Office 365 recently launched their Video Portal that leverages the power of Azure Media Services as documented on the Office Blogs entry by Mark Kashman on the entry titled Introducing Office 365 Video. It’s definitely a step up compared to using something like the Digital Asset Management library that debuted in SharePoint Server on-premises many years ago.
So as you begin your movement to utilizing the Video Portal, hopefully you don’t hit any snags…
Wait, what do you mean SWF isn’t supported?
If you’ve been building videos for Adobe Flash player using SWF format or FLV, then you’re probably going to have to take a few minutes and breath. The easiest thing to do is go and download a copy of Handbrake for your Windows or Mac computing device and begin the conversion to MP4. Handbrake is available here – http://www.handbrake.fr
What are the supported file types for use on the Video Portal?
It’s actually a bit more flexible than you probably think – it’s more than just WMA and WMV file types. It would seem that Microsoft’s Office 365 group went at length to make it meet the most widely used formats…
These include:
Office 365 Video supports the following video codes:
- H.264 (Baseline, Main, and High Profiles)
- MPEG-1 (Including MPEG-PS)
- MPEG-2 (Simple and Main Profile)
- MPEG-4 v2 (Simple Visual Profile and Advanced Simple Profile)
- VC-1 (Simple, Main, and Advanced Profiles)
- Windows Media Video (Simple, Main, and High Profiles)
- DV (DVC, DVHD, DVSD, DVSL)
- Grass Valley HQ/HQX
The full list of video and audio types is available for viewing here – Video formats that work in Office 365 Video
What’s this thing you refer to called Media Services?
It’s the cloud. drops the mic and walks away
If you’re curious to learn more about Azure Media Services, there’s more information available here on the Azure Media Services page on the Azure marketing documentation portal. Mind you that Azure Media Services is highly scalable and has been used for events like the Olympics to provide for streaming media needs.
So what are your first thoughts on the Office 365 Video Portal? How are you using it in your organization today?
The Tech Blog of Dan Usher 