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Kaltura - Media Retention Process
Note: Despite plans to implement Kaltura Media Repurposing (or Media Retention) in Spring 2022, those plans have been put on hold indefinitely. This KnowledgeBase article refers to a media management process which has not yet been put into place. As of February 2023, Kaltura claims to have a new "media lifecycle tool" in development to replace the former "media repurposing" tool. This article is intended for UW System Kaltura administrators who wish to see the media management plans as they were discussed, but not ultimately implemented.
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University of Wisconsin System (except for UW Madison) continues to work with Kaltura to implement an automated "Media Retention" process for identifying unused content, reducing the storage devoted it, and ultimately deleting it. Kaltura videos which aren't played for two years will be stripped of duplicate copies ("flavors") so that they take up less space on the server. Videos which aren't played for four years will be deleted from Kaltura.Why Media Retention?
Kaltura's contract with the University of Wisconsin System requires an automated process for removing unused video content. This is our attempt to implement such a process in an open, transparent manner which supports the reasons we're using Kaltura: to host video content which is being actively used to further the teaching and learning mission of the university.
As of January 2022, the University of Wisconsin System instance of Kaltura hosted over 600,000 videos, using hundreds of terabytes of storage. The Media Retention process helps UW System be an efficient steward of the media storage space it's been allocated and helps ensure that Kaltura is only storing video which is actively supporting teaching and learning.
What Videos are Included?
The Media Retention process applies to all videos on the UW System instance of Kaltura, regardless of owner, institution, or manner of creation. This includes video uploaded to Kaltura, created with Kaltura Capture, or imported from other services such as Blackboard Collaborate.
The Media Retention process does not apply to any materials hosted outside of the University of Wisconsin's Kaltura service.
Exempting Media
Campus Kaltura Administrators can make certain media exempt from the Media Retention process using the UW System's custom Kaltura Admin Tool. For more information, see: Kaltura Admin Tool - Exempting Videos from Media Retention.
When do the Media Retention rules take effect?
The Media Retention process in the University of Wisconsin System instance of Kaltura will begin in Spring 2022. The Media Retention process is retroactive, so as soon as it's activated videos which haven't been played since Spring 2020 will be stripped of their duplicate copies (flavors) and videos which haven't been played since Spring 2018 will be deleted.
Media Retention will then run as a continual, daily, automated process.
Media Retention Workflow
Two Years: Removing Flavors
After a Kaltura video has gone two years without being played:
- the video owner will receive an automated email from Kaltura notifying them that they have 30 days to play the video, or its duplicate copies (flavors) will be deleted.
- If the video is not played in the next 30 days, Kaltura will delete the extra copies (flavors) designed for playback at different bitrates and on mobile devices. Only the original source file for the video will remain.
- After the flavors have been removed, existing links and embeds may or may not continue to work, depending on the format of the original source file, the amount of bandwidth available to the user, and the type of device used by the user.
- Even after the flavors have been removed, playing the video will "reset the clock," delaying when the video might be automatically deleted.
- After the flavors have been removed, playing the video will not automatically restore the flavors of the video. Video owners should contact their campus Kaltura Administrator, who can restore the flavors through the Kaltura Management Console.
Four Years: Deletion
After a Kaltura video has gone four years without being played,
- the video owner will receive an automated email from Kaltura notifying them that they have 30 days to play the video, or the video will be deleted entirely.
- If the video is not played in the next 30 days, Kaltura will delete the video.
- After the video has been deleted, existing links and embeds will no longer work, and the video will not be recoverable.
- Users who wish to restore the video will need to upload a new copy of the video, and will need to generate new links and embeds.
Media Retention FAQ
Q: I want to keep a Kaltura video I own from being deleted. How do I do that?
The easiest way to keep a Kaltura video from being impacted by the Media Retention process is to make sure that someone plays it at least once every two years.
If you need to keep a Kaltura video but don't think it's likely to get played at least once every two years:
- talk to your campus Kaltura Administrator about whether qualifies to be exempted from Media Retention, or
- Go to your My Media page in Mediaspace and download local copy of the video for long term storage. If you need help backing up your audio and video files, please reach out to your campus technology help desk.
Q: What counts as a "play"?
A: Kaltura counts a video as "played" if any user clicks "play" on the video player and lets the video play for at least 10 seconds.
Three types of plays do not count:
- Plays shorter than 10 seconds.
- Plays by an administrator in the entry preview window of the Kaltura Management Console.
- Plays in the non-Kaltura custom video player used in UW Extended Campus courses.
Q: I'm using a Kaltura video, but I'm not the video owner. Do I get notification if it approaches the two-year or four-year mark?
A: Automated emails are sent to individual Kaltura video owners 30 days before any Media Retention action is taken on a video. Emails are not sent to co-editors, co-publishers, or Kaltura Group members. Campus Kaltura Administrators have access to reports indicating which videos are nearing the two-year or four-year mark without plays.
Q: Is Blackboard Collaborate Course Media included in the Media Retention Process?
A: In 2020, University of Wisconsin System bulk migrated a large number of course-related Blackboard Collaborate recordings into Kaltura. These videos are subject to the same two-year and four-year retention process as any other Kaltura video on the UW System instance.
As part of the migration process from Blackboard Collaborate into Kaltura, UW System set up special "Course Media" owner accounts for these videos, so that if there were multiple instructors in a course, they could all access the videos. Because no specific instructor is the owner of these videos in Kaltura, no instructor will get a warning email 30 days before action is taken on the video.
Q: Are YouTube videos imported into Kaltura included in the Media Retention Process?
Kaltura includes the option to link to YouTube videos, allowing users to manage them alongside their Kaltura videos. These YouTube videos imported into Kaltura are subject to the Media Retention process, although the process's impact on these videos is a bit different:
- Because the video entry in Kaltura is a link back to YouTube and no duplicate video files (flavors) are actually stored on Kaltura's servers, the "remove flavors after two years without plays" step has no impact on YouTube videos imported into Kaltura.
- Because the "delete video entry entirely after four years without plays" step deletes the entire video entry (metadata and all), this step will remove imported YouTube videos from Kaltura.