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April 14, 2018
United States Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20180413 Released
General Platform HTML5 Player HTML5 Video Conferencing HTML5 Video Editor Live Streaming 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 zones next week. This release includes over 90+ new features and improvements including:
- Improved HTML5 Video Editor – Migrated the caption editing and index editing into the HTML5 video editor tool. We also implemented a synchronized scrubber bar with zoom capabilities. In this release, we also added the ability to edit captions inline underneath the video feeds to provide an easier caption editing experience.
- General Availability of External RTMP Ingestion – We now offer organizations the ability to use their existing tri-caster or RTMP-based streaming software to live stream at scale. This allows organizations to use their existing hardware and software encoders with our cloud-hosted live streaming infrastructure to create embedded live stream players for events and graduations. This capability was originally available to a limited set of zones, however it is now offered to all organizations.
- Aesthetic Improvements to Media Player – We improved some of the graphics and play-pause transition changes to the Media Player.
- HTML5 Video Conferencing (alpha) – We implemented and migrated the group chat capabilities, UI improvements, and smaller improvements to meeting recording capabilities. We expect to exit alpha in the next month-or-so with a limited set of functionality.
In the next release, we anticipate migrating over more of the Flash-based video editor’s capability to the newer HTML5 editor, improved Media Details panel, and more.
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March 17, 2018
United States Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20180316 Released
General Platform HTML5 Player Live Streaming Media Management United States Zones Update 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 zones next week. This release includes over 80+ new features and improvements including:
- General Availability of new Media Chooser for Canvas with Analytics Capabilities – We are now offering all customers with more powerful LMS media embedded with the Canvas Media Chooser to track analytics. To take advantage of this, please uninstall the old Canvas Media Chooser and follow the installation documents to install the new one with the revised Paste XML. If you have questions on how to install this, please email us at support@yuja.com.
- Emebeddable Live Stream Media Player – Administrators can now pre-schedule an embeddable HTML5-based HLS-compliant Live Stream Player. This expands the available use-cases to include guest speakers, events and graduation ceremonies. Through March and April we will be rolling out a number of exciting Live Streaming capabilities that will also move to General Availability.
- New Live Stream “Waiting Room” Experience – For pre-scheduled Live Stream events, if users try to enter a scheduled Live Stream ahead of time, they will now receive an waiting room UI with a countdown timer. Once the event starts, they will be automatically placed in the live stream.
- New Media Details Pop-up for Faster Media Organization – When users access the More… option within the Media Library for a particular media object, we now offer a fast-loading inline pop-up rather than having to click to navigate to a new page.
- Additional Player Branding Options – Administrators can now customize which options they would like to have within their Media Player’s secondary menu. We also did some further refinements to the Media Player playback experience.
- Minor Aesthenic Improvements for Processing Media – We improves some of the visuals for the ingestion process as well as improved the main menu button. This is part of a longer-term initiative to bring visual and user experience consistency to all suites.
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March 3, 2018
United States Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20180302 Released
Analytics General Platform HTML5 Player iOS App Live Streaming Media Management United States Zones Video Editor 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 zones next week. This release includes 150 new features and improvements including:
- Easier to Use Main View with Action Buttons for Common Workflows – The Platform user interface has been updated to include the most common tasks as Action Buttons in the top-bar. Users can access media channels, create captures, and manage & uploads media all from the main screen.
- Refined Media Player with Better Search Visualization and Small-Screen Capabilities – We’re introducing a new Media Player which offers even easier to navigate search-inside-video capabilities, improved embeddability in smaller windows, and better support for mobile devices and tablet screen sizes. We also added some new capabilities including topic highlighting in the auto-scrolling sidebar, better search-inside-video sidebar, and a simplified Play-Bar.
- Live, Multi-Source Room Preview Snapshots of Active Captures – The latest Software Capture applications for both PC and Apple, as well as the latest Hardware Hub firmware now supports multi-source preview within the Admin Panel’s Devices tab. Administrators can now keep tabs on active room recordings with periodically updating snapshots of actively recording rooms and lecture halls.
- New Quiz Question Types and Refined Quiz-Taking Interface – The Video Quiz suite now has new question types including Multi-Select, Short Answer and True-False options.
- Auto-Captioning Support Now Available in Six New Languages – As part of the more powerful Artificial Intelligence-based auto-captioning engine we integrated in the last release, we are now introducing the ability to auto-caption in additional languages including French, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
- Improved Support for Legacy Browsers – Our focus was improving support for the deprecated since IE Edge – but still used – Internet Explorer browser.
- Improved Media Library Performance – We optimized a number of heavily used search and general sub-routines to make them much faster. Our performance tests in various physical zones showed improvements in overall Media Library load time and snappier navigation.
- Additional Infrastructural Work for HTML5 Video Conferencing – While still in an alpha state, we have continued to bolster the infrastructure, as well as, migrate over functionality from our Flash-based Video Classroom. We expect this suite to enter Beta in the March / early-April timeframe.
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December 23, 2017
Semi-Monthly Scheduled Release Successfully Deployed
Added Analytics General Platform HTML5 Player Improved Live Streaming Media Management Video EditorWe have successfully pushed an update to all zones. This release includes:
- Updated Content Analytics – The new Contents tab replaces the previous Insights tab with a host of new video analytics data including session-level data, user-level data, viewer technology (browser, device), segment viewership, session dates, and raw download capabilities. As new views trigger, you’ll see this new data be collected and aggregated. We also resolved a few bugs with the content analytics at the same time.
- Additional Admin Overview Panel Data – A newly introduced Views Summary Card provides an at-a-glance indicator of the number of video views in the last 30 days in your zone. We also refined the styling of the panel itself to gear up for new data from other sub-systems. Our next release (scheduled for mid-January 2018) will add some additional Summary Cards for active & upcoming Live Streams and Video Classroom usage.
- Refinements to Media Library Action Menu UI – The Action menu now appears as a hover event with the most frequently accessed items displayed as top-level menu items. Previously a Gear icon had to be clicked on to access this Action menu.
- Early Preview of HTML5 Video Editing – We’ve added a very early user preview of our upcoming HTML5 Video Editor. We caution that this should not be used for significant production workflows, however with the foundational (backend) work laid, we wanted users to be able to get a feel for what this new workflow will eventually look like. Keep in mind that the UI is not finalized and the functionality is very limited. Much more will be rolling out in a series of off-cycle and on-cycle Editor-only updates through 2017 and Q1 of 2018.
- New Group Management APIs – We added some new Courses and Group administration APIs to improve course management for those organizations connecting the Platform directly to an Student Information System (SIS) data feed.
- Improvement to Live Streaming – Improved user notification of live stream pause event and end-of-stream event. Also refined player branding, and browser-level compatibility improvements (mostly with legacy Microsoft IE and some versions of Microsoft Edge).
Additionally, we will be releasing an update to the Software Capture for Apple in the next 1-2 week that mirrors the popular look-and-feel of the PC Capture application’s confidence monitor UI, introduces the slider-style source toggling, and eliminates the requirement to create an initial profile to commence a capture. Through Q1 of 2018, the Apple Capture application will continue to introduce a number of features found on the PC Capture in a series of successive updates.
A total of 62 features, improvements, and fixes were released within this update. If you have questions on anything with this release, please do not hesitate to email support@yuja.com.
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December 9, 2017
Semi-Monthly Scheduled Release Successfully Deployed
Added Fixed General Platform HTML5 Player Improved Live Streaming Media ManagementWe have successfully pushed an update to all zones. This release includes:
- Workflow Update to the Capture & Live Stream – This workflow simplifies how to initiate a capture and live-stream, including reducing the number of clicks required.
- New Admin Panel Overview tab – This tab provides Administrators with a cursory overview of the activity that’s happening within their enterprise’s zone. We are in the process of updating all the Platform’s sub-systems to send all their normal and abnormal alerts (e.g. low audio signals, auto-schedule failures, etc.) to this centralized console over the coming releases. The overall product vision for this Admin Panel -> Overview tab is alerts filtering in real-time from various sub-systems and remote device nodes (capture devices) that are placed in your physical environment.
- Refined Media Player Controls – We made some tweaks to the Scrubber Bar positioning that makes it easier for users to utilize the player controls, as well as, better uses the on-screen space. This update also paves the way to an upcoming feature for customizing the player controls (“player skins”).
- Hub Preview Confidence Migrated to HTML5 – Admins will notice that we shifted the Device Preview control from an embedded Flash applet to an HTML5 one.
- Refinements to the Metadata Schema Workflow – Recognizing that metadata data-entry can be cumbersome for users, we have added some explanatory animation and alerts in situations where Required Fields need to be filled out. Some additional metadata schema improvements and bug fixes are also part of this.
- Gradual Transition to Self-Service RESTFul API Use – We will be transitioning use of our RESTFul APIs from an On-Prior Approval Model to a Self-Service Model in Q1 of 2018. As part of this, the API Key generation is now available within the Admin Panel.
- Alert Toasts Now Match Look-and-Feel of Platform – You’ll notice that the Toast Messages that appear now match the Platform’s look-and-feel better.
- Refined Main Menu Panel – To improve the overall usability of the Platform, we added additional short explanations for each of the Main Menu tiles.
- Media Pipeline Improvement to Handle Resolution Fragments Better – In instances where a screen resolution change occurs during an active Software Capture, our media pipeline now performs a post-capture re-stitch of the various resolution fragments to create a cohesive media object. The pipeline also will perform media processing retries of captures that have not uploaded within a week to the YuJa Cloud. The pipeline will also now send a warning alert email to users whose media has not uploaded within a week.
Additionally, we will be releasing an update to the Software Capture for PC next week and making available an optional Hardware Hub Firmware the following week. We will provide more details on each of these updates when we make available these off-cycle releases.
A total of 168 features, improvements, and fixes were released within this update. If you have questions on anything with this release, please do not hesitate to email support@yuja.com.
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November 5, 2017
New Infrastructure for HTML5 Live Player & HLS Live Streaming with DVR-Style Live Pausing
Live StreamingAs part of our 2017 and 2018 initiatives for deeper synchronous and asynchronous video capabilities, we have completed our work on adding new infrastructure alongside our RTMP-based Live Streaming (with our Flash-based Live Stream Player) to include HLS Live Streaming with a new HTML5 Live Player. This HTML5 Live Player works with the newer HLS infrastructure and adds a new ability to pause and resume Live Streams, as well as single-click Jump-to-Live.
Our Operations Team will continue to operate both sets of infrastructure while institutions migrate to the new capabilities. To ensure a smooth transition as we increase capacity, we’ve turned off tablet and mobile live streaming through November however this will be enabled in December. This release is part of a larger initiative around Live Streaming workflows that we’re excited to offer our partner institutions.
To take advantage of this new infrastructure, please update your Software Station applications. Appliances do not need a firmware update.