be shared with other schools that prefer to use those formats
for local hosting. Files encoded to the standard by the service bureau will be made available both
to those who want to host locally using that standard and to UVa for the central service.
Distribution among VIVA members is likely to be handled by shipping high capacity hard drives to
VIVA schools. It is likely that we will ask VIVA to purchase some of those hard drives (~ 1-2K) to
make distribution more efficient. Test files are now mounted on web servers at member schools.
Test files at JMU may be viewed at: http://streaming.jmu.edu/saundebn/viva/avc_menu.html
Video Quality Issues
Video quality is a subjective experience involving numerous variables from the encoding scheme
chosen to available network bandwidth to the end user’s viewing device. There are tradeoffs
involved (for example between blockiness and jitter) and network bandwidth issues to consider.
Content characteristics and anticipated use patterns have influenced the encoding decisions made by
the task force; we are seeking a happy medium to achieve a viewing experience for the type of
content we have licensed from PBS that is acceptable to a broad cross section of users at VIVA
institutions.
Quality assurance for streamed video will be important for this project and will involve testing of
files produced in the encoding process as well as testing from the point of view of the user viewing
a video being delivered over a network. Unfortunately video quality testing cannot be easily
automated. For the purpose of quality testing from the user’s perspective it is proposed that we use
a construct referred to in the industry as a Hypothetical Reference Circuit (HRC). An HRC includes
all of the parameters required for a successful viewing experience from the encoded file, to the
server, to the network to the viewer’s player software and workstation. Our aim is to define HRCs
that include the two encoding schemes for which we have established standards and which reflect
the network circumstances of different kinds of VIVA members. In order to test for quality under
the Shibboleth solution that we are pursuing, we will need to mount the files on the UVa Darwin
streaming server and test HRCs with different source video segments under conditions that are
typical at different schools across the state. One goal of testing is to stress the circuit in a controlled
situation in order to pinpoint problems. This will help us determine, for example, whether a 300k
stream will work for VIVA schools with relatively low bandwidth network pipes. Before testing in
a manner that reflects the conditions in a Shibboleth environment, we can begin testing on the JMU
Darwin server but that would not reflect the conditions that would apply under Shibboleth.
Next steps (pre production)
 Build Shibboleth/Darwin connector at UVa
 Encode a test set of files and mount them on server at UVa
 Initial participants in Shibboleth experiment join InCommon
 Install Shibboleth Origin at test institutions (InstallFest?)
 Begin testing files on different circuits
 Award RFP for encoding services
 Develop a plan for distributing encoded files (potential action item for VIVA SC)
 Begin developing cataloging, file system and user interface to the collection
 Begin developing a strategy for user support