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August 17, 2019
Software Capture for Apple Version 3.0.1 Released to US Zone
Software Capture for AppleWe have released a new Software Capture for Apple version (3.0.1) that focuses on an improved user experience, automatic framerate optimization, automatic firewall traversal capabilities, and video test proctoring capabilities (for those organizations with this SKU enabled). Please note that this release has been pushed out to all instances within the United States zone. It will be pushed out to Canadian and European Union instances next week. To take advantage of these new capabilities, please update the installed application.
- Refreshed Desktop Application User Interface
This version includes a refreshed experience with more clear Action Buttons for Start, Stop, Pause and Cancel. We also added a more modern translucent background to partially see what’s behind the desktop recording application and more clear iconography.
- Video Test Proctoring Available for Apple
The video test proctoring capabilities introduced for PC platforms is now available on Apple computers. For those organizations with this SKU enabled, this workflow enables users to initiate controlled recordings during active test taking, accept configurable Terms and Conditions, capture appropriate imagery of government-issued photo ID, and record multi-sources during online test activity. We offer options for both live and non-live test proctoring.
- Auto-Scaling Frame Rate Level Based on Performance
Based on the available CPU and resources of the computer, the framerate default settings will be automatically established. This can be adjusted and in the event it exceeds the recommended setting, a message will be provided to the user. - Improved Firewall Traversal
Transition of outbound port access to Port 443 to be more compatible with an organization’s existing firewall configuration. With more stringent firewalls, this capability will reduce the likelihood the Platform’s use will require a firewall change. - Default Location for Recorded Media Changed to My Media Top-Level Folder
Changed the default location where captures go to the top-level Media Collection rather than the Default Collection. This change was made so that novice users who record will see their recording available immediately after clicking on My Media, rather than having to go into the Default Collection sub-folder.
This release also resolves about 25+ issues including resolution of an issue that would prevent the Mouse Cursor being recorded as part of the screen capture.
- Refreshed Desktop Application User Interface
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August 7, 2019
United States Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20190809 Released
General Platform HTML5 Video Conferencing Media Management United States Zones Video QuizzesWe have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in the United States. Please note that this release will be pushed to Canadian and European Union zones next week. This release includes over 160+ new features and improvements.
- New Visual Search Available to Upgrade Across All Instances
All the sub-system infrastructure and related metadata upgrades to take advantage of the new Visual Search is available to organizations. Within the next 60 days, this will be turned on incrementally to all customer instances, however we will provide the opportunity for Administrators to request it be turned on within their instances. New capabilities of the new Visual Search include:- Ability to perform full media library searches across all videos within all metadata types including captions, optical character recognition (slides) and comments.
- Capability to see all matches across the timeline of the video as clickable push-pins.
- Play All Matches feature that generates a dynamic playlist of five-second snippits of all search matches.
We will continue to refine and improve this capability over the coming months and value your feedback in improving the quality of the visual search across your production data workloads.
- Ability to Perform an OCR “Sweep” on Uploaded Media
Content Owners uploading content can now trigger an OCR sweep of their uploaded media using the same OCR-generation algorithms that run when processing content captured via our capture tools. This ensures that uploaded content displaying significant textual content can take advantage of our Visual Search capabilities.
- Improved Zoom Connector Integration
The Platform’s Zoom integration is being migrated from a traditional API integration into a Zoom Marketplace application. For organizations enabling this Product SKU within their Instance, this provides an easier installation process, as well as a more future-proofed integration via Zoom’s preferred integration method. To learn more, visit our Zoom integration steps available here.
- Sub-Channel Rosters Can Now Be a Subset of the Main Channel Roster
To provide more flexible intra-course sharing of content, Media Sub-Channel rosters can now be a customizable subset of the full course roster of the main Media Channel. This enables new scenarios such as, among other things, providing specific accessibility accommodations to subsets of course participants.
- Video Quiz Creation and Administration Now Within Media Details
Content Creators can now create and manage their video quizzes directly within the familiar Media Details view. Previously, quiz content was managed in a special section within My Account settings. Over the coming months, we will continue to introduce new quiz capabilities, as well as improved creation workflows.
- Video Quiz Creators Can Now Add Hints to Questions
Video Quizzes now support the ability to add a Hint to a question. Users who opt to view the Hint are displayed to the instructor within the YuJa Gradebook.
- Richer Video Quiz Question and Answer Fields including LaTeX Support
To support more sophisticated formatting options, the question and response fields now allow entries that can exceed 140 characters and be formatted via a built-in formatting toolbar. For users wishing to create richer formatting for STEM-based content, we have also integrated support for the LaTeX language in the question and response fields.
- More Intuitive Question Markers Below Timeline of Video Quiz
The Video Quiz timeline incorporates new question markers that “fill in” as a particular question has been completed.
- Improved HTML5 Video Conference Replay
This release, we completely overhauled the conference replay to be more robust. This should provide both a more intuitive replay experience, as well as fewer situations with video conference replay issues. - More Intuitive Thumbnail Selection Option within Media Details
Based on customer feedback, we improved the selection of custom thumbnails within the Media Details. The new selection uses an image carousel with more clear delineation of the current thumbnail being used.
- New Visual Search Available to Upgrade Across All Instances
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July 20, 2019
Canadian and European Union Instances – Semi-Monthly RC20190714 Released
Canadian Zones European Union ZonesWe have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in Canada and the European Union. For a summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding tag for United States zones.
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July 12, 2019
United States Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20190714 Released
General Platform HTML5 Video Conferencing Media Management United States Zones Video QuizzesWe have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in the United States. Please note that this release will be pushed to Canadian and European Union zones next week. This release includes over 180+ new features and improvements.
- Improved Media Channels Interface with Drag-and-Drop Channel Reordering
The release introduces a more compact, flexible and configurable Media Channels view. This includes a more compact video thumbnail, improved visibility of tabbed Sub-Channels, and most importantly, the ability to re-order published content with convenient drag-and-drop facility.
- Improved Media Thumbnails within Media Library View and Loading Performance
The new, more compact Media Thumbnail has also been incorporated into My Media and EnterpriseTube. New content will also more clearly show key attributes, including duration, using a gradient overlay which uses the available space better. We also made the entire experience load faster.
- Video Quizzes Now Offers “Skip for Now” and “Disable Fast Forwarding” Options
Over the coming months, the Product Team will be introducing over 50+ new interactive video and text quiz capabilities. This release, the Platform now offers two new quiz capabilities to disable fast-forwarding during video quiz attempts, as well as the ability to provide the answer immediately following a question submission.
- Improved Optical Character Recognition Algorithm Deployed
As part of a longer-term project to improve the searchability and quality of auto-generated metadata, the Platform now has an improved Optical Character Recognition (OCR) algorithm. New content will automatically take advantage of the improved OCR algorithm that, among other things, will read the text off recorded slides better. - Improved Auto-Generation of Table of Contents Based on Screen Transition Algorithm
As part of the same longer-term project to improve the searchability of auto-generated metadata, the Platform now has an an improved algorithm for pre-generating the Table of Contents shown within the Media Player. This algorithm leverages screen transition data to better detect truly distinct presentation segments and, in turn, generates a more relevant Table of Contents section. - Improved Iconography for Admin Panel, Analytics and My Account
The Platform now incorporates clearer and more understandable iconography for the Left Navigation Bar within the Admin Panel, Visual Analytics and My Account.
- New SIS, LMS and SSO Auto-Merge Module
Organizations now have new integration options with the ability to integrate the Platform directly into a Student Information System (SIS) while using both a Learning Management System (LMS) and Single Sign On (SSO) system. Both courses and users will be cross-matched among the systems for a consistent and unified media experience.
- New Podcast Syndication Capabilities
For organizations looking to cross-syndicate channels to other forms of distribution, Media Channel owners can now generate an RSS Feed that can be enabled on a per-channel basis. This can be “consumed” by RSS syndication tools such as Apple iTunes.
- Auto-Resizing Media Details Dialog that Fits Better within an LMS and Smaller Screens
The Media Details pane has been improved to dynamically adjust to the available size in two ways. First, the window vertical scroll adjusts to keep the Save buttons visible. Second, the horizontal space is used more efficiently with the left icon labels tucking away when there is not an ideal viewing size.
- Improved Resolution of Default Thumbnail
For new video content, the Platform now generates and associates a higher resolution thumbnail. Previously, the thumbnail generated could appear slightly grainy when viewed within a mid-sized browser window. Please note that this is not retroactive on existing media. - More Flexible External Sharing with the Share Dialog
The Share dialog now supports the ability to input an email address to send a recipient a direct link to a video. Email recipients will get an email and if they have an associated YuJa account, they can also access it within the Shared with Me section of their account.
- Folders and Channels Can Now Be Sorted by Last Viewed
Now that the Platform offers the ability to adjust the order of your content, the Product Team has also released a Sort By Last Viewed option to all production zones.
- Improved the Video Editor’s Launch Behavior
Since the Video Editor opens in a new browser tab, the Platform now provides an on-screen notification that it is being launched.
- Improvements to Media Player Layout and Multi-Source Sync Performance at Faster Speeds
The Media Player now has an improved capability to play multi-source content, in synchronicity, at faster speeds. Previously, we saw edge cases where, in certain browsers, at higher speeds (1.75x or faster), that the sources could become slightly out-of-sync. - Improved Network Quality Detection and Notification of HLS Bitrate
The Media Player now has an integrated notification of the current bitrate being streamed, as well as more reliable adherence to automatic or manual adjustments to the bitrate.
- Video Conferencing Have Ability to Change A/V Sources
The beta HTML5-based Video Conferencing product now has the ability to switch webcam and mic sources while in a video conference meeting.
- EnterpriseTube Tools Can Be Turned On-and-Off
Organizations now can selectively enable the EnterpriseTube Library and Events tab. The Product Team also moved the EnterpriseTube administrative tools into the Admin Panel Platform tab for a more consistent experience.
- Coming Soon – New “Visual Search” to Replace Existing “Intuitive Search” Capability
You may have noticed an emphasis on improved metadata generation in this release. This is part of a new Visual Search capability that the Product Team is launching soon. This will eventually replace the current search capabilities (called “Intuitive Search”). This new Visual Search will enable users to:- Perform a deep search across all their media content and see playable push-pins where there are matches in the captions, optical character recognition, index and more.
- Click Play All Matches to dynamically generate a unified playlist clip that shows all the matches. This enables a user to quickly find topics of interest and watch just those topic excerpts.
Over the coming weeks, we will be launching some new media processing “horsepower” that will re-process in the background the petabytes-on-petabytes of existing media data. The end result is that all your content will be able to take advantage of this new capability.
- Improved Media Channels Interface with Drag-and-Drop Channel Reordering
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June 22, 2019
Canadian and European Union Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20190614 Released
Canadian Zones European Union ZonesWe have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in Canada and the European Union. For a summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding tag for United States zones.
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June 9, 2019
United States Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20190614 Released
General Platform Hardware Hub HTML5 Player HTML5 Video Conferencing Media ManagementWe have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in the United States. Please note that this release will be pushed to Canadian and European Union zones next week. This release includes over 110+ new features and improvements.
- New Offline Downloading Capabilities with Podcast Pre-Generation
The Media Player now supports the ability to auto-play based on settings We now provide the ability to download directly from the Media Player without the need to wait for an email with the streams. Now, Content Owners can opt to pre-generate podcasts for viewers enabling quick and direct downloading while watching the video.
- Ability for Organizations to Customize Speed Controls
Administrators have new Media Player customization capabilities to select which variable speeds, including much more granular speed options. This was a heavily requested capability from our Medical and Nursing school partners.
- New Top Bar and UI for HTML5 Video Conference Tool
As part of our beta HTML5-based Video Conference, we incorporated a visual refresh aimed at a better user experience. This includes clear top-bar buttons of key tools, a higher-contrast user experience, and more attractive integrated chat.
- New Branded Video Conference Landing Page for Guests
As part of the visual refresh of the HTML5-based Video Conference, we also incorporated a branded guest landing page for those joining a video conference.
- New Chat Integration with Visual Notification of Unread Chats
We’ve introduced a new chat box integration that’s more similar to iMessage’s style that users are familiar with. We also introduced a visual notification on the Top Bar of the number of unread chat messages.
- Ability for Organizations to Adjust the Control Time Used for the Go Back Button
Organizations can now customize the Media Player’s Go Back button’s control time. The default will remain unchanged; however, customers can now change the control time to one better suited to their users. - New Control Options for Ad-Hoc Hardware Captures Initiated from Room Touch Panels
Administrators now can manage which user and to which location an ad-hoc hardware capture should be stored in. The primary use-case is administrators would like to centralize the management of touch panel-initiated recordings. - Schedule Priority Setting for CTRL=Extend Touch Panel Command
Administrators can now choose if, when a Extend command is sent from the room touch panel, they would like to prioritize the existing auto-scheduled event or the current, active event.
- New Offline Downloading Capabilities with Podcast Pre-Generation
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June 8, 2019
Software Capture for PC Version 8.0.1 Released to CAN and EU Zone
Canadian Zones European Union Zones Software Capture for PC appWe have successfully pushed an updated YuJa Software Capture for PC to all physical zones residing in Canada and the European Union. For a summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding tag for United States zones.
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June 2, 2019
Software Capture for PC Version 8.0.1 Released to US Zone
Software Capture for PC app United States ZonesWe have released a new Software Capture for PC version (8.0.1) that focuses on improvements to organization-wide distribution and management of the Software Capture for PC application. Please note that this release will be pushed to Canadian and European Union zones next week. To take advantage of these new capabilities, please update the installed application.
- New Shared Admin-Controlled Default Profile
New capability called Shared Default Profile enables organizations to customize the default Admin-controlled profile that appears when the Software Capture application is used by any user on the computer. This provides Administrators with greater control to manage how software captures occur within their environment. - Audit Tracking for Tracing Individual Recording Events
The new version of the Software Capture for PC now provides audit logging of actions when using the Software Capture application. This will make it possible to review and trace individual recording events and actions.
- Capture Profile Now Tied to MAC Address
Capture Profiles are now tied to the MAC Address. With many of our organizations re-imaging machines over the summer months, to ensure that Profiles persist even across system refreshes, Capture Profiles are now associated with the MAC address of the machine they were created on. - Configuration File Option for Silent Mode Installation
To provide improved installation-at-scale configurability, the Software Capture installation with silent mode can now utilize an accompanying configuration file. Currently, this configuration file supports automatic registration. In the future, new auto-configuration capabilities will be added. - HTTPS Proxy Support with Auto-Detection
Support for HTTPS proxying including auto-detection of situations where an HTTPS proxy is necessary to route traffic within the environment. - Improved Firewall Traversal
Transition of outbound port access to Port 443 to be more compatible with an organization’s existing firewall configuration. With more stringent firewalls, this capability will reduce the likelihood the Platform’s use will require a firewall change.
- New Shared Admin-Controlled Default Profile
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May 25, 2019
Canadian and European Union Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20190517 Released
Canadian Zones European Union ZonesWe have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in Canada and the European Union. For a summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding tag for United States zones.
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May 11, 2019
United States Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20190517 Released
General Platform Media Management United States ZonesWe have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in the United States. Please note that this release will be pushed to Canadian and European Union zones next week. This release includes over 110+ new features and improvements.
- Improved EnterpriseTube with Dynamic Video Masthead
The EnterpriseTube has been upgraded with some new capabilities, as well as a visual refresh, which includes:- Dynamic Video Scroller – New dynamically scrolling video bar of Featured Videos which replaces the static image masthead.
- New Branding Options – Added the ability to customize the font color in the Navigation Bar of the EnterpriseTube. We will be adding additional color customization options in the next release.
- More Modern Iconography – As part of a visual refresh of many of the icon bars in the upcoming release, we added new icons for the Home, Library and Events tab.
- Improved Ability to Edit Existing Device Schedules
We made the previously introduced Device Scheduling Editing capability more robust and have re-released it. The previous version of this had the possibility of losing a recurring schedule because it performed a full deletion and re-addition; this version truly edits the existing schedule. - New Video Monitor for Exam Proctoring SKU Available
We’re introducing a new SKU called Video Monitor for Exam Proctoring. Among other things, this workflow enables users to initiate controlled recordings during active test taking, accept configurable Terms and Conditions, capture appropriate imagery of government-issued photo ID, and record multi-sources during online test activity.
- Improved AI-based Whitespace Generation within the Transcript for Auto-Captioned Content
We’ve incorporated a sub-module on top of our existing AI-based Captioning capabilities. This aims to provide more effective whitespace within both the viewable and downloadable Transcript. Please note this is not retroactive and will only affect newly auto-captioned content.
- Better Security Timeout Notification Inside LMS Windows
Within an LMS, if the Platform’s security timeout occurs, a clearer UI notification shows up for the user. Previously it showed the Login screen which was confusing to users.
- New Custom Full URL Branding SKU
We have standardized the Full URL Branding capability as an available Product SKU. This SKU enables organizations to deploy a fully custom URL for their platform instance. Previously, Professional Services offered this as a custom service. - New Collapsible Media Sidebar within My Media
To better accommodate narrower LMS windows, such as Canvas, we have introduced a feature for users to collapse the Media Side Bar into a narrower sidebar.
- Login Activity Available on Admin Panel’s Overview Feed
Mirroring the RESTFul API for Login data, we incorporated this same capability in the Overview feed. - Improved Device Management APIs
Our RESTFul API SKU now includes improved capabilities to manage Devices including retrieving active schedules, establishing and deleting schedules, and making updates to specific device parameters. - Ability to Set Automatic Play Flag into Direct Link and Embed Codes
The Media Player now supports the ability to auto-play based on settings the following flag on or off: autostart=1
- Improved EnterpriseTube with Dynamic Video Masthead