As an administrator, you have much control over the media in your system. The Captures page provides visibility of all video, audio, and interactive media, and includes captures generated by your capture appliances, Universal Capture software, uploads, Zoom meetings (if enabled at your institution), and any interactive media created using the video / audio media at their disposal.
All capture-related tasks, including reviewing capture playback, are performed through the Captures page. These include:
- Viewing Media Details
- Viewing Analytics on the Media Details Page (Admins)
- Viewing Capture Processing Information
- Editing, Reprocessing, and Deleting Captures
- Request Transcripts for Individual Captures
- Creating and Scheduling Captures
- Editing Capture Schedules
- Deleting Capture Schedules
- Uploading Captures
- Publishing and Sharing Captures
- Generating and configuring public or embeddable links to captures
The initial view of the Captures page shows only the media created Today. Typically, this is any scheduled captures or meetings that have been completed, but it can also include any interactive media created today. The statuses across the top are also filtered by Today, so clicking Scheduled will provide you with a list of scheduled captures slated to occur today.
The Complete Captures tab appears by default.
Click Clear for the Date filter to show all captures instead of just Today's captures. This is shown in the figure below.
Navigating the Captures Page
The page can be filtered by status using the selections in the status bar across the top of the captures list. The status bar also shows the number of captures in that particular state.
Using the panel on the left, the page can be filtered by date, location, source, owner, or other criteria as needed. Click the category to expand it and select the criteria you need. Remember that the Captures page is filtered to show only Today's captures by default. Click Clear, as shown in the figure above, to remove this filter.
The Source category and filter options include Zoom Meetings. This source categorization applies to Zoom Meetings ingested through a Zoom integration with EchoVideo.
Be advised that Zoom meeting categorization begins with Zoom-ingested recordings after the June 30 / July 1, 2020 release of EchoVideo. The category has not been back-applied to Zoom meetings that were ingested before then. Previous recordings are still listed as Uploaded in the Captures list.
The Source category also includes a Type drop-down list, allowing you to filter for video, audio, or interactive media. Admins do not have access to presentations or polls but are provided access to interactive media to view their usage analytics and assist Instructors in troubleshooting any issues they may be encountering.
Enter text into the Search box to search for captures by name, capture room or building, section, or data tag.
The figure below shows the Completed captures list, with Today's date filter cleared and the Status bar and the Search / Filter panel identified for use. The Date and Source filters have been expanded, and the default setting of Today for the date has been cleared.
The list can be sorted by clicking a column header. The current sort column appears with a small triangle to the right of the column name. If the triangle points down, the sort is Descending; pointing up indicates Ascending. The list is sorted by the time the capture was generated by default, with the newest captures shown first.
Completed Captures Menu Options
Hovering over a capture in the list exposes a chevron icon to the right of the Capture thumbnail. Clicking this chevron opens a menu of options and actions available to you as an Administrator. The figure below shows this menu.
The options there perform a variety of actions, listed below and detailed in the linked help articles:
- View - This opens the Media Details page, which provides playback and all management functionality available for this piece of media.
- Publish - This opens the publishing dialog box, allowing you to publish this media to a course or share it with an individual.
- Edit Details - This opens the media info dialog box, allowing you to edit the title, description, or tags on this piece of media.
- Edit Video - This opens the video editor and allows you to trim or cut sections. Then, you can save the changes (or Save As to create a new piece of media).
- Edit Transcript - This opens the Transcript Editor and allows you to edit the text and speakers assigned to each cue, export or upload a transcript (WebVTT file), and apply the transcript as Closed Captions to the media.
- Create Copy - This creates a copy of this media piece you are now the owner of. The title is retained but appended with (copy). It is an entirely new and separate piece of media and is not tied to the original in any way.
- Reprocess - This sends the capture back through media processing to have updated watermarks or branding applied or, in some cases, to have transcripts applied.
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Request Transcript - This sends this media piece to the ASR service for automatic transcription.
If the media already has an automated transcript (and has not been edited), it will not receive a new one.
- Delete—This soft deletes the media according to your organization's deletion policy. Deleting it removes it from any classes, collections, other users' libraries, and any other linked or embedded locations to your Recycle Bin. This can only be done by the media owner (or an administrator). Soft deleted content is restored exactly as it was, including links, embeds, class / lesson associations, analytics, etc. Restoration time will depend on the number of files and their sizes.
Capture Thumbnails
You should see a thumbnail graphic to the right of any capture entry. For completed video captures, this is typically a still frame from the capture itself.
The figure below identifies these thumbnails and includes a Video capture thumbnail, a desktop Display capture thumbnail, and an Audio-Only capture icon.
For Audio-Only captures, the thumbnail shows a speaker icon to indicate it is only sound and has no visual component.
If the primary visual input was not working, you may see a blue triangle with an exclamation point on a black background. This indicates that the input selected was either not connected during or at least not during the beginning of the recording or that the input selected for the capture does not correspond with the inputs configured for the appliance. In either case, the recording device or display unit did not send any signal for that channel.
The thumbnail cannot be displayed now if you see an EchoVideo play icon. This is the case for captures in any state except Completed. If shown for a completed capture, it typically does not indicate a problem with the capture, only with displaying a thumbnail.
Click on the row to view the capture and check for sure.
View Capture Playback and Details
Click on a capture row in the list to view any completed capture in the Media Details page (also called the Capture Details page).
The Media Details page includes a playback panel at the top, media information, analytics, sharing / publishing options, and media control features below the playback panel. See The Media Details Page (Admins) for more information.
Minimally, as an Admin, you will want to be able to ensure that capture playback is working correctly.
To review a capture
- From the Captures page, find and click on the capture you want to view.
The Media Details Page opens, as shown in the figure below, including playback controls and other options.
- Click Play to play the capture. You can control the aspects of the capture playback using the volume control, and skip forward / back buttons.
- Click the FullScreen button and then the Settings icon to open the Settings menu, shown in the figure below. Here, you can change the Quality, access the Shortcut Keys, and Share Your Feedback.
- Use the Info, Analytics, Polling, Details, and Activity tabs in the middle section of the page, shown above, for sharing, publishing, adding captions or transcriptions, and viewing capture and processing information.
- Use the Publishing tab of the Media Info tab to see where this media is currently published or to add it to a course / section / class. As an administrator, you can remove any or all of these shares as necessary.