Media Central (also referred to as Kaltura) is a service specifically designed for storing, managing and streaming video recordings produced by the Princeton campus community. More than just a simple cloud storage option, the Media Central service offers tools that allow you to organize, tag files to optimize searches; and convert media into various file formats for use on multiple platforms such as websites, mobile devices, YouTube, and Facebook.

Benefits to using Media Central

Storing and managing your video recordings in Media Central has benefits over traditional cloud storage options, including: 

• direct video streaming from Media Central that intelligently optimizes playback based on the viewer's technology
• no video download required for playback, which means better protection of intellectual property
• integrated file back up service and indefinite storage
• unlimited storage capacity
• automatic machine captioning to support accessibility, with an in-system option for requesting enhanced captioning

Tip!  For faculty who leverage the learning management systems (LMS) for course delivery, you’ll be interested to know that Media Central integrates with both Blackboard and Canvas. With this connection, it's easy for you to add video recordings from your media gallery to your courses from within the learning management systems. 

Requesting a Media Central account

Media Central is available to Princeton faculty, staff and departments. When requesting an account, you can request an individual account or a department account.

Note to faculty: Each faculty is automatically given a Media Central account that is associated with their Princeton netID. There is no need to request an account.   

To request an account, send email to mediacentral@princeton.edu. Include in your request:

• Name
• Affiliation: Faculty, Staff, or Student
• Email account

If you are requesting a department account, provide the service account to associate with the account.

Logging into your account

1. Go to mediacentral.princeton.edu.
2. From the menu in the upper-right corner, click GUEST and select Login from the drop-down list.
   
   
3. When prompted, enter your Princeton netID and password and click OK. When you are logged in, your name will appear in the menu in the upper-right corner.
4. Click your name and select My Media from the drop-down list.
   
   
5. Your media gallery displays.
   
   

Uploading video files to your media gallery

1. Go to mediacentral.princeton.edu and log into your account.
2. Click your name and select My Media from the drop-down list.  Your Media Gallery displays.
   
   
3. From the menu in the upper-right corner, click the Add New button and select Media Upload.
   
   
4. The Upload Media window displays. From here, you can either drag-and-drop or choose the video files to upload from your computer.
   
   
5. Once the file is successfully uploaded, you are prompted to provide file details. A ‘name’ is required. By default, the publishing status is ‘Private.’ All other details you provide will help identify the contents of the file and improve searches for your file. 
   
   • Name (Required): Enter a name for the video file. This name will show in your media gallery.
   • Description: Enter a description for the video that will help you identify your video.
   • Tags: Enter keywords that will help you (and others, if you publish) find your video. Separate multiple keywords with a comma.
   • Date: Enter a date to associate with the video recording. The date you enter can also help you locate your file.
   • Speaker: Enter the name or names of the speakers included in the video file.
   • Department: Enter the name of your department, or the department to associate with the file.
   • Location: Enter the location for the recording.
     
   • Publishing Status:
     • Private (default) – the video will not be publicly viewable and searchable. Note that ‘private’ videos, when included as course materials in Blackboard and Canvas, are viewable and searchable by course participants.
     • Unlisted – the video is viewable by anyone with the link.
     • Published – the video is public and viewable and searchable by anyone in the world and includes Internet searches.
6. Click Save to save the video file details. Your media gallery displays and now shows the video file you uploaded.
   
   

Editing auto-captions in Media Central

When you upload a video to Media Central, the auto captioning process begins and generally takes a few hours. Once the process is complete:

1. Go to mediacentral.princeton.edu and log into your account.
2. Click your name and select My Media from the drop-down list.  Your Media Gallery displays. 
3. In the list of videos that appears, click the title of the video you want to edit.
4. When the video detail page opens, pull down the ACTIONS menu and select Captions & Enrich.
5. Select the pencil (edit) icon.
6. When the Closed Captions Editor page opens, click on the first caption entry, which will take you to the start of the spoken audio in the video.
7. Click the video play button to start the video and follow along in the captions.
8. Check back and forth as you listen to the video and read the caption entries. Start and stop the video as needed, so that you can correct the captions to match the spoken audio.
9. Save your work as you make edits.

Getting to your media gallery from Blackboard

To open your media gallery from your My Blackboard dashboard: 

1. Go to blackboard.princeton.edu and log into your account.
2. Click on My Blackboard from the menu options at the top of the window. Your Blackboard dashboard displays. 
3. From the Tools menu, select My Media. 

To open your media gallery from a Blackboard course:  

1. From within any course in Blackboard, click the Tools menu option. 
2. In the list of tools that are presented, scroll down and click the Media Gallery tool.
   
   
   
   
3. From the Tools menu, select My Media. 
4. Your Media Gallery displays:
   
   

 

Getting to your media gallery from Canvas

In the Canvas LMS, use the Embed Kaltura Media tool in the Canvas Rich Content Editor to add video content from your media gallery into any course site.  For more information on the Embed Kaltura Media tool, see Canvas: Adding Kaltura Media to Canvas Course Sites.

Automatic Archiving of Videos Not Played in Past 3 Years 

Our licensing agreement with Kaltura requires that videos that have not been played within the past 3 years be “archived”. These videos are first copied from Kaltura to an external storage system and then the video in Kaltura is replaced with a small "placeholder" video. The placeholder video instructs the viewer to press play to activate restoration of the original video. After the placeholder video is played, the original video will be automatically restored within 48 hours. 

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the quality of my video drop when I upload it to Media Central (Kaltura)?

When processing a high volume of video uploads, the system creates the lowest quality video first and works it way up to the 720p and 1080p versions. 

What is the size of the largest video file that I can upload?

Video files above 2GB should be uploaded using the bulk upload option.

How to do I embed uploaded media into a Drupal website?

To generate embed code for a video uploaded to Media Central, select your video in Media Central. Beneath the video player is the "Share" tab. Click the "Share" tab and select "oEmbed" in the submenu. Copy and paste the link into your Drupal media player.

For more information on embedding videos, see
https://drupal.princeton.edu/template-documentation/images-media/embed-videos