Development tracks
October 23, 2005
Overview
Strategic direction
- Communication goals
- Program service objectives
- Intellectual property guidance
Program management
- Program block scheduling
- Identity system and program packaging
- Web interface development
- Audience measurement
Content development
- Asset inventory
- New program development
- Rights and permissions
Production services
- Pre-production
- Production
- Post-production
Operations services
- Stream system maintenance
- Asset compression and storage
- Network delivery (on-campus and off-campus servers)
Strategic Direction
Goals and Objectives
Open a New Window Onto Dartmouth for Those At a Distance
- Raise awareness of full spectrum and breadth of the College and schools, including interesting people and activities. Show what is actually going on here at Dartmouth: A glimpse into the many facets of the experience and Dartmouth people, in class, outside the classroom, and in numerous other venues.
- Show how what we do makes a difference in the world. Profile the talented and exceptional people here; Dartmouth beneath the surface.
- Illustrate the academic experience through lab and class experiences, utilizing rich material from faculty and students. Show what interests the well-balanced student has.
- Support the important stories that are already being told (in print, for example), by adding visual appeal to the storytelling.
- Represent the physical place — its architecture, the quality of facilities — world-class resources in rural environment.
- Show Dartmouth people and activities around the world.
- Present events of the past, which adds lasting value to scholar visits, historical stories.
- Use integrated Web communications to direct users to other online resources. Provide an environment or context for the event.
Support the Dartmouth Community
- Create a virtual connection between people — students, faculty and staff, alumni, neighbors, media, and the public — both on- and off-campus. Share existing projects, campus events, and conferences with a wider, at-a-distance audience, including an increasingly international student and alumni population.
- Encourage people to participate, whether by applying as a student or for a job, or joining a club on campus, or signing up for a course.
- Connect the College and the community through increased awareness and outreach activities.
- Provide content for club and association meetings.
Enrich the Campus Experience
- Contribute to the student experience by delivering multimedia content with other existing online resources for further research.
- Present meaningful learning moments that happen in informal settings, and which are currently limited to small groups of students.
- Provide a training opportunity for TV/film students in media production and journalism.
- Enhance student attendance at events by using trailers for advance marketing.
- Produce service as a segue to on-demand archive of full-length videos.
Potential Audiences
Students and Alumni
- Prospective students.
- Current students.
- Current parents.
- Alumni.
- Donors.
Faculty and Staff
- Prospective faculty and staff.
- Professional peer groups and associations.
- Current faculty and staff.
Public
- Upper Valley neighbors.
- Colleagues/peers.
- General public.
- News media.
- Donors.
- Foundations and corporations.
Define Success
Develop Different Measures for Each Group
- For example, for admissions recruiting: Applicants credit service as a source of information leading to admission.
- Alumni participation: Applicants credit service as a source of information leading to participation
Measurements
Quantitative
- Free subscription model (opt-in registration with e-mail confirmation before access is granted).
- Vendor statistics, including CUME, AQH.
- Online feedback: Weblog, e-mail.
- Web site redirects for more information.
- Survey: Query successful dissemination of key messages. Full spectrum of Dartmouth experience (cross-disciplinary interest). Perceived quality of service in commercial context. Sustainable — continues to be fresh and vital. Unique, innovative service.
- Number of student production participants.
- Number of faculty and staff participants.
- No complaints about usability. (It works. Technological success.)
Qualitative
- Anecdotal reports of value received by constituents.
- Integrated feedback from viewers a key part of the process.
Rights and Permissions
- Public Webcast is unrestricted, and presenters need to be notified in advance when signing release.
- For public events, audience permissions are not required. As look and feel becomes more private, however, more permission is needed. At events, there could be a sign notifying the audience where to sit to not be videotaped.
- Clearly define privacy policy for registration and use of viewing statistics.
Program Service Development
Overarching Themes
Full Spectrum of the Dartmouth Experience
- Multiple viewpoints.
- Help fill in the breadth of what’s going on.
- After many glimpses into what’s going on, the viewer would experience the gestalt of Dartmouth.
Presentation Style
- Pace: Some fast-paced segments (Discovery/CNN-like) and others slower and more thoughtful (CSPAN-like).
- Structure: Lecture or video magazine.
- Continuity: Seamless with segment segues.
- Quality: Not too slick, but not too raw. People want to see the inspiring moments of everyday life, rather than marketing material.
- Technique: Show more than tell.
- Timeliness: Balance quality and quantity.
- Language: Be sure to avoid hyperbole.
Consistent Environment
- Package structure: Discrete highlight segments in a continuous stream. Links to complete videos on demand. Segments can be combined thematically for future distribution.
- Dartmouth news and events, on campus and worldwide.
Topical Continuum
- Follow up on events later. What happens afterward?
Seamless Environment/Context (Continuity System)
Visual Identity
- Ubiquitous color palette.
- Typographic guidelines.
- Production pacing.
- Film-style aspect ratio (16:9 letterbox).
- Consistent wrapper (news, events, weather, this day in Dartmouth history).
Sound Identity
- Audio introductions to segments.
- Voice styling.
- Music/ambient beds.
- Audio compression..
Sequencing
- Select segments to balance topics and pace.
Program Distribution
- Central Web interface: Live Webcast. Video-on-demand. Podcast lectures. Investigate closed- and open-captioning.
- Other Web distribution: Research Channel. WGBH Forum.
- Regional cable television.
- Public radio syndication.
- International satellite services: Research Channel on DishTV channel 520.
- On-campus public displays (plasma screens), see Stanford, Princeton, MIT.
- DVD – Periodic packages of related segments for target audiences
Promotion
- Web site.
- Video introduction.
- Two-sheet print piece.
Content Development
Development Process
- Inventory assets for evaluation, using existing materials archive.
- Develop story concept database; include new development opportunities.
- Track production assignments.
- Manage permissions, starting with universal release, with explicit reference to worldwide distribution.
Program Segment Genres
News Features (Mini-documentaries)
- Highly-produced segments about timely developments.
- Content researched by Public Affairs editors and reporters.
- Collaborate with regional and national press.
- Scripted for video presentation.
The Academic Experience (Faculty/Student Collaboration)
In Class
- Faculty presentations and demonstrations.
- Student project reports.
Out of Class
- Student projects and demonstrations (campus and international).
- Guests (visiting scholars, performers, faculty) in discussion with students.
Scholarship and Innovation (Current and Historical Research)
Faculty
- Faculty presentations on the road.
- Faculty scholarship, including laboratory research, patents, discoveries.
Students
- Collaborative research by faculty and students with library staff.
- Student films and thesis presentations.
- Academic skills and student leader training.
Staff
- Computing timeline; John Kemeny.
- Staff seminars.
Dartmouth People (Profiles, In Their Own Words, B-roll, Stills)
- Faculty
- Students
- Staff
- Alumni – influential alumni in the world today (living history)
Student/Campus Life (Beyond the Classroom)
- Athletics: play of the week.
- Student viewpoints (“student on the green”).
- Student activities. Dartmouth Outing Club. Student talent: performances, poetry.
- Arts and culture: upcoming events, Hop, Hood, etc.
- Campus tours by students (Rough Guide-style).
- A day in the life (one hour per three-minute segment with four students).
Public Event Highlights
- News conference excerpts.
- Montgomery Fellows (general).
- Jones seminar (engineering).
- Dickey Center (international).
Dartmouth Past
- Presentations made for Alumni reunion.
- Important lectures and developments in Dartmouth history.
- This day in Dartmouth history.
Transition Segments
Environmental Transitions
Visits to campus places with IDs, but no commentary.
- The plain.
- The river.
- The region.
- College grants.
Topical Transitions
- Short segments of video material too short to fit in longer segments.
Production and Archival Services
Project Management and Triage
- An annual service contract — with long-term program planning — would provide consistent personnel and equipment availability.
- Equipment would automatically be accounted for through overhead on billable hours.
Pre-production
- Reporting and research to be done by news media specialists.
- Translation to video medium to be done by video production specialists.
Production
Tiered Production Techniques
Live or Live-to-tape
- Single-camera live-feed style.
- Single-camera live-feed, with second camera for inserts in post.
- Multi-camera switched.
- Off-campus surcharge.
Film-style/Documentary-style
- Single-camera ENG style.
- Multi-camera isolated.
- Off-campus surcharge.
Post-production
Logging
- Identify highlight sequences for existing content.
- Log timing for cutaways (post).
- Log timing for IDs (post).
Editing
- Film-style: Short-format mini-documentaries.
- Live-to-tape: Insert cutaways, add IDs.
- Integrate wrapper: With live tool or in post-production.
Asset Archiving
- Enter metadata into Dartmouth Library cataloguing system.
- Encode asset onto Video Furnace.
- Provide clients with URLs for access.
- Research asset availability, as needed.
Operations Management
Asset Encoding
Standards
- Develop standard recipes for each bandwidth required.
- Video Furnace support of MPEG4-AVC expected in 2005.
- MP3 required for Podcasting.
Encoding Stations
- Jones Media Center. Batch encoding for campus (Video Furnace) and off-campus (AnyStream) distribution.
- Media Production Group. Custom encoding for campus (Video Furnace) and off campus (Compressor/Cleaner/Squeeze).
Server Storage
- Video Furnace storage: High-resolution versions for on-campus viewing.
- QuickTime Streaming Server storage. Lower-resolution for off-campus viewing. MP3 for Podcasting.
See Academic Computing server discovery report (2/05). - Edge-server storage for commodity delivery.
Program Block Assembly
- Develop sequencing in stand-alone environment.
- Create blocks in Video Furnace from digitized assets.
Wrapper Integration
- Add live wrapper elements to stream and re-encode.
- Transcode to MPEG4.
Live Event Encoding
- VBrick or Video Furnace encoding to Video Furnace for distribution.
Network Delivery, Including On-demand
- On-campus — Video Furnace on-demand.
- Off-campus — Edge servers.