Microsoft is retiring Stream (Classic)

Please upload any new videos to the Stream (on Sharepoint) Learning & Teaching Video Repository. Please follow these instructions on how to upload content to Stream (on Sharepoint).

This article will guide you through the process of uploading your videos to MS Stream for delivery to students and for longer term storage. Viewing of videos on Microsoft Stream is restricted to staff and students at the University. Anonymous (public) access to videos is not supported. All staff can upload videos into Stream but students can only view videos.

MS Stream produces captions automatically, although these must always be reviewed and corrected as necessary. Existing caption files from another source, for example Zoom, can also be uploaded for any video but must be in WebVTT format (WebVTT is a standard format for closed-caption text files).

Note that for fully online courses that are required to comply with the Strathclyde Online Learning Committee Production Standards should continue to use the paid-for transcription service(s) through the SEACOW platform. These videos will continue to be hosted on Planet eStream.

Captions and transcripts are not the samething! Closed Captions are synchronised to the video content as it plays, a Transcript is a readable version of the text of the video.

1. Uploading a Zoom recording.

To select a Zoom recording, first log in to Zoom (via https://strath.zoom.us/) and navigate to your recordings.

Identify the recording that you want to use, and use the Topic link to view the details.

Zoom will display all of the files generated for the recording; there may be a few different video layouts depending on the settings you had during your meeting.

If you only want to use one particular layout, hover over the video and then click on the download icon that appears.

You may also wish to download the Audio Transcript file, especially if you have already made significant corrections to it.

You can use the Download (X files) to download all of the listed files to your computer at once, but this could take a while.

You have a limited period of time - 30 days - between a recording of a meeting being made and it being removed from Zoom, so remember to download anything you might wish to use later.

2. Uploading a video from another source.

You can also upload video from other sources. For example, you can upload a video filmed with a webcam using recording software or a phone camera. You can also edit your footage and upload the finalised video, for example if you need to combine several video clips together or add university branding to your video.

In order to auto generate a caption transcription file, the video files uploaded to Microsoft Stream must be in .mp4 format. Windows devices and Android phones should record an .mp4 file type, but Apple devices may use .MOV (also known as Quicktime). You can change the output file type on most devices. You must check the file type of your video before proceeding. If it is incorrect you can convert your file to an .mp4 using various methods such as online converters or video encoding software.

The recommended resolution for videos is either full HD (1920x1080p), or standard HD (1280x720p). Stream uses adaptive bitrate streaming which means that it automatically changes the quality of the video depending on the viewer's internet connection.

See the guidance pages here for information about filming and editing:

https://support.myplace.strath.ac.uk/display/MS/Academic+Continuity+Guidance

Downloading a video from eStream

If you have a video on eStream you would like to upload to Stream, you can download it from eStream if you are the owner of the video.

On the eStream homepage, navigate to your video list by clicking your Name in the top right of the screen > My Home.

Click the Media tab to select your video list.

Locate the video you wish to download and click into it.

In the options box to the right of the video, click Download > Download Media (High Quality). You can only download videos you own.

Your video will save as a .mp4 file to your PC downloads folder and you can upload that file to Stream.

3. Accessing Microsoft Stream.

You can access MS Stream a number of ways:

Go directly to https://web.microsoftstream.com/
You may be prompted to login. You should use your University Office 365 credentials (your usual Strathclyde user account).
Access the "grid" menu in the top left corner of Office 365 Web applications.
It may appear under your Apps section or under All apps →
There is an iOS and Android app for Microsoft Stream. It could be useful to tell students about this so they can access videos on their mobile devices.

If students have the Stream app, they can easily search for and view videos from their class, outside of MyPlace.

4. The Stream Home Page

The Stream home page is your starting point. This will show selected videos along the top banner.

From the home page you can create live events, search for content or upload new videos.

5. Creating a Channel

Using Channels is best practice for organising your videos as well as a way to categorise your videos. They are not currently permissions based or used for security reasons. Each Channel will have 'Company wide' access so your videos will be available to everyone.

Each video you upload should be connected to a Channel. If a Channel does not already exist for your class, then you can create it. Channels will typically be for each Class Code, and so all videos for a certain class should be in the same class Channel. You cannot create multiple Channels with the same name.

To create a Channel, navigate to Create > Channel in the top toolbar on the home page of Stream. Fill in the details for your Channel. The channel name should be the 5 character classcode, with no spaces or punctuation. For example AB123.

The description can be much longer, and can use #hashtags to describe or categorise videos. See step 8 for more information about #hashtags and their uses.

The Channel access must be set to Companywide channel.

You may add a custom channel image.

Click on Create to create the channel. This only needs to be done once for each class or each collection of videos. When you are uploading a video you can choose which Channel to add to.

6. Uploading a video

From the Stream home page, click on the Upload video icon at the top right of the screen. (You can also click on the left side of the home page +Create > Upload Video).

This will show a large upload area, that you can either drag a video into or use the browse option to find it on your computer.

Choose the video(s) you wish to upload. You can upload multiple videos at once.

Stream will accept most video file types but in order to get auto-generated transcription/captions, your videos must be .mp4 file type. Other than this they can come from any source, e.g. downloaded from Zoom; recorded using a phone or camera; recorded using your webcam and recording software. You can also upload an edited video.

7. Default Language

The first time you upload a video you will be asked to specify the language that it is in.

Stream will then auto-generate a transcription using this language.

Not all languages are supported in this feature, but English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish are supported.

8. Uploading Properties

Whilst your video is uploading you can start specifying the video's details and metadata.

Name

You should give each video a short but descriptive name. This will be seen by viewers. Each video should have a unique name (for example, you can use "video title part 1", "video title part 2", etc. for a series if needed).

Description

A longer description. This gives your viewers more details about the content of your video but also helps people to navigate your video or search for related videos.

In this field you can also add Time codes (H:MM:SS), which allow you to build an interactive table of contents for the video by typing in the time codes of interesting points in the video. Viewers will be able to click on these time codes to jump to that point of the video.

You can also add HashTags (#) to link your videos with others in a series, for example using "#classcode" or "#presentername". If your class code is AB123, using "#AB123" in the description of each of your videos will allow you to organise your videos more effectively and make them easier to find in your catalogue. See the image for an example.

Adding this to the description of your videos is not mandatory but is strongly recommended as it makes it much easier to search for your videos in the future, and for organising/cataloguing properly.

HashTags: you can use #hashtags to link videos together.

By convention you should use #<5character classcode> to associate all of the videos from you class together, but you can also create your own, such as #presentername or referencing the content of the video #pythonprogramming, etc.

As your video upload progresses you will be able to choose a thumbnail. Thumbnails are the holding images that your viewer will see before they start the video. You do not need to change this, Stream will initially select a random image from your video. However, if it's an unsuitable (or perhaps unflattering) image, Stream will let you choose from a selection of various points of your video or you can upload a custom image as a thumbnail.

You can navigate between each of the panels whilst your video is uploading, but don't move away from it until the upload has finished and the Publish button turns dark pink.

9. Permissions (and adding People to videos)

Permissions will control who will be able to view your video, and who can make changes to the video details and transcriptions. Stream Groups are NOT being used at present so permissions are limited to: only yourself / everyone in the organisation.

You may wish to limit a video just to yourself at first, but if you do want to make it available to your classes straight away you should:

Tick the Allow everyone in your company to view this video.
Share with your class's Channel (see Step 5 for creating a Channel in preparation)
1. Select Channels.
2. Type in your class code and click the magnifying glass to search.
3. If the channel already exists select it.
4. If the channel does not exist, click on the Create a channel option (and see Step 10).

If you untick the "Allow everyone in your company to view this video" box, Stream will show the following warning:

Remove companywide access to this video?

Are you sure you want to remove companywide access to this video? It will be removed from all companywide channels. People and groups you previously selected will continue to have access.

Remember: we are not currently utilising the "Groups" function on Stream, so in order for your video to be viewed by anyone it must have companywide access.

157pxAlthough everyone can view your video, only you can make changes to the video details and transcriptions. If you want to allow other people to have this access you must add them manually. This is useful for delegating transcription checking or adding the metadata to videos (details, #hashtags, timecodes, etc.).

Instead of sharing with a Channel, click back to People. Then type the name of the person you wish to add and click the magnifying glass to search. Their name should appear, just click it to add them to the list. You must remember to tick the box making them an "Owner" of the video as well. This allows them to have the access to make changes. Make sure to only give this access to people you want to work on your videos. You can remove these names at any time by clicking the "X" next to their name.

10. Adding a Channel

Following Step 5, a Channel should already exist for you class. You can choose it here by clicking Share with>Channels, type in your Channel name and click the magnifying glass to search. Your class Channel should appear here, just click on it to add to this Channel.

If a channel does not already exist for your class, then you can create it here as well. You should use Channels to organise your videos. All videos for a class should be inside the class Channel. This is a different functionality to using hashtags in video descriptions (#classcode) described above, but it has a similar purpose. Channels are a container to hold all videos for a particular class. The primary function of this is organisation of videos.

The Channel name should be the classcode, with no spaces or punctuation. For example AB123.

The description can be much longer, and can use #hashtags to describe or categorise videos.

You can also choose an image for your Channel but this is not mandatory.

11. Video Options

Here you can enable or disable comments on your video.

Noise Suppression is not applicable for the vast majority of videos. It allows viewers to isolate speech from other sounds and music during playback, for example removing background noise if recorded outside or in a conference hall. If you think this is useful for you, click "View supported videos" for more information.

Tick the Captions box for Stream to auto-generate captions for your video.

If you have an appropriate transcription file for your video already you can upload it here. In order to upload a file you must untick the Captions box above. Click "upload a caption file", select the language and choose the file. The only caption file type supported by Stream is .vtt.

If your caption file comes from Zoom, it will be .vtt format. Caption files can come in many formats including .srt, .sbv, .ttml, .txt. If your caption file is not in .vtt format you must either convert it using an external tool or use the auto-generated captions in Stream.

The Subtitle option in Stream refers to a translation caption file, not the caption file for the video's language. This is only for e.g. French caption translation for an English video or vice versa.

12. Video Publishing

If your video has finished uploading you should see the Publish button has turned dark pink.

Click on this and it will change to Published with a tick.

13. Video Published

The video should now appear in the My Content > Videos menu.

If you mistakenly navigate away from your video page before Publishing your video, it will be saved as a draft video and won't yet be visible to anyone else. You can access your draft videos by navigating to My Content > Videos. You will have an option to publish the video again.

The video will also appear on your class channel (My content > Channels >(pick channel)).

This displays all of the videos published to the class, and you can link to this page from Myplace to allow students to browse all of a class' videos.

Further options for editing or embedding the video are available from the control bar's "..." menu underneath your video. Clicking "Update video details" will take you back to the options seen earlier when the video was being uploaded. It will allow you to make changes to the title and description, choose a thumbnail and change permissions.

As mentioned in Step 11, you can also upload a transcript file if you have previously created one, for example from Zoom. Microsoft Stream accepts only .vtt files for captions.

14. Deleting and restoring videos

If you need to delete a video, there are multiple ways to do so.

From My contents > Videos - on the right side of the page there will be 3 dots for each video for More Actions. Click this and delete from here.
From the video page, underneath the description there are more options (Share, Add to Watchlist, Like) and 3 dots again. Click the 3 dots and delete from here.
From the Update Video Details option (where you can edit the video details further), there will be a delete video option in the top right of the page.

If you click to delete a video a warning box will appear asking for confirmation to delete the video.

If you accidentally delete a video it is easy to restore it to your video list. In My Content > Videos there are a number of options tabs above the video list:

Videos, Groups, Channels, Meetings, Watchlist, Followed Channels, Recycle Bin

The recycle bin will have a list of all the videos you have deleted, as well as all the deleted videos you have been added to.

Any videos you delete will be held in the Recycle Bin for 30 days before being permanently deleted.

You can click the right-most button under Actions to restore the video to your Video List.

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