Watching and listening to content in web pages

The content that is hosted on the Streaming Media Service can be viewed or listened to in a number of different ways:

• a media player can be embedded in a web page so the content can be palyed directly from there
• a link can be made to the page where the content is published on the Streaming Media Service and the user may choose between the formats available (depending on their software/hardware and in case they want to view or listen to a lower quality version or download a file to play later)
• materials that are indexed at iTunesU may be viewed directly from there using the iTunes application

There are some advantages and drawbacks associated with each of these, as detailed below. The user should not have to make changes to their browser unless they have not viewed video or listened to audio before, in which case they may have to install or upgrade some plug-ins. Some portable devices (mobile phones, iPod Touch, etc) are unable to show video through a browser but most can download and play the media locally.

Embedding video or audio in a web page or adding a link

When it processes your video or audio input, the Streaming Media Service creates a number of formats of output file, which are suitable for different purposes. As an example, if you follow the link to the video http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/212 and look under the 'Available Formats' tab, you will see the following:

As well as Flash video (which is being used as the default - shown by *), four other formats are available for view or download. If you click on 'View' by one of these you'll see that version of the media all ready to play.

To embed - for example - the Flash version of the file on your web page, first go to the media item web page on the Streaming Media Service (in this case http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/212), view the source code of the page in your web browser, and copy the source code for the player and media item (this will start <object... and end </object>), which occurs just before the comment <!-- social networking buttons -->. For http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/212 this code looks like:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="384"
height="313" data="http://downloads.sms.cam.ac.uk/
mediaplayer.swf?file=http://downloads.sms.cam.ac.uk/
41-212/41-212-sms_archive-flv_medium_default_stream.flv"
><param name="movie"
value="http://downloads.sms.cam.ac.uk/mediaplayer.swf?
file=http://downloads.sms.cam.ac.uk/41-212/
41-212-sms_archive-flv_medium_default_stream.flv&
allowfullscreen=true&usefullscreen=true&
allowscriptaccess=sameDomain"
/>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />
</object>

The process of copying the code and adding it to you page is similar for any of the formats you choose.

Depending on where you want to place the player code on your web page, you may need to add some styling to add some space around it. The code shown above has been added to this page, below, and appears like this (an embedded Flash player will display below if your browser allows):

Other things to consider:

• If you have added captions to your video, you will still need to provide a transcript. Captions can only give the essence of the video narration.
• Since by embedding a video or audio file in a web page you lose all the associated information about the speaker and event, you must be sure that is adequately covered in your text.
• If you wish to have an image on your embedded player (rather than a blank black screen) see https://wiki.csx.cam.ac.uk/sms/Embedding_an_SMS_clip_with_an_image for how to do it. (You need to be a registered user of the SMS to see this page.)

Making a link to the media page on the Streaming Media Service

When you embed media in a web page you can only provide one format, so you should link to the Streaming Media Service page for that media item to allow access to other formats, and also to give access to a long description or transcript for the presentation. If you want to appeal to iPod/iPhone users you might want to steer them to a suitable viewable or downloadable file. Next to the embedded player you could use a paragraph like the following:

Other formats of this video and a transcript are available from http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/212. iPod/iPhone users should view a Quicktime file or use the downloadable iPod video file or mp3 audio file.

There are circumstances when you may not want to embed a player in a web page but only have a link - although you miss the immediacy of the player on the page, alternative versions are readily available and users also may be inspired to look at other associated content.

Audio players

The example above is for a video recording. For an audio recording there are likely to be fewer formats available. To embed an audio player in a web page, the method is the same as that described above for video. An embedded example of the media at http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1072022 is shown below:

Again, for audio you should link to the SMS media item to allow access to other formats and to a transcript.

Using information in iTunesU

The video and audio in the University's iTunesU can be accessed via the iTunes application (download for Mac or Windows, see http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/)- this is possible on devices that can't show video through a browser. The University content listed in iTunesU is controlled by the Communications section of the Office of External Affairs and Communications (see http://www.cam.ac.uk/video/itunesu.html for information) and is hosted on the Streaming Media Service, so those who cannot use the iTunes application can still access the audio and video. For advice please contact itunesu@admin.cam.ac.uk

Last updated: 19 August 2011