Recommendations for showing videos in an online class
Our videos may not allow you to share them via a Web Conferencing tool if the tool is not compliant with content protection standards.
Do not attempt to stream video using Web Conferencing tools
We recommend that you avoid streaming videos via sharing within a Web Conferencing tool, as this will likely create an unsatisfactory experience for attendees.
In this situation, an issue that you could experience is the host will see the video and hear the sound, however meeting attendees will only hear the sound and will not see the video.
Additionally, videos shared in this way are subject to the constraints of the computer being used including the network bandwidth for both download and upload.
Also, rather than stream directly from the nearest low latency content delivery network endpoint to the viewer, the video is compressed on the computer, transported via the Web Conferencing tools own servers and networks and then re-distributed by the Web Conferencing tools systems.
Following is an illustration of how this erodes the quality of playback and experience.
We recommend streaming via our Content Delivery Network direct to your viewers
By allowing your viewers to stream the video directly from Digital Theatre+ to their own computers, the constraints and issues mentioned before are resolved.
Whilst doing this may create a co-ordination challenge, we believe the benefit of each attendee receiving a high quality stream are worth it. Some suggestions to over-come this co-ordination challenge are:
- Distribute the URL to the video and ask students watch the video on their own, before the class. Class time may then be spent discussing the video.
- Use the share feature for segments you wish to watch during the class. Ask students to watch the video on their own computer (and mute themselves) and then re-join the class for discussion after the duration of the video.
- For longer videos, ask student to start the video at the same time and provide a list of pause times that you want students to re-join the class for discussion.
You can create URLs to videos that start and stop at specific time points.
When you click 'Share' on a Digital Theatre+ resource, a link is generated for you to copy and send to your students.
You can pre-set a start time for this link when sharing an audio-visual resource, meaning you can focus on a specific section of the video if you wish to.
More information about our Content Delivery Network
We distribute our video via Amazon CloudFront. Amazon CloudFront peers with thousands of Tier 1/2/3 telecom carriers globally, is well connected with all major access networks for optimal performance, and has hundreds of terabits of deployed capacity.
To deliver content to end users with lower latency, Amazon CloudFront uses a global network of 225+ Points of Presence (215+ Edge locations and 13 regional mid-tier caches) in 90 cities across 47 countries. Amazon CloudFront Edge locations are located in:
North America
Edge locations: Ashburn, VA (6); Atlanta, GA (6); Boston, MA (3); Chicago, IL (6); Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (6); Denver, CO (2); Hayward, CA; Hillsboro, OR (3); Houston, TX (4); Jacksonville, FL; Los Angeles, CA (5); Miami, FL (4); Minneapolis, MN; Montreal, QC; New York, NY (2); Newark, NJ (7); Palo Alto, CA; Philadelphia, PA (2); Phoenix, AZ (2); Salt Lake City, Utah; San Jose, CA (2); Seattle, WA (3); Toronto, ON (2); Vancouver, BC ; Querétaro, MX (2)
Regional Edge caches: California; Ohio; Oregon; Virginia;
Europe
Edge locations: Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2); Athens, Greece; Berlin, Germany (2); Brussels, Belgium; Bucharest, Romania; Budapest, Hungary; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; Dusseldorf, Germany; Frankfurt, Germany (10); Hamburg, Germany; Helsinki, Finland; Lisbon, Portugal; London, England (9); Madrid, Spain (3); Manchester, England (2); Marseille, France; Milan, Italy (3); Munich, Germany (2); Oslo, Norway; Palermo, Italy; Paris, France (5); Prague, Czech Republic; Rome, Italy; Sofia, Bulgaria; Stockholm, Sweden (3); Vienna, Austria; Warsaw, Poland; Zagreb, Croatia; Zurich, Switzerland (2)
Regional Edge caches: Dublin, Ireland; Frankfurt, Germany; London, England
Asia
Edge locations: Bangalore, India (3); Bangkok, Thailand (2); Chennai, India (4); Hong Kong, China (3); Hyderabad, India (3); Jakarta, Indonesia; Kolkata, India (2); Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2); Mumbai, India (4); Manila, Philippines; New Delhi, India (5); Osaka, Japan; Seoul, South Korea (4); Singapore (4); Taipei, Taiwan(3); Tokyo, Japan (16)
Regional Edge caches: Mumbai, India; Singapore; Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan
Australia & New Zealand
Edge locations: Auckland, NZ (2); Melbourne, AU (2); Perth, AU; Sydney, AU (4);
Regional Edge caches: Sydney
South America
Edge locations: Bogota, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2); Santiago, Chile; São Paulo, Brazil (2)
Regional Edge caches: São Paulo, Brazil
Middle East
Edge location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Fujairah, United Arab Emirates; Manama, Bahrain; Tel Aviv, Israel
Africa
Edge locations: Cape Town, South Africa; Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya
China
Edge locations: Beijing; Shenzhen; Shanghai; Zhongwei
Further information about Amazon CloudFront can be found on the Key Features page on Amazon's website.