About Kaltura recording and webcasting

Pearl Nano supports scheduled events, recurring events, and unscheduled ad hoc recordings and webcasts. After the Pearl device is registered, Kaltura users can simply assign the Pearl device as a resource when setting up an event using MediaSpace.

Scheduled events start and end automatically. No manual intervention is required. After the event ends, the recording automatically uploads. Back up recordings for each channel are also saved locally on the Pearl device.

Pearl Mini and Pearl Nano - An SD card must be installed to record events. We recommend using large capacity SD cards such as 256 GB with a CMS.(Pearl Nano can also use a large capacity SATA M.2 2280 SSD when using Pearl Nano)

If the network connection or the CMS goes down during an event, the Pearl device continues to record locally and uploads the recording when network connectivity resumes. Depending on how busy the Kaltura CMS system is when the files upload, it may take some time for the files to appear in Kaltura's media lists.

You can start and stop events earlier than the scheduled time using the Admin panel or the device screen.

Starting or stopping a scheduled VOD event before the scheduled start or stop time does not change the event in to an ad hoc event.

Pearl administrators can:

General information

  • The Pearl Nano must be registered with Kaltura to record and stream Kaltura events, see Enable CMS and register with Kaltura.
  • Scheduled events have priority over ad hoc events. If an ad hoc event is still in progress when it's time to start a scheduled event, the ad hoc event is stopped and the scheduled event starts.
  • Scheduled events automatically start recording locally on the Pearl device even If the network is down or Kaltura is unavailable. After the session ends, the locally recorded files upload automatically to your Kaltura media list when the network link to Kaltura is re-established.
  • After the event ends, it may take a while for content to show up in Kaltura's media lists, depending on how busy the Kaltura CMS system is at that time.
  • The recorded event must be a minimum of 2 minutes long for Kaltura to process the video.
  • The Kaltura Editor does not open recorded events that are less than a minute long.
  • If the network connection is lost during a file upload to Kaltura, the transfer automatically restarts when the network connection re-establishes.
  • If the Pearl device loses power while a scheduled event is being recorded, the recording stops. If the Pearl device is powered back on before the scheduled end time for the event, recording of the scheduled event restarts automatically and a second set of files are created. When the event ends, both files automatically upload to Kaltura.
  • If the Pearl device was unavailable on the network or powered down and misses a scheduled event, the status of that event appears as Skipped on the Events page in the Admin panel.
  • If the time and zone settings of the Pearl device are out of synchronization with Kaltura's scheduling server, an error appears on the Events page and you're prompted to reconfigure the time settings on the Pearl device, see Configure date and time.
  • Do not use AFU or configure recording file size, type and other channel recording settings when CMS is enabled on Pearl Nano.
  • If you modify a particular recurring lecture capture plus live webcasting event (e.g. a VOD + Live Stream event in a recurring series), Kaltura excludes that event from the recurring series and the webcast doesn't stream. That's because the RMTP URLs for the modified event looses it's mandatory tokens. However, the recurring Kaltura event does record as scheduled and other events in the series are not affected.
    Workarounds: To regenerate the RTMP tokens for a live event, go to MediaSpace, find the modified live event entry and uncheck the Live event checkbox - and save. Then re-check it and save the event again. Alternatively, you can go to the Kaltura Management Console (KMC), find the modified live event entry and then, in the Live stream tab, click Re-generate Stream Token.
  • Do not schedule recordings that are longer than the capacity of Pearl Nano to store the recording on the local drive.

Default Kaltura encoding settings are applied automatically to the channel when Kaltura is enabled, which override the existing encoding settings. If you manually change the encoding settings using the Admin panel after Kaltura is enabled, the settings revert back to the default Kaltura settings when a scheduled or ad hoc event starts.

Pearl Nano information

Kaltura treats the channel you setup on Pearl Nano as a single video-source event for VODs and webcasts. The event recording is uploaded to Kaltura and appears as a single entry in the Kaltura media list. The name of the uploaded recording includes the name of the channel plus the date and time the file was recorded. For example: Channel 1_May23_10-12-05

For more information on using the front screen of Pearl Nano to start and stop events, see Stop/start scheduled CMS events using Pearl Nano's front screen menu.

With Pearl Nano, you can:

  • Deselect the Pearl Nano channel so that it cannot be displayed as the main default view when watching the VOD in Kaltura.
  • Display the Channel view on Pearl Nano's front screen, see Confidence monitoring using the front screen. You can also monitor the channel using the Admin panel.