Overview

In July 2024, the Kaltura configuration at UC San Diego was updated such that users gained more control over the look and feel of the channels they manage in MediaSpace. This document guides users through a channel's "advanced settings" that are accessible in the channel settings.

Critical Concepts

Prerequisites

• You must be a channel owner or manager. Only those roles are able to edit a channel's settings. 

Steps to Take

1. If you're not already logged into MediaSpace:
   1. Go to https://mediaspace.ucsd.edu. 
   2. Click the profile icon at the top right of the page and select Login.
   3. Enter your active directory credentials.
2. Click the profile icon again and select My Channels.
3. Locate the channel in question, hover your mouse over the thumbnail, and click the pencil icon that appears in the corner.
4. Click the Advanced Settings tab near the top of the page.

Now you're looking at your channel's "Advanced Settings." Below is a list of the various sections that we'll describe in more detail. Use the links below to jump to a section or scroll down to find one on your own:

• Banner image
• Icon entry ID
• Banner video ID
• View mode
• Channel layout
• Links/CTA
• Sections
• Default tab
• Channel rank

Banner Image

The "Banner Image" section allows you to add an image to the top of your channel. The default image is a wavy blue background. As they suggest, try to use an image that is 1600 pixels wide by 900 pixels tall. Also, as you can see in the image embedded below, if you're intending on adding a channel description, you may want to avoid having writing in the image you upload as the banner. The default font color is white, so you may also want to make the image on the darker side for contrast reasons.

Add a Banner Image

1. Click Upload banner image.
2. Click +Choose a file to upload.
3. Locate the file on your computer and click Open.

Remove a Banner Image

1. Click Reset banner image.
2. Confirm you want to do so by clicking Ok.

Icon Entry ID

The "icon" appears to only be visible on the channel's main page adjacent to the title / description. Think of it as a piece of flair.

Add a Channel Icon

1. As recommended on the page, create an image that's at least 400 pixels wide by 400 pixels tall, and upload it to your "My Media." See our documentation Upload a Video to "My Media" (Kaltura) if needed. Note that you can upload something larger than 400x400, but it should maintain its square nature.
2. Copy the image's entry ID to your clipboard. See Get the Entry ID for a Kaltura Entry if needed.
3. Paste the image's entry ID into the Icon Entry ID field.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Remove a Channel Icon

1. Delete the text in the Icon Entry ID field.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Banner Video ID

A banner video shows up in your channel's banner area to the right of the title and description. It can be a good place to put a welcome video or to highlight something from the channel.

Add a Banner Video

1. If necessary, upload a video to your "My Media." See our documentation Upload a Video to "My Media" (Kaltura) if needed.
2. Copy the video entry ID to your clipboard. See Get the Entry ID for a Kaltura Entry if needed.
3. Paste the video's entry ID into the Banner Video ID field.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Remove a Channel Icon

1. Delete the text in the Banner Video ID field.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

View Mode

A channel's view mode refers to how the media entries are displayed when a user lands on the channel. "Detailed" provides one row per entry and displays the title and a few lines of the description. "Grid" will have several entries per row and provide just the title. 

Channel Layout

"Channel layout" allows you to choose whether you want all the sections you've made visible to members ("Sessions," "Media," "Playlists," and "About") to be listed on one (potentially very long) page, or whether you want tabs to be visible at the top that allow users to click on them to go into the various sections. 

Links / CTA

For those not in the know, CTA stands for "call to action." Entering data in this section adds a clickable button underneath your channel's title and description. In the example pictured below, the CTA brings users to a page listing all Kaltura documentation at UC San Diego (i.e. not just the videos).

Add a CTA

1. Check the box labeled Display a custom link button.
2. In the first text box, provide a text label for the button.
3. In the second text box, provide a link. As it says on the page, links will open in a new tab/window.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Sections

Here you can configure which sections will be visible to users. As it says on the page, "sessions" and "playlists" won't appear if there isn't any content in them. Simply check the box for the sections you want visible and click Save at the bottom of the page. 

• Sessions is not relevant to our instance of MediaSpace, since it refers to Kaltura's synchronous meeting product, which we don't use. For that reason, it doesn't matter whether or not you have this checked, since it won't appear regardless.
• Playlists will only display if you've checked the box on the advanced settings page and only if you've actually created channel playlists. See Create a Playlist in MediaSpace if you want to learn about creating a channel playlist.
• Media should probably always be checked, unless you want to restrict users to watching playlists and playlists alone.
• About is a section that displays the entirety of the channel description. The text at the top of the page will only show around 3 lines of your description before dropping in an ellipsis and a "Read More" link, which takes users to the "About" section. Note that if you have a long description and don't check the box for "About" in the advanced settings, when users click "Read More" more text will display at the top of the page, but if your description is quite long it won't display all of it. So the bottom line is that if you can fit your channel description into a few lines, you won't need to check the box for "About." 

Default Tab

Here you can select the radio button for the section that you want users to land on by default when they arrive at your channel.

Channel Rank

We have no idea why this field is called "channel rank." Kaltura's only online documentation on advanced channel settings says that this is just "a name or label which can be used to identify the channel." We even checked with Kaltura Support, and all this field does is offer an additional box with text at the top of the page. It has no other purpose and has nothing to do with "rank."