New cloud service transforms distance learning into rich, searchable video on-demand 

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. EDUCAUSE booth #1902 — October 26, 2015 — Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the trusted global leader for video creation and management solutions, today announced University of Florida (UF) has added Mediasite Join to its set of tools for recording, storing and managing distance learning courses, collaborative meetings and special events that occur over video conferences.

Mediasite Join, a cloud-based solution, expands the reach, life and value of any video conference by recording and transforming it into engaging, searchable video on-demand. With no additional appliances or equipment, it’s the easiest way to preserve everything that is said and shown in a collaborative classroom or meeting. Users simply invite Mediasite Join as a participant to their video conferences. It then transcodes, indexes and publishes recorded calls to Mediasite alongside all their other video assets.

“Our other way of capturing videoconferences merges all video and content feeds into one stream, and that’s not ideal. Mediasite Join provides our students a rich media experience with separate and searchable streams for video and slides,” said Brandon Telg, IT Specialist, UFIT – Academic Technology. “It’s integrated with our Mediasite Enterprise Video Platform already, making our lives much easier when everything is on one platform. Sonic Foundry has been incredibly responsive as we implement this new service on campus, reaching out to us proactively to let us know when new updates come along. That’s very uncommon to find a company that is so upfront with everything.” 

UF has already recorded high profile events on campus with Mediasite Join, and this fall the service will be available campus-wide.  For example, it has large agriculture and health colleges with satellite offices around the state. Faculty and staff in those offices can’t always attend meetings and don’t have the necessary video conference equipment to dial in remotely. Mediasite Join will record those meetings for people to watch when it’s convenient for them.

UF has used Mediasite since 2004 to capture what’s happening in classrooms and events on campus. Its Mediasite video creation is growing 85 percent, with views increasing 330 percent year over year. In 2014, viewership of Mediasite presentations exceeded 2.6 million, including 400,000 views in a single month.

“Video is the foundation of today’s distance learning classrooms and collaborative workspaces, and it’s essential to be able to instantly find information from classroom discussions and meetings. By integrating Mediasite Join into its existing Cisco video conference system, University of Florida will easily record all shared knowledge,” said Gary Weis, Sonic Foundry CEO. “We’ve been working with University of Florida for more than a decade, empowering them with the latest in academic video, and we’re excited it’s integrating the new Mediasite Join service to its campus video strategy.”

Trusted by 1,400 colleges and universities, the patented Mediasite webcasting and video content management system quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand videos and rich media.

About University of Florida

The state’s oldest and most comprehensive university, UF is among the nation’s most academically diverse public universities.

About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.

Sonic Foundry (NASDAQ: SOFO) is the trusted global leader for video capture, management and webcasting solutions in education, business and government. The patented Mediasite Enterprise Video Platform transforms communications, training, education and events for more than 3,000 customers in over 60 countries.