At the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, we have been running a Plone-based video streaming platform called Moniviestin for over 20 years. This year we are building a next generation video sharing platform for researchers' purposes. The demand is for a very secure but easy to use platform. For this we use several open source tehcnologies, from Camunda, Nomad, Keycloak and Plone 6. In this presentation I will demonstrate the preview version of the new video service for research purposes and talk about the development process, what we aim for, and why Plone 6 is a good choise for us

1. Building a Next Generation Video Sharing Hiding
Platform Using Plone 6
Case Researchvideo 2.0
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Rikupekka Oksanen
Digital Services
University of Jyväskylä JYU SINCE 1863.

2. Summary
 University of Jyväskylä, Finland
 Building a secure video
streaming platform on Plone 6
 Live demo
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3. Rikupekka Oksanen,
Plone stuff since 2004
 My background is in IT, web development,
communications, and pedagogy. My work has
consisted of lots of customer collaboration,
support, training, and a fair share of CSS
tricks.
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4. University of Jyväskylä
and video streaming
 University of Jyväskylä has over 20 year of
experience on running our own video streaming
platfom, Moniviestin. We have over 60 000 videos
(combining watching material for 3 years).
 Moniviestin has an integral role in study and
communication. It’s based on open-source
solutions and has no licence costs for us. Remote
work and remote learning is everyday business for
us.
 But there has been demand for storing and using
sensitive video material and utilising new
technologies like AI, mobile devices and digital
workflows. How can we make that happen cost-
effectively for the next 20+ years?
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5. We need to renew our video capability at
University of Jyväskylä
1. Current video streaming platform
Moniviestin
has to be renewed during 2024 or acquire
something to replace it. Python 2 detected.
- Critical service for studies and communication,
35 000 users per month, 66 000+ videos
2. Research data needs and possibilities
- Need to store sensitive video and audio
- video processing and analysis
3. Renewing video capability would allow new
innovations
- Organizing hybrid events, utilizing AI,
integrating with digital workflow management
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6. Finding a new solution in
2022
 After giving it a thought and some research, we
realised that commercial solutions don’t
provide us the answer that would suit our
needs and our visions for different video use
cases -> expensive licenses, future possibilities
unclear
 Now we are creating a new platform for
video, utilising our knowledge about digital
workflows, running our own servers and
building complex websites and mobile services.
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8. Dev team
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 Team of 8 -> 7 have been working on this at some point
 Lots of experience
 DevOps
 System architects
 UX design
 Plone development

9. Video Content for Plone – easy?
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• PS. Also check Michael
McFadden in Plone
Conference 2023 with
Video Content for Plone
https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=0LV5Lj12HkI

10. First: Technical PoC, vertical
slice
 Proof of Concept first
– Vertical slice to prove the tech stach works
 Integrating a lot of technologies that we already
use
– Plone, Nomad, Camunda, Wowza
 Integrating some new parts
– Keycloak, S3, Min.io
 After PoC, it was decided that we can continue
to first production service
 Build Researchvideo 2.0 during 2023
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11. 17.11.2023
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Backend (media, servers)
API’s (processing, Plone 6)
Study/Co
mmunicati
on
(Renew
current
Moniviesti
n, Plone
6)
Researc
hvideo
2.0
(Plone 6)
Hybrid
events
(New
service,
Plone 6)
Vasara
(Research
for JYU
Mobile)
Moodle-
API, LTI
(Plone 6)
uMove
case
New
service
XYX
New UI
POC 2022
Case 1,
2023

12. Software stack for the new architecture
 Plone 6
– Frontend, content management
– Authorization
 Keycloak
– Authentication, users, groups
 Min.io, Amazon S3
– Media storage, local servers
 Camunda
– Encoding and captioning workflows
 Nomad
– Encoding jobs with FFMpeg
 Wowza Streaming Engine
– HTTP Live Streaming (or Dash)
 WhisperX
– Automatic Speech Recognition with Word-level Timestamps (& Diarization)
 VideoJS player
 GPU encoding and text processing for speed
Keywords: Open source, licence
free

13. Encoding Process in Camunda, BPMN
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• Ability to see where a user is in the process
• Process transaction history
• Retries
• Visualize problem areas in the process
• When planning, easier to discuss the process details with
visual presentation

14. Keycloak
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 Authentication, users, groups
 Integration to multiple login
services (HAKA, Azure AD, IDM,
Google etc.) using Keycloak

15. Sharing permissions in Plone 6
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16. API driven solution
 Video platform should be available from any context with simple integration APIs
 People shouldn’t need to use the video portal directly
– Upload video from Moodle (Learning Management System) via LTI (Learning Tools
– Upload bunch of videos from command-line
 What if embedded video is actually an upload widget what shows the video that was
previously uploaded?
 Lecture Recording Systems
– Upload automatically after lecture has ended
– Fill in course metadata automatically from Course Management System to video

17. Why is Plone 6 a good fit for a
video platform?
 Volto frontend
– No page reloads. Video players really don’t like when
the page reloads!
– Can really fulfil the original Moniviestin vision of
multimedia publishing
– Video Upload Block possibility
 Plone REST API
– All content management functionality available via API
 Hierarchical permission model is good for a university
(faculty, department, organisational unit, detailed
permissions)
 ”Plone has a single feature: It can do anything!”
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18. JYU SINCE 1863.
Plone 6 as part of video capability
– Jussi Talaskivi
• For more technically oriented look in
to the technology stack and reasons
behind it, check out Jussi
Talaskivi’s presentation from the
Plone Conference 2022
• https://2022.ploneconf.org/schedule/t
alks/plone-as-part-of-video-capability

19. Research video situation and
requirements
 Already existing services, e.g.
– https://researchvideo.jyu.fi (Plone 4.3) and
– Next Cloud –https://nextcloud.jyu.fi/
– Good security, local servers
– Upload, view and share video to certain people
 But that is not enough. There are more requirements
– Really sensitive video and audio
– Sharing material to other users (from other
– Video transcription and diarisation
– Modern user experience
– Utilising AI possibilities
– Using AtlasTI for analysis
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20. Building process
 Requirements:
– We know what a good video platform needs
– Research needs also listed – power users participating
 UX/visual design using Figma tool
 Test site on day 1. Even if it does nothing yet
 Core technical things first
– Camunda process for encoding
– Using S3 buckets for files
– Upload and encoding UI
– New video player
 Lots of learning on the new components
 Fine tuning the theme and rough edges comes last
 Internal testing
 No definite deadline = good+bad
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Live demo

22. Disclaimer
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23. Topics
1. Frontpage (unauthorized)
2. Login
3. Frontpage (as a researcher)
4. Own project
5. Upload media
6. Trim, subtitles
7. Encoding
8. Media page view
9. Editing media page
10.Editing subtitles
11.Editing video player options
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1. Frontpage (as admin)
2. Editing main pages
3. Sharing permissions
4. Bonus: Building a faceted search
view with Volto blocks

24. Easy upload
The new Researchvideo 2.0 allows easy uploads
• New upload process with quick access
• Additionally, you can navigate to project structure
and add videos from there
• Upload process is streamlined and makes adding
metadata worthwhile
• Video trimming and automatic subtitle options
available
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25. New video player
The new VideoJS player with:
• Playback speed selection
• Audio only mode
• Autoplay setting
• Show/hide controls
• Loop setting
• Live playback
• Editable watermark
• Editable subtitles
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26. Security and sensitivity
Security is a key factor here:
• Granular role and permission management
• User permissions have time limits
• New object storage on local secure servers
using Amazon S3
• All transactions are logged with high detail
• Login integration with Keycloak
• Orchestration with Nomad
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27. Modern content editing
Researchvideo 2.0 uses Plone 6 for content
management
• Next generation easy to use editing
experience that is super-fast
• Modern interface with WYSIWYG (What You
See Is What You Get) -functionality built on
React
• Clear hierarchical page structure
• Secure enterprise-level content management
system
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28. Multimedia pages
Not just videos
• Content can be videos, audio, images, files, text
and dynamic features like HTML embeds,
maps, listings and search functionalities and
more.
• Plone 6 enables editors to enhance every page
with flexible components called blocks.
• Editors can build visually impressive pages
with multiple columns and distinctive layouts
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29. Responsive & accessible
Built with two must have features in mind
• Accessibility. By making the site accessible as
required in the law, the site becomes more usable to
every user in various situations
• Mobile responsiveness. Users can watch and even
edit content with their phones and tablets.
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30. Subtitles and
diarisation
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 Video and audio can be subtitled
with speaker diarization
 Huge time saver for researchers
 Using Whisper X large language
model from local servers

31. Feedback from the test
users so far
 “Clear, clean interface”
 “Easy, simple”
 “WYSIWYG editing of the media page almost
in real time”
 “Seems simple, but there is possibility to add
more features to the page”
 “Adding new blocks to the page could be more
clear?”
 “Clear instructions”
 “Granting user and group permissions seems
clear”
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32. AI possibilities
 Transcription - OK
 Translations?
 Automatic metadata extraction?
 Face blurring for more sensitivity?
 Pose detection?
 Object classification?
 Something else?
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33. Security
 Core idea of not moving video files
from server to local machines
 Local servers, S3 buckets
 Keycloak, time limits on permissions
 Plone 6, good UX
 External security audit in October
2023
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34. Challenges
 Timetable
 Priorisation and resources
 Technical complexity
 Lots of own work
 Needs experienced developers
 How to make this a service
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35. What next?
 Production release of Researchvideo 2.0
in December 2023
 Next year:
– More AI features to Researchvideo?
– Renewing Moniviestin video service –
massive migration or a fresh start?
– Building a hybrid event platform on this
tech stack?
– What could we share?
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36. Summary
 Complex problem, complex solution +
lots of work for an easy user experience
 Looking for long life span
 Open source public sector
 Software is not enough, you will need a
service
 This is one way to do it
 Excited about the possibilities
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37. Thank you!
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 Any questions?
 Rikupekka Oksanen
University of Jyväskylä