Configuring a Portal
The Ensemble Video Portal enables users to create their own Campus or Corporate YouTube™ so they can deliver private and public media content. Users can create, upload, share, search, browse, comment, rate, and watch live and on demand videos, video presentations, screencasts, and other rich media content.
The Portal is responsive and provides excellent user experiences on many devices. Finally, the Portal can fully customized to meet the branding and communication needs of Campus or Corporate customers. To see it in action, visit our demo portal.
Creating a Portal
First, you must create a Playlist or select a Playlist to populate the Portal. Once you have identified the Playlist you will use, you are ready to start.
To reach the Portals menu, click Administration, click the Institution tab, then click the Portals option and click the Add button.
Only Institution Administrators and System Administrators can access this function.
Settings
Choose a Main Playlist by selecting its parent Institution, Organization, and Library. Enter a Portal Name.
Home Page Feature Options
Choose a Home Page Feature (Player or Slideshow), a Featured Video (from the Main Playlist), and a Featured Category.
Feature Category Options
Choose the feature category sorting options. The feature category is used to populate the rotating video slideshow or the video player and scrolling videos next to the player. To sort the feature category, go to the "Sort By" dropdown and select one of the sorting options:
- Date Added (Ascending or Descending)
- Date Produced (Ascending or Descending)
- Description (Ascending or Descending)
- Title (Ascending or Descending)
- Duration (Ascending or Descending)
- Keyword (Ascending or Descending)
- Custom Order (see Custom Order below)
Additionally, users can choose to "Filter By":
- Search String (display items with a specific text in the meta data)
- Results (limit the number of results)
Custom Order
Portal URL & Tracking Code
Define a Portal URL or Custom URL and add an optional Google Analytics Tracking Code.
Comments and Ratings
Scroll down further to configure Comments and Ratings.
Display and Sort Channels
Scroll down to customize the display of the portal channels.
When you have completed the configuration of the "Settings" area scroll up and click the "Save" button at the top of the window to finish.
Once a Portal is added to the Portals list, click the Action button to reveal the available options.
- Settings returns to the menu you used in Creating a Portal.
- Design enables control of the Portal layout
- Style provides additional control for customizing colors in the portal.
- Channels (playlists) from multiple libraries and organizations can now be added into a single Portal
- Make Default for Institution Set this Portal as the default for all libraries in this Institution.
Design
Select the Design option to add a custom logo image to the portal and adjust the basic design settings of the portal.
Style
Select the Style option to customize the colors and content display options of the portal.
There are over 20 custom styling options available, so almost every pixel of the Portal can be modified. You can edit the color of the navigation bar, the header, the links, and the footer on top of many more useful options. This will enable designers to keep things consistent with their brand and style.
Portal Color Options
Click Live Preview to view how your changes will look in the Portal.
Content Display Options
There are several content display options available. You can choose to have all the video auto play, hide the player controls, show closed captions along with many more useful options.
Channels
The Ensemble Video Portal now supports adding multiple playlists (which we call channels in the Portal) from multiple organizations and media libraries to an individual portal. Additionally, institutional administrators can add security restrictions to channels. For example, a user that is in the "Staff" LDAP group would log into the portal and see the channels they are allowed to see based on their identity. This feature will be great for business, universities, and organizations who want to delivered customizable public and private content to their audience.
There are currently no Channels added to this Portal. Click the +Channel button to configure one.
You can now select a Playlist by selecting its parent Institution, Organization, and Library.
If you add multiple channels, at the bottom you can choose sort order for how the channels appear in the portal. You can choose Date Added or Title in Ascending or Descending order.
The Portal feature is great for businesses, universities, and organizations who want to deliver customizable public and private content to their audience. Here is a quick preview of what a user will see when logged in. Notice, the logged in user has access to individual videos and restricted playlists along with public portal content. To see it in action, visit our demo portal.
