Mediasite

HOW TO: Create and configure an IBM Cloud account

Mediasite integrates with IBM Watson for speech to text generation and can be used to create machine-grade captions. Audio is sent to IBM Watson that runs in the IBM Cloud environment and is processed faster than real time - roughly half the length of the presentation's duration. For example, an hour-long presentation will take about 30 minutes to process.

The instructions below will guide you through creating your own IBM Cloud account service and integrating it with K-State's Mediasite platform.

IBM Cloud logo Important Notes:

  • IBM Watson is a paid service. As of this writing, the base cost is $0.02 per media minute. If you integrate your IBM Cloud account with Mediasite, IBM will apply charges to your IBM Cloud account whenever you submit a video for Watson-based captioning. Please ensure your billing information is up-to-date on your IBM Cloud account; the account holder is responsible for all charges. IBM's website offers information about viewing your usage, setting spending notifications, managing payments, and also includes a billing and usage FAQ.

  • Machine-generated captions, such as those from IBM Watson, will not be accurate enough to satisfy accessibility requirements and will require manual edits using the built-in Mediasite caption editor to become compliant. Please factor this into your workflow. The accuracy will vary significantly depending on the audio quality, ambient noise, multiple speakers, accents, specialized subject matter, etc. IBM Watson also does not insert punctuation or capitalization, which will also necessitate manual edits.

Create an IBM Cloud account

If you have not already done so, please sign up for an IBM Cloud account. You may be asked to provide a credit card and other billing information during this process.

Create a Speech to Text service within your IBM Cloud account

The Speech to Text service instance will be used in connecting to the Mediasite integration.

  1. From your IBM Cloud Dashboard, select Create Resource at the top-right of the page. This will take you to the product catalog.

  2. Search the catalog for Speech to Text and select it.

  3. At the bottom of the page, select the Plus plan.

    Can I choose the Lite plan?

    The Lite plan provides a fixed number of free minutes per month. While that may sound tempting, please be aware no overages are allowed, and Lite plans are automatically deleted after 30 days of inactivity. In either instance, no meaningful error message will be displayed in Mediasite; the integration simply breaks, because Mediasite has no awareness of the IBM account service's status. For these reasons, it is strongly recommended you choose the Plus plan.

  4. Select Create at the bottom-right.

  5. Select Manage from the left navigation.

  6. Under Credentials, use the Copy to Clipboard function to provide the API key and URL values to the Mediasite administrator as part of your integration request (see the next section below).

    Example API key and URL

Request your IBM Watson account be integrated into Mediasite

Once your IBM Watson account is established and a Speech to Text service is created under the account, a Mediasite administrator can integrate it into the K-State Mediasite platform, enabling you to use Mediasite to order machine-generated captions from IBM Watson.

To request your IBM Watson account be integrated into Mediasite, submit a request including the API key and URL from your Speech to Text service instance credentials (step 6 above) as well as a list of K-State email addresses of individuals who should have authorization to use Mediasite to order captions from IBM Watson using your IBM Cloud account service.

Once the integration has been configured, authorized users will be able to order captions from IBM Watson in Mediasite.