What is the intended application or use of this service?

Cornell’s Video on Demand service enables any university faculty or staff members to upload, edit, manage and host videos, images and audio files. It provides a hosted presence or embedded code for streaming of the videos to a web venue of their choice for university business.

Who may use this service?

The service is available to all Cornell staff and faculty.

May students use the service?

Students can view public content in VOD and can log in with their NetID to view content that requires Cornell authentication. Students acting as an employee or in a teaching capacity may be granted full access to VOD with the sponsorship of a full-time staff or faculty member.

Can I use the service for personal use?

No. The service is only available for use relating to university business.

Are there any restrictions on the content I may upload?

Please see the terms and conditions for restrictions and policies relating to FERPA, copyright, and university policies and code of conduct. Content related to an official Cornell course or classes is not permitted. For more information on video use for courses, please see Academic Technologies instructional video services or use Canvas.

May I use this service to host video for my mission-critical web site?

As long as your specific video needs for your mission-critical web site fall within the limitations and terms and conditions for the service, then yes, you may use the service to host video for your mission critical websites. If your needs require greater oversight or greater ability to manage your content, you should instead consider the Video Platform Service. The Video on Demand service is not a Tier 1 or Tier 0 service, and we cannot guarantee service at these levels, but the VoD service has a robust infrastructure and every effort will be made to maintain availability.

Can users access the service from any location?

Yes, videos, images, and audio files may be viewed or listened to from any location. You may upload and manage media from any device including mobile devices.

Do the files I upload ever “expire?”

The service is intended for current, active content that is viewed at least once per year. Vendor changes in 2024 now include media retention policies that are expected to go into full effect in December 2025 or January 2025 as follows:

• Media entries that have received no views/plays for at least 2 years and up to 4 years will retain uploaded source files, but the transcoded video flavors for optimal streaming will be deleted.
  • Entries which have had their transcode flavors deleted may fail to play or may encounter suboptimal playback issues.
  • Owners will receive an email notification prior to deletion of content flavors.  The owner can register a "play" of the content by watching the video for at least 10 seconds, which will reset the last-played time to prevent deletion of the transcode flavors.
  • Owners of media whose transcode flavors have been deleted can edit the content entry in the Video On Demand service and go to the Transcoding tab where the flavors can be regenerated/reconverted.
  • Content ingested via a Zoom recording may not include the original source (the vendor discontinued importing the original source for Zoom cloud recordings during COVID), in which case the highest-quality transcode should be retained, while lower-quality transcode flavors will be deleted.
• Media entries which have received no views/plays for 4 years or more will be subject to full deletion.
  • Owners will receive an email notification prior to full deletion of the entry. The owner can register a "play" of the content by watching the video for at least 10 seconds, which will reset the last-played time to prevent deletion of the entry.
  • If a play is not registered prior to the deletion taking place, the media entry will be moved to the owner's Recycle Bin in the Video On Demand service. The entry will be held in the Recycle Bin for 30 days. During this time, the owner can restore the media from the Recycle Bin. After the 30 days, the media will be permanently deleted.
  • Entries recovered from the recycle bin will still need to be watched for at least 10 seconds to register a play count and reset the retention timer. If a play is not registered, the content will be re-deleted.
• Media owners who have a particular use case that requires retaining content without any plays for longer than four years should contact the IT Service Desk for assistance.
• If media which was uploaded prior to July 2025 is permanently deleted, without being recovered from the Recycle Bin by the owner, restoration from an archival copy may be possible. Archival restoration may not be possible for content uploaded after July 2025, however.