about webcast.berkeley
What is It?
- What are UC Berkeley course/event webcasts?
- Who is responsible for this service?
- What happened to BIBS (Berkeley Internet Broadcasting System)?
- How are courses chosen to be webcast?
- What rooms are capable of video podcasting?
- What rooms are capable of audio podcasting?
- What rooms are capable of screencasting?
- Will more rooms become capable over time?
How Does It Work?
- What kind of software do I need?
- How fast should my Internet connection be?
- Where can I watch a webcast?
- Can people outside of Berkeley receive webcasts?
- How do I watch a webcast?
- When will the webcast archive be available?
- How long will the webcast archive be available?
- Can I download a webcast archive to my harddrive or obtain a CD-ROM?
- Can I interact with webcasts in real-time?
Services
- Do you webcast other events besides scheduled courses?
- Can you help me produce a webcast media project?
What is It?
What are UC Berkeley course/event webcasts?
Every semester, UC Berkeley webcasts select courses and events for on-demand viewing via the Internet. webcast.berkeley course lectures are provided as a study resource for students and are not sanctioned as a substitute for going to the course lectures.
Who is responsible for this service?
Educational Technology Services takes care of audio and video capture services. Information Systems and Technology manages the webcast database and hosting infrastructure. The webcast capture and archive technology is based on the Berkeley Internet Broadcasting System (BIBS), developed by Larry Rowe and the Berkeley Multimedia Research Center.
What happened to BIBS (Berkeley Internet Broadcasting System)?
The BIBS webcasting service originally developed by the Berkeley Multimedia Research Center (BMRC) is now webcast.berkeley, a production service run by ETS and IS&T. BMRC still runs BIBS, distinguished from the ETS/IS&T’s webcast.berkeley service, and focus their research on continued experimentation with internet broadcasting and distributed collaboration for select courses.
How are courses chosen to be video or audio podcast?
webcast.berkeley/courses is an “opt-in” program available to lecturers scheduled to teach in classrooms with installed video and/or podcast capture technology. 2 - 4 weeks prior to the start of each semester, lecturers who are scheduled to teach in a video podcast or audio podcast capture capable classrooms are invited to participate in webcast.berkeley for the coming semester by signing up to have their course video and/or audio podcast in bSpace.
Current video and audio podcast capable rooms:
Pimentel Hall - 523 seats
Wheeler Auditorium - 732 seats
VLSB 2050 - 429 seats
Dwinelle 155 - 481 seats
McLaughlin 203 - 44 seats
Current audio podcast only capable rooms:
Barker 101 – 114 seats
Cory 277 – 141 seats
Dwinelle 145 - 226 seats
Etcheverry 3106 – 68 seats
Etcheverry 3108 – 75 seats
Evans 10 - 240 seats
Kroeber 155 – 72 seats
LeConte 1 – 215 seats
LeConte 2 - 100 seats
LeConte 3 – 107 seats
LeConte 4 – 196 seats
McCone 141 – 100 seats
Morgan 101 – 142 seats
Mulford 159 – 143 seats
Northgate 105 – 105 seats
Screencast capable rooms:
The screencast option will capture a computer or document camera output along with audio. Since there are no cameras involved in screencasting, there is no video of the lecturer. The webcast.berkeley team is piloting this technology in two rooms for the Spring 2009 semester (see below). We plan to make this feature more widely available in the near future. At this point there would be no cost involved as there is no need for an operator.
Mulford 159 - 143 seats
Cory 277 - 141 seats
Coming soon, to a classroom near you!:
webcast.berkeley is looking to make its capture capabilities available more broadly accross the campus and the following rooms are slated to be podcast ready in the very near future:
Barrows 126 - 88 seats
Donner Lab 155 -80 seats
Dwinelle 219 - 56 seats
Dwinelle 160 - 59 seats
Etcheverry 3107 - 48 seats
Etcheverry 3109 - 48 seats
Etcheverry 3111 - 48 seats
Etcheverry 3113 - 48 seats
Cory 241 - 54 seats
Cory 289 - 53 seats
Evans 60 - 90 seats
Latimer 120 - 178 seats
Moffit 101 - 84 seats
Moffit 102 - 84 seats
Moffit 103 - 51 seats
Moffit 106 - 52 seats
Stanley 105 - 299 seats
Stanley 106 - 106 seats
Tan 180 - 80 seats
VLSB 2040 - 162 seats
VLSB 2060 - 161 seats
Wheeler 213 - 70 seats
If you want to suggest a room, please contact us!
How Does It Work?
What kind of software do I need?
All you will need to view webcast.berkeley courses and events is a common Internet browser such as Firefox or Safari and the latest version of the Flash player plugin installed or a common media player such as iTunes or VLC.
How fast should my Internet connection be?
Broadband connections such as DSL or cable modems are necessary for optimal viewing. The minimum Internet connection is a 56k modem, though at this rate your image-quality may be poor.
Where can I watch webcasts?
webcast.berkeley courses and events can be viewed from anywhere around the globe. webcast.berkeley also makes much of its courses and events catalog available through UC Berkeley on iTunes U and UC Berkeley on YouTube.
Can people outside of Berkeley receive webcasts?
Yes, webcast.berkeley courses and events are freely available to the public.
How do I watch a webcast?
Once you have navigated to a course or event page that you would like to watch and/or listen to simply click on the appropriate icon:
Watch video:
Listen to audio:
Subscribe to RSS / Download Individual files:
When will the webcast archive be available?
Course lectures are typically available within 2-6 hours of the end of each lecture. Occasionally webcast.berkeley’s automated capture system will experience a problem and we must manually encode from videotape. In the event of a delay webcast.berkeley staff will post a note on the course page explaining the estimated time it will take us to publish the course lecture. Please allow up to 3 days turnaround.
How long will the webcast archive be available?
Our current plan is to keep archives available for at least one year. In the case of a single course which as been captured in multiple and/or successive semesters we may remove previous semesters.
Can I download a webcast archive to my harddrive or obtain a CD-ROM?
Copyright issues prevent us from distributing the video files of course webcasts captured prior to Fall 2008. Video files of course webcasts captured during Fall 2008 and later are available for download via the video RSS links on each course page.
Can I interact with webcasts in real-time?
Our current webcast technology does not support real-time webcast interactivity. We are investigating streaming and course-management tools for interactivity.
Services
Do you webcast other events besides scheduled courses?
ETS provides turn-key events staging and video production services. We can capture your event on-site and publish it for on-demand viewing.
Can you help me produce a webcast media project?
ETS services cover audio/video capture, webcasting, hosting, training, and consulting. Feel free to contact us with questions at: webcast@media.berkeley.edu.