Real-Time Alerts

We have successfully pushed our monthly update to all instances residing in Canada and European Union. This release includes a myriad of 150+ new features and smaller improvements including an enhanced Visual Search experience, new Video and Image Cognition analysis, ASR-based language translation, new 360 image capabilities, more digital asset management tools, and much more! This will be released to the United States zones next Friday.

Additionally, we are actively working on an enhanced Deployment and Versioning Architecture (code-named Quicksilver) to provide rolling updates, zero scheduled down-time (even during monthly updates!), and selective updates that can span successive versions. While we are proud that our customers were not adversely impacted by any unscheduled down-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, our Architecture Team continues to push the envelope for our partner institutions.

1. New Interactive Transcript that Allows Viewers to Follow Along
   The Media Player has been updated to offer an additional video playback experience. Viewers are able to view the transcript and follow along closely as the transcript highlights the section while the video progresses.
   
   Viewers can also interact with the transcript in real-time by selecting a point within the transcript to jump to that part in the video. Additional accessibility options to zoom-in to the text transcript and download the content are also integrated into the Interactive Transcript experience. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
   
2. New Image Cognition Analysis and Tagging for Uploaded Images
   To make image content more easily searchable, a new Image Cognition Analysis tool will automatically perform image analysis of uploaded images and add Metadata tags.
   
   The process allows images to be analyzed and appropriate tags to be added, allowing Content Owners to easily search through content, while optimizing time spent on manually adding Metadata tags. To enable this feature, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.
   
3. New Video Cognition Analysis Tool Can Generate Searchable Tags Describing the Visual Content
   Video Cognition integrated with advanced Machine Learning (ML) models now complements our existing audio-based metadata generation capabilities. Content Owners can choose to have their videos analyzed by an advanced machine learning (ML) model to automatically add Metadata tags.
   
   Video cognition streamlines the workflow for Content Creators to easily search for content. To learn more about this feature. click here. Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager to enable this feature.
   
4. Ability to Translate Caption Files into 25+ Languages Using Machine-Based Translation Engines
   Complementing our existing capability to request auto-captions in a variety of languages, Content Creators now have the ability to request that the generated caption files be translated into dozens of languages, including French, German, Spanish, and more.
   
   This update grants Content Creators with a greater ability to expand their reach to a more global audience of learners without any additional costs. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
   
5. Upgraded Media Player Support for 360 Image Content
   Complementing our existing 360 VR video support, we have now added support for 360 image content. To support the ever changing image capabilities, the Media Player has been enhanced to support viewing of 360 VR images. Content Creators will be able to upload equirectangular-panoramic images and receive a 360 viewing experience. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
   
6. Ability to Customize EnterpriseTube Navigation Experience
   To give Administrators a greater ability to curate the user viewing experience, Administrators now have the ability to enable/disable, rename and reorder the EnterpriseTube Navigation bar. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
   
7. Enhanced Visual Search Bar Now Expands and Suggests Past Searches To enhance user experience when searching for content within the Video Platform, UI improvements have been implemented that expands the search bar to include the full view of the search criteria. Additionally, search suggestions will be made based on previous searches.
   
   
8. New Digital Asset Management Capability for Non-Video Assets
   To align with the analytics measured for video content, Content Owners now have access to metrics including the number of views, downloads, size, creation date, last viewed date, etc. of non-video content (such as images and documents).
   
9. Ability to Add Fill-In-The-Blank Question Types via the Video Quiz Editor
   To offer Instructors more tools to assess student engagement and understanding, a Fill-In-The-Blank question type is now available in the Video Quiz Editor. Instructors can write a statement and add options for Students to choose from. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
   
10. Ability for Administrators to Receive and Approve Human Caption Requests
    Based on popular request, we have implemented the ability for Content Creators to submit a Human Captioning Request to be sent to Administrators for approval. This allows Administrators to have better visibility and management of Human Captioning usage. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
    
11. Ability to Obtain the Direct Link and Embed Code of a Video Immediately After Uploading
    We have improved the transcoding pipeline to provide Content Owners with the Direct Link and Embed Code of a video, prior to a video completing the initial (transmux) processing stage. Content Owners will have a near-immediate ability to embed content via the LMS Media Chooser, and by Direct Link and Embed Code. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
12. Ability to Duplicate a Video Using a Copy for Independent Use
    Content Creators can now easily duplicate any video uploaded to the Video Platform. Utilizing a Deep Copy, Content Creators will experience a refined workflow that allows them to duplicate videos and the associated metadata, including Title and video captions. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
    

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in Canada and European Union. This release focuses on brand new features including a more powerful EnterpriseTube, improved engagement tools, improve accessibility standards, refreshed layouts, and much more!

1. Multi-EnterpriseTube to Support Departments and Sub-Organizations (Beta)
   The EnterpriseTube can now be segmented based on the organizational structure of the institution. To better support the organizational structures that exist in large institutions, we designed an EnterpriseTube which allows users to create segments based on the organizational structure of the institution. Now, organizations can have Sub-EnterpriseTubes for their School of Medicine, Law School, and various departments. Reach out to your dedicated Customer Success Manager to enable this feature.
2. Ability to Reply Directly to an In-Video Comment with Nested Commenting Capabilities
   We have enhanced the in-video commenting feature to support the ability to directly reply to comments. This facilitates more direct collaboration between users and instructors. For more information on this feature, please click here.
3. Improved End-to-End Course Copy for Media Channels, Video Quizzes, and Embedded Videos
   We have added new options and streamlined the end-to-end course copy workflow that seamlessly transfers content items such as Media Channels, Video Quizzes, and Embedded Videos. This feature is available for all major LMS products including Moodle, Canvas, Brightspace D2L, Blackboard Classic, and Blackboard SaaS. To learn more about how to enable this feature, please click here.
4. Recurring Live Streams Now Offer a Single, “Full Series” Live Stream Link
   To better support organizations that regularly use live streams for recurring events, Admins can use a single live stream Master Link which will automatically forward users to a current or upcoming webinar live stream.
5. Video Editor Now Offer the Ability to Add and Delete Indices in Addition to the Pre-Defined Index Entries
   This update will allow Content Creators to build on pre-defined index intervals by adding new indices to their videos with alternative timepoints. For more information on this feature, please click here.
6. Media Chooser Now Shows Dynamic Updates of Recording, Uploading, and Processing Statuses
   We have made enhancements to the Media Chooser by offering a dynamic update to video thumbnails to now display recording, processing, and uploading status. Further, a video can be inserted that is still in a processing state.
7.  Ability to Play Some Uploaded Video Types Immediately in the Media Library
   We have added an extra stage to the transcoding pipeline which allows MP4 videos (and a few other types) to be played back immediately after upload. This will provide users with the option to playback their videos almost instantaneously in the original bitrate and format, while the other stages of the transcoding pipeline are processed in the transmuted original bitrate form.
8. Media Player Now Has Option for a “Go Forward” Button
   To complement our Go Back option, the Media Player can be customized to include a Go Forward option. To learn more about how to create a Media Player “skin” with this feature, please click here
9. Machine-Generated ASR is Now Clarified in the Media Player Sidebar
   This update will help users clearly distinguish if captions were generated through ASR or human captioning. Users can locate this attribute under captions by selecting the Gear icon on the Media Player.
10. Ability to Save Media Library Sort
    In an effort to provide users more control of their Media Library and Media Channel. We have enhanced the usability of the Sort option so that sort preferences will now save between logins.
11. Accessibility Improvements Related to Meaningful Sequence Requirements of WCAG 2.1
    To continue our efforts to meet and exceed WCAG 2.1 requirements, we have improved the tab order sequencing within the collapsible sidebar and also added an icon that clarifies the opening and closing of the sidebar.
12.  Ability to Provision Channels Based on SAML and ADFS Group Attributes
    Organizations can now opt to provision channels based on the group attributes within their Single Sign-On infrastructure.
13. Enhancement to Search Capabilities on the YuJa Media Chooser
    We have implemented structures for the Media Choosers to enhance the search capabilities. Users will now experience improvements to the accuracy of search results when looking for specific content pieces. Instructions explaining the various search functions that are provided by the updated search system can be found by clicking the arrow icon located in the Search Bar.
    

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States. For a summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding tag for the most recent Canadian and EU zones release.

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the European Union and Canada. Next week, we will perform the same update to United States-based instances.

1. New Storage Management Capabilities Including Download Archive and Additional Policy Rules
   With more users creating content and storing media assets on the Video Platform, storage management is a priority concern for many organizations. We’ve introduced new tools to our Data Management toolset to help Administrators identify archivable media content and manage their ever growing storage. Click here to learn more about data archiving.
   • We’ve added two new features to the Data Management toolset found under the Admin Panel. Administrators can add Bulk Tags to matching media content, and a Download Zip capability for selected media.
      
     
   • New Rules (matching criteria) can be added within the Policy Editor to identify content by Role Type and Content Type. For example, an Administrator could use these rules to easily identify Exam Proctoring Sessions created by Students that should be archived to free storage.
      
     
   • More detailed audit tracking gives organizations transparency into archival events, making it easier for them to monitor the archive folder generation and total amount of storage archived.
      
     
2. Advanced Transcode Management and Admin Bitrate Selection Capabilities
   Content Owners and Administrators can now manage the available transcodes within a video. This including adding specific transcodes for a particular resolution and bitrate, as well as removing an existing transcode. Transcodes provide alternative variants to provide more customizable adaptive bitrate capabilities settings but do occupy additional storage space. Click here to learn more about managing transcodes on a per-video basis.
    
   
3. Advanced Transcode Management Custom Video Qualities Capabilities within Admin Panel
   Administrators can now select which transcode qualities they wish to make available to specific roles. For example, Admins could provide the ability for Content Owners to generate a 480p adaptive bitrate transcode, however permit themselves to generate 2160p transcodes. Click here to learn more about managing transcode generation.
    
   
4. Microsoft Teams Enterprise Connector
   Complementing our Zoom and Webex Video Conferencing Enterprise Connectors, we now offer a Microsoft Teams Enterprise Connector. This provides the ability to automatically or manually ingest Microsoft Teams video conference recordings. Click here to learn more about our Microsoft Teams connector.
    
   
5. Itemized Storage Report
   The Itemized Storage Report is a downloadable report that provides storage metrics for all media content accessible in the Video Platform including the Title, Owner, Date of the Upload, Size, and number of Views. Click here to learn more about the storage analytic reporting.
    
   
6. Bulk Download Support for Multi-Stream Content
   Before, multi-stream video content could only be Bulk Downloaded as separate files which produced separate MP4 files for each stream. Now, users can Bulk Download multi-stream content as a single file allowing all available streams to merge into a single MP4. Click here to learn more about Bulk Downloading media content.
    
   
7. Ingested RTMP Streams Can Be Recorded, Stream with Adaptive Bitrate Streaming and Use the Live Chat Capability
   RTMP-ingested streams can now be recorded by the Video Platform, as well as utilize the same adaptive bitrate streaming infrastructure previously deployed for live streams originating from YuJa Software Capture and Hardware Hub-originating live streams. The Live Chat capability has now been extended to RTMP-originating streams. The resulting recording can also be assigned a session owner, saved to a specific Media Collection, and optionally published to a particular location. Click here to learn more about about RTMP Live Streaming in the Video Platform.
    
   
8. RTMP-Based Events Now Offer a Stream Preview Capability to Monitor the Event
   To enable Event Services teams to better manage RTMP-based Live Stream Events, the Video Platform now offers the ability to preview an active stream and monitor the outgoing audience feed. Click here to learn more about about RTMP Live Streaming in the Video Platform.
    
   
9. RTMP-Based Live Stream Real-Time Event Statistics
   Live stream events, including RTMP-originating events, now offer real-time event statistics including the total number of viewers, active viewers, attendance length, as well as geo-location information on attendees. Future releases will deepen the available statistics, as well as introduce new data visualizations. Click here to learn more about RTMP Live Stream statistics.
    
   
10. New Video Quiz Delivery Options Including “View After Submission” and “Permit Student Resubmission”
    Video Quizzes now support two additional settings available to Video Quiz creators. Instructors can specify if Students should be allowed to resubmit their answers after submission or if a Student can continue to access the video of a Video Quiz after the quiz’s Close Date. Click here to learn more about advanced Video Quiz settings.
     
    
11. Redesigned Gradebook Analytics with Color-Coded, Single Pane Results View
    With a cleaner UI and a list of new features, we’ve given the YuJa Gradebook a whole new look-and-feel to provide an at-a-glance look for Instructors as they monitor their Students comprehension of course content. Instructors can grade each of their students’ Video Quiz short answer responses in a single click, view all attempts, the scores received and the answers selected. Click here to learn more about Video Quizzes and the Gradebook.
     
    
12. Improvements to Keyboard Level Accessibility with Platform-Level Highlight Selection on All Keyboard Navigations
    As part of an initiative to deepen the accessibility capabilities of the Video Platform, we have introduced both improved the keyboard navigation visual element, refined the screen-reader support, and transitioned some UI panels into a more Universal Design. Over the coming quarters, we will continue to broaden and improve additional UI screens.
     
    
13. XML Scheduling Upload Now Provides Collection-Level Specification Capabilities
    As more and more organizations move to remote scheduling for classroom lecture capture, we’ve made bulk scheduling even easier. Administrators can bulk schedule lecture capture sessions through the Devices page under the Admin Panel using an XML and can now specify the location to save the recording. Click here to learn more about uploading an XML schedule for automated recording.
     
    
14. Added 10 New Auto-Captioning Languages including Finnish
    As YuJa continues to expands internationally, our user base has become increasingly diverse and English is no longer the only primary language spoken by Video Platform users. We’ve added 10+ new languages to our AI auto-caption toolset to support organizations including Finnish, Farsi, Danish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, and Traditional Mandarin. Click here to learn more about requesting auto-captions on a per-video basis.
     
    
15. Transcript Downloading from within the Media Player
    With our initiative to improve digital accessibility for all users, we’ve added the ability to download the video transcript directly though the Media Player’s Sidebar so viewers who are watching an embedded video can download the transcript. Click here to learn more about downloading resources through the Video Platform Media Player.
     
    
16. Prioritizing Proctor Session Initiation for Students Enrolled in Proctored Courses
    We know that students can make mistakes when trying to initiate a proctoring session on their device so we’ve made it easier to launch the tool by prioritizing proctor sessions for students when they click Create Recording. Students are now less likely to accidentally create a standalone recording instead of a proctoring session. Click here to learn more about enabling prioritization of proctoring sessions for students.
     
    
17. Customizable Terms and Conditions Prompt for New Video Platform Users
    Video Platform security and transparency has always been our top concern. Organizations can now require all users to accept their organization’s custom Terms and Conditions before accessing the Video Platform for the very first time through their LMS or SSO. This ensure that user information isn’t passed from the LMS or SSO into the Video Platform until the student accepts the Terms and Conditions. Click here to learn more about enabling this feature for your Organization’s Zone.
     
    
18. Class Media Channel Email Invitations
    Administrators can now control how users join a Class Media Channel through their email invitation by enabling or disabling different log in methods including SSO credentials, Video Platform credentials or even creating a new account. Click here to learn more about configuring Class Media Channel invitation options.
     
    
19. New API to Obtain Audit Log Entries, Video Search Capabilities, and Per-User Schedule Retrieval
    The REST API now offers additional APIs to extract audit log entries, perform additional video operations such as video search, and retrieve auto-scheduled sessions on a per-user basis. These APIs will also be used by third-party video quiz partners to enable them to utilize YuJa-hosted videos for quiz creation. Click here to learn more about the available REST APIs in the Video Platform.
20. Full Platform Localization Project Complete, including Support for French
    Our multi-quarter full Video Platform localization project is now complete with fully instrumented Globalization. This will enable seamless introduction of new Language Packs in the future. This release, we have completed the availability of our French Language Pack. Click here to learn more about changing your account’s preferred language. Note: We currently have our Test Engineers performing even more thorough sweeps of all tool-tips and older features to make sure we fully localized the UI. If you notice anything that isn’t localized, please let us know.
21. General Availability of Multiple Single Sign On Enterprise Connectors for a Single Video Platform Instance
    The Video Platform now supports up to 2 SAML and 2 CAS vendors for a single Zone allowing institutions with multiple SSO vendors to provide an seamless login experience to all Video Platform users.
22. Browser Capture Studio Now Offers an On-Demand Upload Capability to Support More Restrictive Firewall Settings
    With an improved network framework for Browser Capture, users using the online recording tool have a more consistent experience that improves upload response times on local networks running firewalls. Click here to learn more about using Browser Capture.

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances 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 135+ new features and improvements.

1. Full Sub-Administrator Capabilities within Custom-Designed Hierarchies
   The Video Platform now provides full capabilities to create hierarchical representations of your organization including Faculties, Departments, Schools, Campuses and Schools. Within this hierarchy, custom-defined Sub-Administrators can be created that can manage specific sets of Users, Courses, Devices, as well as create subsets of functionality. Over the coming months, we will continue to create new Sub-Organization capabilities so your feedback will help shape the future product roadmap of this capability.
   

   

2. Create Sub-Administrators Based on Both Role Scope and Functional Needs
   Custom sub-administrator roles can be defined based on virtually any role scope and functional need. Some examples of possible sub-administrator roles you could create include:
   
   
   • Classroom Device Manager for Medical School
   • Closed Captioning Associate for the Department of Earth Sciences
   • Full Admin for the Online Campus

   
   

   

3. Each Sub-Administrator Role Can Be Assigned a Custom Start Page
   Each sub-administrator role can now select the default start page that is shown on login. The options listed in the drop-down will adjust based on the functional capabilities of the sub-admin role.
   

   

4. Support for Upcoming Chrome 80 Version (“The Cookie Crumbling Update”)
   In advance of the upcoming – and much anticipated – Chrome 80 release which introduces several breaking changes to most major third-party web applications, we released an update that is compatible with this new browser version. With this change, we believe your users will not be affected when the Chrome 80 browser, that is currently in beta, releases to production.
   

5. New Picture-in-Picture Viewing Mode Designed for Tight Spaces
   We have introduced a new viewing mode that is designed for tighter embedded viewports such as within an LMS. The Picture-in-Picture mode can also be enabled selectively as an additional viewing option on the primary or secondary Media Player menu. The Picture-and-Picture sources can be swapped and users can also move the embedded picture source within the window to suit their viewing preference.

   
   Note: To enable the new Picture-in-Picture capability within the Media Player, within the Admin Panel’s Branding tab, please add this option to your Media Player branding.
   

   

6. Live Streaming Infrastructure Now Scales Elastically with No Practical Limit
   As part of a larger-scale project to create elastic scalability in all key sub-systems, the Live Streaming infrastructure can now stream to any-size audience without the need for in-advance provisioning. There are some related capabilities we have planned for future releases to also elastically scale the real-time live stream transcoding sub-system.
   

7. New Video Platform Branding Options Enable Customization of the Left Navigation Bar Colors
   The Video Platform now includes the ability to customize the colors of the Left Navigation Bar to align with your organization’s brand.
   

   

8. Minor Version Update to YuJa Mobile for Android Native Application
   We released a new minor version update to our YuJa Mobile for Android application (2.0.9) that incorporates 15+ smaller bug fixes and video streaming improvements. We are actively working on a new iOS application which matches the current functionality of the Android application.
   

9. Improved Video Quiz Integration with LMS Course Copy
   To support the use of LMS Course Copy and the creation of Master Course Shells, for LMSs that support Content Item Message-based Course Copy, namely Canvas and Blackboard, previous Video Quizzes can be re-posted to the newly copied course as a new Video Quiz directly within the LMS interface. For Moodle and D2L customers, to take advantage of this capability, please contact your LMS vendor and request a status on the following open feature items: Moodle MDL-66934 and D2L LTI Copy Course Updates.
   

10. New Video Conference Start Meeting Panel
    The new Video Conference Start Panel provides quicker access to start an impromptu meeting, schedule meetings, and view the calendar of scheduled meetings.
    

11. New Video Player Capabilities including Click-to-Pause, Improved Multi-stream Mobile Compatibility and More
    The Media Player now offers some additional enhancements including the ability when viewing single-stream videos to click the video box to pause and resume the video. For multi-stream videos, there is a new hover effect to swap the primary stream. We also improved multi-stream compatibility on mobile browsers and added a new hover-glow effect for the Media Player icons.
    

12. Support for Canvas Accommodated Groups
    To provide specialized video support for designated Accommodated Groups within Canvas, the Video Platform can now interface with the Canvas LMS to pull Accommodated Group rosters and display specific sub-channel content designated only for the Accommodated Group.
    

We 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 200+ new features and improvements.

1. 360°/VR Video Media Player Now Moved to General Availability
   By popular request, the Professional Services Team migrated the 360°/VR Video Media Player, a previously custom capability, to a feature available in all instances. The new 360°/VR Video enables the viewing of 360-degree VR content and supports perspective changes via the gyroscope (when viewed on a mobile device).
   
2. New Advanced Visual Search Capabilities
   The Visual Search capabilities introduced in the last release are now even more powerful with the following new additions that incorporate “fuzzy search”, advanced filtering options and improved performance:
   
   • Implementation of a Fuzzy Search algorithm – Established a fuzzy search that will match against a threshold of about 80%. This enables keyword searches such as engineer~ which will, for example, return engineers and engineer.
   • Ability to Restrict Searches to the Current Folder – New option within the Advanced Search operations to restrict search matches to media contained in the current folder.
   • Ability to Restrict Searches to a Given Channel – New option to restrict search for content to a particular Media Channel by using the channel: attribute. An example is channel:”MATH 235″.
   • Searching for YouTube and Vimeo Videos Included – Linked YouTube and Vimeo videos will be searched based on the available metadata fields.
   • Support for Prefix Searching – New option to search based on a keyword prefix via keyword* search operator. For instance, entering te* returns results with words starting with te including tell and test.
   • Support for Owner Filter – New option to filter searches based on the owner of the media via the owner:”{Your Name}” search option.
   • Custom Metadata Schema Search for Non-Videos – Visual Search now will search a custom Metadata Schema applied to non-video assets.
   • Speed Improvements with Large Match Sets – When searching for words that are mentioned thousands or tens-of-thousands-of-times in a given folder, the search results will now be returned within seconds instead of over a minute.

   

3. Go Back Folder Quick Link for Faster Folder Traversal
   Within My Media’s Action Bar, a new Go Back button enables users to traverse to the parent folder of the current location.
   
4. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Capabilities Extend to Video Sources Recorded by PC and Apple Software Capture Application
   To enhance our Visual Search capabilities, we now will perform a full OCR scan of video sources – not just the screen source – recorded by the Software Capture for PC and Apple applications.
5. Media Player’s Slide Text Section Supports Multi-Source OCR
   Within the Media Player, recordings that have multiple sources with OCR results for the same time point – which is now possible with the newly introduced multi-source OCR – will now be shown.
6. HTML5 Video Conferencing Now Offers Breakout Room Capabilities
   The Video Conferencing product now includes the ability to create and manage Breakout Sessions with attendees. Future releases will further refine this capability so we certainly welcome your feedback on features and improvements we can make.
   
7. Extended API to Support Automatic Publishing Capabilities When Auto Scheduling
   To better support end-to-end automatic scheduling and publishing workflows, the RESTFul API now supports automatic publishing when performing auto-scheduling operations.
8. Media Player Improvements When Viewed in Portrait Mode on Mobile Devices
   This release includes improvements to the Media Player when viewed on mobile devices in portrait mode. A new top-and-bottom viewing capability for multi-stream videos ensures a crisp viewing experience irrespective of the mobile device form-factor or screen orientation.
   
9. Better Notifications for Auto-Scheduled Software Capture Applications
   To ensure that Administrators are informed on the status of auto-scheduling events when using the Software Capture applications, the Devices tab within Admin Panel now has a new status called Not Ready, as well as new notifications.

   
   The Not Ready status indicates that the Software Capture application is not in a state to record. For example, there could be a firewall issue, device conflict or perhaps the computer is logged out. Further, if an error blocks the use of a particular source, an error message will show up above the affected source. Please note: The full capabilities of this feature will be realized with the upcoming versions of the PC and Apple Software Capture applications that are forthcoming next month.

10. Ability to Lock / Override Roles for Users within Specific Courses
    To support scenarios where a Student role (such as a “student helper” or “course note-taker”) needs Instructor-level permissions within a given course, we now provide a manual “override” of the role value supplied by the Learning Management System.
    
11. Video Quiz Audit Log Capabilities
    To ensure the integrity of the Video Quiz-taking process, Content Creators and Administrators now have an Audit Log capability. This provides granular information on creation, editing, quiz attempts and user submissions.
    
12. Improved Screen Reader Support for Media Player Sidebar
    This release improves the screen-reader accessibility support of the Media Player’s Sidebar. Specifically, we applied user-interface changes to ensure that screen-readers can fully narrate the options in a consistent and clear manner.

We 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.

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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.
   
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.

We 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 120+ new features and improvements.

1. Improved In-Depth User-Level Analytics Within an Integrated View
   We introduced an improved user-level analytics view that shows Platform accesses, total play length, and usage summary for each video. The content can also be downloaded as a spreadsheet within this view.
   
2. New Video Player Overlay Style Mirroring Popular Entertainment Video Streaming Platforms
   In addition to the Fixed Play Bar style, we are introducing a new Overlay Play Bar style that is activated on hover and displays the Play Bar controls against a translucent background. This mirrors popular video entertainment streaming platforms such as YouTube and Netflix that your users are familiar with.
   
3. Improved Fault Tolerance of Live Stream Player in Intermittent Bandwidth Scenarios
   The Live Stream Player and related infrastructure will now perform better in low-bandwidth and intermittent-bandwidth scenarios. This includes auto-recovery logic if the connection degrades and then subsequently recovers.
4. Storage Analytics View Loads Data Points More Quickly
   The Storage sub-panel within the Analytics’s Overview now loads 3x faster with an optimized algorithm for dataset retrieval.
   
5. Media Ingested by Watch Point Now Performs HLS Transcoding
   The same HLS transcoding capabilities performed for all other media ingestion workflows is now also available for media uploaded via Watch Point.
6. Multi-Level Captioning Workflows Now Integrated with Media Choosers
   In a previous release we introduced the ability to have multiple caption providers with different permission groups. This capability’s breadth has now been extended to the Media Chooser plugins.
   
7. Multi-Select Roster Deletion Clean-up Workflow
   We improved a previously cumbersome workflow of bulk deletion of users with a new capability to bulk-select users, as well as bulk transfer those user’s assets to an Administrator’s account.
   
8. Improved Organization of Accessibility Tab’s Status of External Captioning Table
   The external captioning table is now better organized chronologically with more clear column headers.
9. Improved 21st Century Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) Support with Enhanced Customization of Closed Captioning Bar
   We now provide Administrators with the ability to customize the visual aesthetics of the Caption Bar including color, font size, font opacity, and background opacity. As well, we provide viewers the ability to adjust this, based on their personal preferences, right inside the Media Player.
   
10. Ability to Add Closed Captioning Files to Videos Via Drag-and-Drop
    Within the Media Details panel, we now support the ability to ingest external caption files via drag-and-drop.
11. New In-Video Commenting Style
    To better accommodate smaller screen-sizes – such as when a video is embedded directly into an LMS Assignment – we refined the Create Comment dialog into a more modern and compact widget that sits alongside the appropriate location on the video timeline.
    
12. Beta Support for Video Conferencing on iOS and Android Devices
    Our beta Video Conferencing application now supports WebRTC-enabled mobile devices for both iOS and Android devices.
13. Additional API-Level Support including Rate Limiting, Branding, and Replace Video
    Customers using our APIs can request the new capability set which includes additional video management facilities, as well as security improvements such as rate limiting.
14. Delcom Button Color Customization
    Organizations using the Software Capture’s Delcom button integration can now customize which status colors should be used for each event.
15. Infrastructural Aspects of End-User Audit Tracking
    We also wanted to provide a preview of some infrastructural aspect that are going into production throughout the quarter. This will give administrators a Birdseye View of the activities going on within their Platform instance. The core infrastructure for customer-visible audit tracking is now in place and we are now in the process of instrumenting all applications and devices accordingly. Below is an early preview of the functionality for a Software Capture recording.
    

We have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in the United States. Please note that this release will be pushed to Canadian zones next week. This release includes over 125+ new features and improvements.

1. An Even Easier-to-Use and More Modern Media Experience
   We’ve introduced a more unified and easier-to-use media experience that encompasses better media library navigation elements, clearer primary and secondary action menus, as well as a host of design-forward innovations that appeal to today’s video consumer (hover effects, modern status notifications and more).
   
2. Media Channels Unified with the Central Media Library
   Media Channels now open directly within the Manage Media’s All Channels view. This provides a more cohesive experience and further simplifies how users navigate within the Platform. We also offer users the ability to toggle between optimized channel-style viewing and library-style editing experiences.
   
3. New Drag-and-Drop Enabled Left Navigation Element for Faster Folder Transversal and Media Organization
   We added a new Left Navigation Bar that provides the ability to quickly navigate sub-folders, move content via drag-and-drop, and publish content to channels via drag-and-drop. We also refined Administrator-level workflows when navigating large volumes of folders and Media Collections.
   
4. Integrated Video Analytics Directly within Video Details
   Content Owners will be able to view at-a-glance content analytics directly within the video’s Media Details popup. Users can also delve deeper into the video analytics by simply clicking the See More button.
   
5. Refined Recording Workflow with Improved Notifications
   When launching the Software Capture desktop application using the Create Recording button, the UI is clearer and more informative when the software capture is actively launching. The inline pop-up will now automatically disappear after a few moments…one fewer user click.
   
6. Improvements to HTML5 Video Conferencing to Scale to Higher Loads
   We added additional load monitoring and fault tolerance to the HTML5 Video Conferencing sub-system. This includes more robust video conferencing replay recording, resolution of a number of smaller issues that could cause a premature disconnection in rare situations and resolution of an issue which prevented users from inviting participants via email.
7. Improved Audio-Only File Streaming Compatibility with Safari Web Browsers
   We improved some aspects of the encoding used to stream MP3 files on Safari web browsers while maintaining optimized audio streaming playback on other browsers. Along the same lines, we expanded our compatibility when encoding rare and older types of MOV file formats.
8. 50+ Smaller Fixes and Improvements
   Additionally, we used this month-long update cycle to resolve over 50+ smaller issues and improvements which we will detail in the upcoming newsletter.

Next release, we’ll be introducing: 1) improved multi-source live stream synchronization for both hardware and software platforms; 2) the ability for individuals to have folder-level sharing via the Share action; 3) the ability to obtain a direct link to both channels and sub-folders within the Shared Folder hierarchy; 4) refinements to the video editing experience when performing granular trims and cuts.

We have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in the United States. Please note that this release will be pushed to Canadian zones next week. This release includes over 60+ new features and improvements.

1. Link Documents to Live Stream Events – Added both the ability to view documents side-by-side within the Live Stream Player, as well as implemented the ability to pre-insert documents into a scheduled live stream event (or dynamically while the event is in-progress).
   
2. Clear Video Analytics for Particular Videos – To better support a content owner’s ability to re-use content and derive clear insights, we now offer the option to clear analytics data on a per-video basis.
   
3. Upload Custom Thumbnails of Any Digital Asset – Extended our custom video thumbnailing support to include audio, YouTube, Vimeo, hyperlinks and documents. This enables content creators to provide thumbnails that better reflect the content of the underlying digital asset.
   
4. Branding Capabilities of the Platform’s Main Navigation Bar – Organization administrators can now customize the Platform even further with the ability to change the colors of the top-bar and button links.
   
5. New Moodle Roster Sync Plugin – For our customers that use the Moodle LMS, we have implemented a native LMS plugin that complements our IMS-certified LTI integration to provider course roster sync-ing. To learn more, view the help documentation.
6. Increased Maximum Sub-Channel Support to 20 – The Sub-Channel capability within the Media Channels has been increased from up-to-6 sub-channels to up-to-20 sub-channels.
7. Improvements to Video Ingestion of Rare Media Encodings – Added additional browser support for playback of HLS streams where the HLS chunk length is not aligned.
8. Performance Improvements for Organizations with 1,000+ Active Courses and Groups – Optimized the speed and performance of a number of search and input fields to better handle situations with hundreds or thousands of active courses.
9. Ported Over Text Overlay and Video Insertion Capability to Video Editor – Completed the feature migration from the legacy editor to the HTML5 editor. This release, we ported over the capability to insert text overlays and perform video insertions via the HTML5 video editor.
   
10. New HTML5 Video Conferencing Capabilities – Addition of a “Laser Pointer” tool to the whiteboard and improvements to acoustic echo cancellation.

Next release, we’ll be introducing the ability to: 1) upload organization-wide XML formatted device schedules; 2) customize the display-name shown for the role name; 3) add new video editor capabilities to blur regions for a specific time-period, use the full capture editing toolset on uploaded videos, remove a video stream and more.