Understanding Kaltura - Open Source Online Video Platform

Introduction

Kaltura provides an open source online video platform enabling its partners and community members to enhance their web sites with video and interactive rich–media functionality such as: video management, searching, uploading, importing, editing, annotating, remixing, sharing, and advertising.

Scope & Target Audience

The following pages introduce you to Kaltura open source video platform, while providing a high level description of Kaltura platform’s technology, layers and main components. This document is mainly targeted at technical oriented readers, wishing to familiarize themselves with the structure of Kaltura open source online video platform.

If you are a web developer/integrator, new to Kaltura, you can benefit from reading this document before you start integrating Kaltura’s technology into your web site.

Kaltura Open Source Online Video Platform Layers Model

Kaltura open source online video platform relies on a modular software infrastructure designed to enable flexible usage of Kaltura’s technologies and features. There are five main layers in Kaltura’s platform:

• Layer 1 - Kaltura core technologies.
• Layer 2 - Kaltura web services (Kaltura API).
• Layer 3 - Kaltura API Client libraries.
• Layer 4 - Kaltura Widgets.
• Layer 5 - Kaltura Applications.

The following diagram illustrates the logical layout of the Kaltura’s Open Source Online Video Platform layers. Learn more about each layer in the next sections of this introduction document.

High-level Description of the Kaltura Open Source Online Video Platform Layers and Components

Layer 1 - Kaltura Core Technology

The following list includes the main features of the Kaltura server-side implementation, these features rely on Kaltura’s core technology and its team’s unique expertise in the web media management domain.

• Storage and Hosting Services
  Kaltura’s SaaS open source video platform offers robust storage and hosting services. Kaltura’s servers operate out of a state-of-the-art data center with the highest levels of stability, redundancy and security. Partners using Kaltura’s hosting services enjoy several key benefits, including: high reliability, low latency, secure hosting, high scalability and competitive pricing due to the economies of scale of the Kaltura network of partners.
• CDN and Streaming Services
  Kaltura’s content delivery and streaming is managed by top tier networking solutions providers, such as Limelight Networks, Akamai, and Level 3 Communications. The most advanced technologies are used to ensure the highest media delivery performance possible, even when working with high volumes of content size, content library size, content popularity and audience size. Optionally, Kaltura’s platform can be integrated with other CDNs of choice selected by partners when needed.
• Media Transcending Services
  Kaltura's open source video platform applies a transcending process upon media upload. Video files are transcoded by default into FLV format, while supporting all media codecs. Each media file is handled according to its type and a set of pre-defined adjustable parameters, such as transcoder type, quality (bit rate), aspect ratio, and video viewing optimization. These parameters can be set by partners to provide the best streaming and editing capabilities required to support their media workflow needs.
  Kaltura unique technology combines several open source transcoding components with in-house utilities and shell scripts. In addition, Kaltura’s platform can be integrated with commercial transcoders selected by SaaS partners when needed.
• Media Manipulation Services
  Kaltura’s open source video platform provides core capabilities of media manipulation, including: thumbnail generation, image cropping and resizing, video trimming, video transitions, video overlaying (annotations), video effects, audio and voice control, video speed control and more.D support
• Media Management Services
  Kaltura’s open source video platform provides a comprehensive set of media management capabilities and tools. Partners can easily upload their media to the Kaltura servers, manage a complete set of metadata properties, and organize their media within playlists and gallery widgets while applying media filtering and paging options. In addition, Kaltura provides media moderation tools enabling partners to implement controlled UGC applications within their web sites.
• Partner Management Services
  Kaltura’s open source video platform provides partner administration capabilities and tools. Partners are able to fully manage their accounts, to ensure partner-level web security while relying on their unique identifiers and secret keys, to configure their specific server settings and more.
• User Management Services
  Kaltura open source video platform provides user administration capabilities allowing partners to integrate their own user base with Kaltura functionality. Partners are able to relate their internal user identifiers to the media uploaded to the Kaltura system and by doing so, to enable user specific media functionality as well as media related social networking activities on their web sites.
• Advertising Services
  Kaltura’s media players come with built-in support for in-stream and companion video advertising. This enables partners to implement an advertising solution supporting a wide variety of ad formats and ad sources. Kaltura’s media players may include the following advertising modes: Simple advertising deployment, Overlay ads, Ad timing configuration, Companion ads, Ad frequency configuration, Ad reporting and analytics.
• Web Video Analytics Services
  Kaltura provides a built-in web video analytics infrastructure combined with a state-of-the-art reporting tool. These technologies can provide partners with the ability to understand their end-users’ video related behavior and to better monetize their web media services. Kaltura’s reporting tool includes user specific as well as aggregated indicators such as: number of contributors, number of syndications, top played content, number of plays, media plays latency; media play drop-offs, number of user interactions with media, media indicators per media type and more.
• Media Syndication Services
  Kaltura provides integrated syndication technologies within its players, allowing end-users to easily distribute videos published in partners’ web sites. End-users are able to distribute videos to their own web sites as well as to the most popular social networks sites and blogging platforms. They are able to simply distribute videos to their friends via emails or locally download videos for their personal use.

Layer 2 - Kaltura Web Services (Server API)

Kaltura’s web services layer provides web access to Kaltura’s server Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), through a standard HTTP POST/GET URL encoded requests structure. Kaltura server API's, also named Kaltura Partner Services, are designed to follow REST principles. The API consists of several service actions for querying, setting, updating and listing entities as well as for activating processes within the Kaltura Platform. Service actions are grouped according to the entity type they apply to. Kaltura API introduction.

Layer 3 - Kaltura API Client Libraries

To enable easy integration with Kaltura’s open source video platform, Kaltura provides several API client libraries written in various programming languages. These client libraries implement the actual calls to the Kaltura server APIs. They handle HTTP request creation, queuing and response processing while providing specific classes corresponding to entities and data types used by Kaltura server APIs. Kaltura API client libraries are available for the commonly used programming languages. Read More...

Layer 4 - Kaltura Widgets

Kaltura’s open source video platform offers self-contained, client-side components called Kaltura Widgets. Kaltura widgets can be customized, skinned and easily embedded within Partners websites. Kaltura widgets rely on advanced web technologies, encapsulating graphics, media functionalities and workflow events control along with direct access to Kaltura core technologies (via the Kaltura web services layer). Kaltura’s most commonly used widgets include: Kaltura Dynamic Player, Kaltura Contributor Wizard and Kaltura Standard Editor and more.

Some Kaltura widgets, specifically the Kaltura Dynamic Player and Kaltura Advanced Editor, implement internal hooks to enable the widget’s integration with 3rd party plug-in applications. Such plug-in applications are in used to extend Kaltura widgets’ functionality with complementary media services. Examples of 3rd party services already integrated as a plug-in within Kaltura widgets are: Ad services powered by Adap.tv, Ad services powered by Tremor Media, Media syndication services powered by Gigya and subtitles editing services powered by PLYmedia.

Layer 5 - Kaltura Applications

Kaltura’s open source video platform offers tailored combinations of Kaltura widgets and server APIs, called Kaltura Applications. Kaltura applications are tailored to support specific media workflows or as an extension to a specific web content platform. Kaltura’s most commonly used applications include: Kaltura All-in-One Video Module for Drupal, Kaltura All-in-One Video Pack for WordPress, Kaltura MediaWiki Extension, Kaltura Moodle Plugin, Kaltura Elgg Plugin and more.

Kaltura Management Console Application

The Kaltura Management Console (KMC) application is a comprehensive and user friendly tool, utilizing Kaltura’s user management and media management core capabilities to provide partners with the following functionalities:

• Content Management
• Configuration of widgets’ features and appearance
• Management of partner’s account and server settings
• Reporting and Analytics.

To learn more about the Kaltura Management Console application please refer to the KMC quick start guide.

Kaltura Platform Server-Side Editions

Kaltura offers 3 optional editions of its open source video platform:

• Kaltura Hosted Edition (Full SaaS Solution)

  Kaltura's full-featured Open Source Video Platform hosted on the Kaltura servers and streamed via Kaltura's CDN services. Kaltura hosted edition offers all the benefits of a completely flexible and innovative solution plus the reliability and support provided by a commercial Service Level Agreement (SLA). Typical SaaS users are organizations who are looking for a fully managed solution, while trusting their content to be hosted on a highly secured environment outside of their network. To learn more, sign up for a free Kaltura hosted edition trial account.

• Kaltura Community Edition (CE)

  Kaltura Community Edition is a self-hosted, community supported version of Kaltura's hosted Open Source Online Video Platform. The Community Edition is deployed on a single server and is available under the GNU Public License (GPL v3) giving Community Edition users the full freedom to control every aspect of their online video behind their own firewall. The need for a community solution encompasses a wide range of users. From private DIY-minded sites to security aware organizations to integrators seeking the greater flexibility and customization options afforded by this type of solution.

• Kaltura Enterprise Edition (EE)

  Kaltura's Enterprise Edition is a self-hosted version of Kaltura's SaaS Open Source Online Video Platform. Kaltura Enterprise offers all the benefits of a completely flexible and innovative self-hosted solution plus the reliability and support provided by a commercial Service Level Agreement (SLA). Typical Enterprise users are organizations who value privacy, flexibility and the ability to maintain a solution in-house but are also looking to save valuable time and gain the security afforded by a stable, supported video platform.