Kaltura MediaSpace is a service to stream media files from UW-Madison faculty, staff, and students for UW-Madison-related purposes. Kaltura is not meant to be a permanent storage repository where media lives forever. We recommend you keep a backup copy of your media files outside Kaltura and delete media that is no longer needed or used. In the future it is possible media may be archived or deleted if a media item has not received any plays within two years.

Yes, you can embed any videos you have in Kaltura in Canvas anytime you use the Rich Content Editor, such as in Discussions, or if your instructor gives you permission in Pages, Quizzes and Assignments. You can also access your personal Kaltura MediaSpace media by using the "Kaltura My Media" feature available from your Canvas account profile.

Chrome and Firefox on Windows or macOS platforms work best for viewing embedded Kaltura MediaSpace videos in Canvas.

The speed required to view Kaltura MediaSpace videos varies based on the size of the video uploaded. At the high end, users will need up to 4.2 Mbps download speed to view the largest, highest quality videos uploaded to Kaltura MediaSpace. Many uploaded videos don't require that top-end speed. You can also manually select a lower quality version of a video by clicking the gear icon to select a lower quality version. More information is available in the KnowledgeBase document Requirements to view Kaltura MediaSpace videos.

Kaltura MediaSpace doesn't have a file size limit. However, the larger the file, the longer it takes to upload and process. We recommend that you try to keep your file sizes under 2 GB as some browsers may have trouble uploading larger files. We generally recommend that you upload MP4 video to Kaltura MediaSpace. More detailed specifications can be found in Kaltura MediaSpace - Recommended Video Source Formats and Specifications [UW-Madison].

Currently there is no quota or limit to how much media you can upload to Kaltura MediaSpace. However Kaltura MediaSpace is not meant to be a permanent storage repository. We do recommend you keep copies of your media files so you'll have your own copy should you leave UW-Madison. In the future it is also possible that we will need to implement a policy to delete media that has not received any plays within two years.

Video files tend to be very large and can take a while to upload especially from home internet connections. Even when Kaltura MediaSpace is running smoothly other internet service providers are seeing bandwidth issues which could limit your upload speed. Test your speed by going to www.speedtest.net. Click Go. The Speedtest website will download and upload files to test your speed and report your current download and upload speed. You can also test your internet speed by Googling "speed test" and clicking the "Run speed test" button. 1 Mbps upload speed should be able to upload a 250 MB file in about 33 minutes.

Upload Speed

Even when Kaltura MediaSpace is running smoothly, other internet service providers may experience slower service, which could limit your upload speed. 

• Upload speeds and Kaltura's upload performance varies, but an upload speed of 10 Mbps should be able to upload a 250 MB file to Kaltura in about 4.5 minutes.

Processing

The amount of time it takes Kaltura MediaSpace to process a file depends on file size, duration, quality, and usage.

Generally it takes about 2-3 times the video's duration for Kaltura MediaSpace to display your video in low definition (high definition versions take longer to process). For example, a 15 minute video will usually take about 30-45 minutes to process (in low-definition). When Kaltura MediaSpace is being heavily used, processing times will lengthen and could take up to 24 hours. 

If your video takes longer than 24 hours to process, please call the DoIT Help Desk. More detailed information is available in Kaltura's document involvingtranscoding times and quality of service.

Kaltura My Media is available in Canvas by clicking your user profile icon in the upper left and selecting Kaltura My Media. Each instructor or student will see their own media here - not the course's media. For more information see Canvas - Accessing Your Kaltura Media in Canvas with Kaltura My Media [UW-Madison] . Kaltura Gallery is a course media gallery of shared media with the course participants. For more information see Kaltura - Using "Kaltura Gallery" Course Media Galleries and Analytics in Canvas [UW-Madison] .

Users should comply with campus policies, including Responsible Use of Information Technology Policy and Kaltura's Customer Agreement policy. UW-Madison does not routinely pre-screen, monitor, or regularly review posted content and associated data, yet reserves the right to remove, at any time, at its sole discretion, any content considered to violate this customer agreement or the provisions of any other campus policies that may govern use of the campus networks, or that it deems in violation of a University policy or local, state, or federal law.

While Kaltura MediaSpace content can be delivered to audiences outside UW-Madison, the service is not intended for viral videos that receive tens of thousands of hits. Please consider using an alternate video platform like YouTube or Vimeo if you want content to have a wide public audience. If a media item has “gone viral”, an alternative delivery platform may need to be considered.

We recommend you keep your webcam and screen recordings short (5-10 minutes) for a few reasons:

1. Shorter recordings reduce the cognitive load on the viewer;
2. Lapses in the viewer's attention become more frequent with longer videos;
3. Updating your material is much easier if it is more modular (updating a 5 minute video is a lot easier than a 60 minute video); 
4. Longer recordings tend to encounter more frequent technical issues

Kaltura MediaSpace is not a repository for the permanent storage or archival of digital media. It is the responsibility of each user to keep a copy of their media, monitor the active usage of their media, and remove media that is no longer being actively viewed or used.

For more information on how to monitor the active usage of your media please see Kaltura - Using Learning Analytics in Kaltura [UW-Madison]

As of Summer 2022 there is no regular removal of media from Kaltura MediaSpace. However, we are exploring options for potentially removing media based on usage patterns or age. Users would be notified in advance of any removal policies. We recommend you keep backup copies of your media files outside Kaltura and delete media that is no longer needed or used. In the future it is possible old media may be archived or deleted after a period of two years of inactivity.

If you are leaving the university, please delete media that is no longer needed. If you would like to transfer ownership of your media to another user, please follow this tutorial: Kaltura - Media Collaboration: Changing Media Ownership, Adding Co-editors, Co-publishers, and Co-viewers [UW-Madison]. Users can also submit a bulk ownership transfer request by following the instructions in Kaltura - Forms for Requesting Bulk Changes to Kaltura Media [UW-Madison] .

UW-Madison’s Web Accessibility Policy specifies that every non-text element posted on the web—including audio and video files—must have a text equivalent. Users can add captions by following  Kaltura - How to Add a Captions File to Media in MediaSpace [UW-Madison] . For more information on captions, see Learn@UW - Captioning Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions at UW-Madison - Getting Started [UW-Madison] 

Yes. For more information about sharing access to channels, please see Kaltura - Using Channels in Kaltura MediaSpace [UW-Madison]. For more information about sharing access to your media, please see Kaltura - Media Collaboration: Changing Media Ownership, Adding Co-editors, Co-publishers, and Co-viewers [UW-Madison].

Kaltura MediaSpace does currently work in China. However, Chinese government capture of network traffic could occasionally lead to problematic behavior such as slow responses, buffering, and timeouts for users in China. Please keep in mind that access to Kaltura MediaSpace, or any tool, in China could change at any point due to Chinese government restrictions.

Please contact the DoIT HelpDesk with any requests for assistance, feature requests, or bugs.