Adding Multimedia Content

Adding multimedia content to your website can make your site more interesting and engaging for end users.

If you have suitable content and you are an advanced University web author you can add multimedia content to your site yourself. If you would like to discuss the most effective way to use multimedia content, or you would like assistance in adding to your site, please contact Online Media.

All content placed on your website, whether it is text, multimedia or interactive, needs to comply with copyright and privacy legislation. This means that permission needs to be obtained from the lecturer or presenter featured in podcasts, audio or video content just as it does for images. The copyright & release form used may be based on the form used by the Marketing & Strategic Communications Office or you can contact Online Media for further information.

Video

Depending on the copyright implications, file size and quality required for the video there are several ways in which it can be added to a website. Video content can be included on your website either by hosting it locally on theUniversity media servers or or remotely by using a hosting service such as YouTube. It is not recommended that video files be placed on the main University webservers as they are not intended for hosting multimedia content, therefore if you would like to host the content within the University rather than using a remote hosting service such as YouTube, please contact the Online Media team to discuss the options available.

• Advantages of using an external hosting site such as YouTube are:
  • the servers are optimised for streaming video content
  • file formats and compression are handled automatically when uploading video content
  • specialised software is not required to edit and upload content
  • specialised plug-ins are not needed to view the video
• Things to consider with off-site hosting are:
  • the content is not located within the University
  • video quality may be degraded by automated compression
  • videos are limited to a maximum of ten minutes.

Externally Hosted Video - YouTube

Putting the video onto YouTube and embedding the YouTube video content into the site is the simplest method for adding videos. YouTube maximises the number of users who will be able to see the video as the site is widely used and users do not need specialised plug-ins to be able to see the content.

• Upload your video to YouTube
  1. Log in to YouTube (registration is free).
  2. Upload one or more videos to the YouTube site.
     Remember to provide a link to your site for users who find your video on YouTube.
  3. Copy the embed code displayed alongside the uploaded video.
• Embed the video on your site
  1. Go to your site on webdev and edit the page where you want to embed the video.
  2. Click on the "HTML" icon to display the code for your page.
  3. Find the location in the page where you want to embed the video.
  4. Paste the embed code into the page
  5. Save the changes and Preview and Save the page.

Local Video

Video can also be added within the University website. This option may be appropriate for content which does not have approval to be hosted elsewhere or is longer than ten minutes. It may be more difficult for some users to view video which is hosted locally if they do not have the required plug-in and there may also be size implications for locally hosted video. Please contact the Online Media team to discuss your requirements and the options available.

Audio

If you have audio recordings of lectures or presentations, they can be added to your website as streaming audio or downloadable podcasts. Please contact the Online Media team to discuss the options available.