Basex Awards Echo360 System Architecture

According to a report in Earthtimes, Echo360 has been named a "Visionary Vendor" in education technology by Basex, a leading knowledge economy research and advisory firm.

Basex praised the new architecture of Echo360 System, hailing its "centralized hub to schedule, manage and monitor lecture capture operations, as well as a first-of-its-kind dedicated hardware appliance to capture content inside the classrooms".

I agree that thin clients and dedicated capture appliances are the best option for capture, and that a centralised content management and scheduling system will increasingly provide added value to presentation recording. However this design is not reflected in current pricing. Echo360 charges only for capture, using per-station licenses, and charges nothing for the content management and scheduling.

Also, as I pointed out in my recent review of the Echo360 System v2.1, the capture stations are unable to stand on their own or provide immediate playback of confidence recordings. The appliances are tethered to the server, and the software-only installations have been dumbed-down. This is an unacceptable compromise for those interested in either mobile capture stations or a phased rollout of recording capability, followed by later deployment of the server infrastructure.

Sure, one can purchase just a single classroom license, but to actually use that capture station, you've got to deploy the whole backend suite first. So while the architecture is being praised by Basex as a "significant advancement in classroom technology", I think the design makes Echo360 an all-or-nothing proposition.

How Not to Sell Presentation Recording

When selling a presentation recording system, do not say that learners will be able to 'stay home'.

In an article titled "The Lectures Are Recorded, So Why Go to Class?", Echo360's Mark Jones defends classroom recording. Many professors worry that as soon as recordings are available, classroom seats will collect dust. "It's by far the No. 1 fear," says Mark. He then points out that the availability of recordings improves learning and retention, especially in rigorous technical courses.

But not all instructors agree. Amazingly, the article prescribes 5 ways to keep students in the classroom during lectures. Some are downright Draconian.

• Make classes more interactive.
  
• Give regular in-class quizzes.
  
• Shut off the camera when talking about what will be on the test.
  
• Wait 10 days after each lecture to offer a replay.
  
• Stop offering recordings if class attendance drops.
  

Makes you think about the challenge of being an instructor these days, doesn't it? But my experience is that attendance is not a problem if the instructor is really engaging the students. Instructors like Howard Rheingold, who teaches Digital Journalism at Stanford and Berkeley, actually encourage backchannel communications using Instant Messaging, and other collaboration tools. Who'd want to miss that?

First Look at Echo360 Version 2.1

I finally had an opportunity to view Echo360 version 2.1, and it is clearly a very different product than Anystream's Apreso 1.3.x.

Gone is the distributed encoding architecture. The content manager is substantially improved, and it is designed to record via networked 'capture appliances'. The capture appliances produce H.264 video, which is then transcoded at the server before it can be viewed. The video is trascoded to Quicktime and the display graphics is transcoded to Flash Video (ie- FLV format). The H.264 is retained for editing. Audio MP3, eBook M4B and 'vodcast' (that's audio plus full motion presentation graphics) in M4V format are also output during transcoding.

The content manager is bundled with the Jetty (J2EE) web application server and the Derby database. It also comes with a Java-based Wowza Media Server (though you may use a licensed Flash Media Server if you prefer).

This new release is heavily server-centric, which could be fine for big institutions. But what about for a smaller campus or corporate use? My first impression is that it's going to be difficult to sell this product to any but the largest institutions.

As long as we're on first impressions, I've got to say that the new release has many plus points, including better integration of scheduling and content management (with scheduling now done at the server), better user and course administration (with more granular control of admin rights) and support for publishing to multiple LMS or CMS applications (you can actually publish the same recording into multiple courses). The user interface is certainly nicer, and works well in Mozilla browsers. The installation is easier, and licenses now require activation (which prevents piracy).

But I have some concerns about limitations of this release as well:

• standalone capture software is not supported (unless installed via the server)
  
• software-based capture does not support video recording (it can record audio and display graphics only)
  
• raw files are not viewable before transcoding (again limiting software-based capture)
  

These issues will be a barrier to customers who wish to trial the capture station software, or who don't need a server at the initial deployment phase. Although the server software is free, there are significant 'hidden' costs that will be incurred when deploying the server software, SSL certs, a media server and the media processors. Not to mention the need to buy capture station hardware to record video. These issues may even prevent 1.3.x customers from migrating to the new platform - they will be giving up the flexibility and recording capability they enjoy now.

However I understand that current customers may opt for phased migration. They can upgrade the server first, and still use 1.3.x capture stations. They can then add hardware appliance capture stations or wait for a release of the software only version which includes video support.

Also, there are some minor annoyances in this release:

• additional Win2003 server hardware and licenses are required for each 5 capture stations
  (one of the key architectural benefits of the 1.3.x release was decentralised processing)
  
• product installation obscures the location of important files such as the database
  
• for each hour of content, approximately 30 minutes of transcoding is required after uploading
  
• software activation requires an Internet connection (not available in some settings)
  
• confidence in AV connections is not addressed; users must still make test recordings
  
• no support for Vista on the standalone capture software (XP Pro is end-of-life)
  
• no support for 3rd-party LMS and CMS software (currently Blackboard, WebCT and Moodle are supported)
  
• no support for mic inputs on the hardware-based capture station (ok, very minor)
  

Sadly, this release does not include viewer usage reports and presentation editing.

I think at the very least, Echo360 would need to provide for: (a) standalone capture station installation, (b) offline software activation just like Microsoft and Adobe, and (c) some utility which will convert recordings to a viewable format on the capture station. Without these capabilities, there can be no trial installations, no simple or small-enterprise deployments that don't include a server and no confidence-building display of test recordings. The need to connect to a server just to complete a test recording also means unnecessary complexity for laptop sales demos.

I also feel that intentionally crippling the capture station software to prevent video recording is a show-stopper. So Echo360 should provide: (d) a video license upgrade option for standalone capture stations.

Commoditisation of Presentation Recording

In a presentation from the 2007 O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, Tim O'Reilly describes how "free is actually a precursor of value in some other form". In other words, when one part of a value chain is commoditised, value migrates to another part of the chain in order to assure the flow of profits.

This is relevant to presentation recording - what some call 'lecture capture' - because this business is becoming a replacement for the commoditised learning management systems (LMS) business. Many of the sales and management staff in this business, and certainly those at Echo360, come directly from LMS businesses such as Blackboard and WebCT. They are have moved into the presentation recording business because they percieve that the money is now in extending LMS's to incorporate video recording, podcasting and automated publishing.

However these folks are making a mistake about the source of value. Today, almost all vendors in the presentation recording space are charging a lot for capture station hardware and software, and charging very little if anything for the server software. But capture is going to be commoditised as soon as there are drivers built into the OS that support distribution of display graphics. We already see many proprietary mechanisms for distribution of display graphics, including wireless projectors, classroom management software that rely on mirror drivers, and the like. VGA is a dying analog technology (Apple doesn't even include a VGA connector on their machines) and the move to distributable display graphics in digital form is inevitable.

The value will migrate to intelligent management of rich media content on the server, with key features being scheduling, editing, bookmarking, annotation, and reporting of viewer statistics. I predict that by 2010, the price of capture station software will collapse from its current SRP of US$ 5,000 to about one tenth of that, US$ 500. When that happens, look for the revenue model to flip from the capture station to the server software.

The only question is, with their current mindset, can vendors like Sonic Foundry, Accordent and Echo360 (formerly Anystream) actually survive the transformation?