Real-Time Alerts

We have successfully pushed an updated YuJa Software Station for PC to all physical zones residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union.

1. General Stability Fixes and Minor Improvements
   We also added about a dozen fixes to various stability improvements and edge cases. Highlights of the fixes are noted below:

   
   #162584536 – Apple Capture – Resolved edge-case in media recoverability where shutting down ungracefully could leave a permanently processing live stream and a completed one.
   #162665441 – Apple Capture – Resolved rare issue where a scheduled live stream could crash the application.
   #163203646 – Apple Capture – Resolved issue where a video stream could freeze and become offset of the other when the YuJa app icon is clicked on.
   #163099066 – Apple Capture – Resolved rare issue where the software capture application could crash when an error alert dialog was intended to indicate an abnormal issue.
   #163525685 – Apple Capture – Improved client-side media recoverability when an abnormal issue causes a media fragment.
   #163598316 – Apple Capture – Improved partial screen recording error handling by preventing the capture area from being too small to practically record. Previously this could result in a crash of the screen capture module.
   #163638006 – Apple Capture – Improved error logging in situations which result in a crash state.
   

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 60+ new features and improvements.

1. Media Chooser for Blackboard Extension Now Supports Video Quiz Insertion and Multi-Column Gradebook Integration
   Similar to the Canvas implementation introduced in the last release, we have rolled out Blackboard support for Video Quiz insertion within the Media Chooser. This includes deeper native LMS-specific integration for Video Quizzes that expand upon the more limited LTI-based Gradebook integration (which we still support). The result is that users can create video quizzes, insert them virtually anywhere in the LMS and better track the results with multi-column gradebook integration. We’ve implemented it for all LMS’s, however we are releasing it in stages. Now that Canvas and Blackboard have been released, D2L Brightspace and Moodle are next.
   
   Note: Depending on your Blackboard Building Block plugin version, you may need to request an update from your assigned Customer Success Manager.

   

2. Video Editor Supports Auto-Save to Prevent Accidental Loss Due to Refreshing the Page or Navigating Away
   As users are performing video edits, the Platform now tracks draft edits in situations of user or web-browser error such as accidentally navigating away from the editor. This feature stemmed from user feedback interviews which indicated that, though rare, losing an edit is a very frustrating and time-consuming experience. Now – we hope! – it should be a thing of the past.

3. Video Editor Now Offers Advanced Capabilities to Increase Audio Levels
   Content where, perhaps, the audio track is too soft can now be improved with advanced support for audio amplification and re-encoding. Users can choose to amplify audio by 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x and 4x for any recording or uploaded media.

   

4. Video Editor Supports Additional Video Insertion Options
   Content owners now have more flexible options to perform video insertions, video overrides, as well as bumper and trailer video insertions. This extends upon the, more limited, Current Time (Override) mode.

   

5. More Modern Chat Capabilities within Video Conferencing Application
   Mirroring the modern look-and-feel of our Live Stream chat capabilities, we’ve introduced a better chat that includes Platform avatars, a more responsive look-and-feel, as well as support for sending URLs.

   

6. Improved Ability to Customize Thumbnail Displayed for Audio Files
   Custom thumbnails for audio-only files are now used within the in-player experience while listening to the audio file. Previously, the thumbnail only showed up in the Media Library view.

   

7. Visual Analytics and Courses & Groups Sections Now Show Sub-Channel Relationships and Hierarchies Within Drop-Downs
   Drop-downs and filter fields within the Visual Analytics and Courses & Groups now provide a better visual indication of Sub-Channels contained within parent Media Channels.

   

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.

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 65+ new features and improvements including:

1. Media Channel Select All Capability for Easy “Course Copy” – Added a capability to perform a wholesale “Select All” channel copy from one channel to one-or-more channels. The primary use-case is to essentially roll forward a pre-existing channel to an upcoming semester’s channel.
   
2. Multi-Channel Publish Capabilities – Introduced the ability to multi-select channels to publish one-or-more media objects simultaneously to multiple channels. This capability, along with the new Media Channel “Course Copy”, enables the ability to create pre-defined channels that can be copied from semester-to-semester or to multiple sections simultaneously.
   
3. Ability to Add Pre-Defined Responses During Live Streams – Building on the existing capabilities of pre-defined commenting capabilities, we added the ability to insert comments from a pre-defined Comment Bank within a live stream session (previously it was just available for recorded media).
   
4. Migrated Insert Slide Capability to HTML5 Video Editor – The Insert Slide capability, which enables users to upload a PowerPoint slide to override a particular video stream, has been migrated to the HTML5 Video Editor.
   
5. Improve Keyboard Shortcuts to HTML5 Video Editor – Added eight keyboard hotkey (shortcuts) for video editing sequences. For more information on this, please review the related help documentation.
6. Improved Media Player Compatibility with Safari – To improve compatibility with Safari 11.1.2 and 11.0.3 versions, we now take advantage of the built-in HLS auto-streaming.
7. Added New Live Streaming Audience Engagement Capabilities – In addition to integrated live chat capabilities, we have now added the ability to send emojis (visual icons) as part of the integrated live stream chat. This capability mirrors the chat capabilities of popular social media platforms.
   
8. HTML5 Video Conferencing Supports Larger Files – Increased the maximum per-document file size to 50MB to support larger slide decks and documents.

We also resolved a number of issues. A few notable issues include:

• Resolved an issue where, in some cases, an embedded video’s Loading event could trigger a view count increment instead of the Play event.
• Improved Media Player rendering on small device screens including both portrait and landscape mode on iOS.
• Resolved issue on iOS devices which could result in the Media Player failing to playback an MP3 file.
• Improved error notification in instances where an invalid Adobe Presenter file is selected for ingestion.

In the next release, we’ll be rolling out new capabilities including migration of the Insert Video capability to the HTML5 Video Editor, improved Media Player Sidebar “pinning”, new admin report showing infrequently used content, and much more.

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 80+ new features and improvements including:

1. Improved Compliance with SCORM 1.2 Standard – Using video content as a SCORM object is now significantly easier with the ability to download a self-contained SCORM archive with pre-generated manifest. The SCORM object automatically updates a “video view completion” score based on the percentage of the video that was viewed. This can be directly integrated with SCORM-compliant LMS Gradebooks.
   
2. Dynamic UI Update Improvements – We improved our in-browser cache optimization to enable faster updates of on-screen UI element updates within narrow bandwidth and processing constraints. The end result will be snappier and more dynamic on-screen UI updates.
3. Full Role-Based Start Page Customization – Organizations can now customize the Start Page for each of the roles within the system. This is a pre-cursor to a unification we have planned between Media Channels and Media Library that will improve the viewing experience within the Media Library.
4. Additional Performance Improvements to Media Library for Large Entity Sets – We rolled out the second set of improvements to the front-end performance when loading ultra-large sets of User Collections and Folder objects.
5. Minor Accessibility Improvements to HTML5 Video Editor – In addition to some minor UI improvements, we improved the tooltip accessibility, resolved some issues related to captioning long videos, and resolved some “z-order” issues with certain front-end elements.
6. UI, Stability, and Functionality Improvements to HTML5 Video Conferencing – We implemented a more versatile front-end model that enables us to create better user experiences. We eliminates some sources of premature disconnections, improved whiteboard usability, added mute/suppress buttons for video and audio sources, and improved mic and webcam detection. In the next release we expect to add WebRTC-based screensharing (which didn’t make this release’s cut-off) and more!
   
7. Maintenance Fixes – We resolved a number of issues including:

• Media Extension Mac Download Issue – Resolved issue which prevented the Mac Software Capture from being downloaded from the Media Extension in certain cases.
• Browser Detection for Analytics Reporting Issue – Resolved an issue where the browser type was not properly being detected for the Analytics reporting.
• Embedded Live Stream Player Branding Issue – In a number of cases, the organization’s branding was not properly used within the embedded Live Stream Player.
• Downloading of Hub-Recorded Podcasts – Resolved an issue where, in some cases, captures recorded with the Hardware Hub could not be downloaded as a single-stream podcast.
• Channel View Auto-Update Issue – Resolved an issue where our in-browser caching resulted in a failure to dynamically update the page seamlessly, particularly within content published to a given Media Channel.

The next release we expect to add some new functionality and UI improvements to the Zoom Connector, the ability to lock specific user account roles (a heavily requested capability), ability to pre-schedule email-based delivery of analytics reports, new HTML Video Conferencing capabilities, admin-only Act as User capabilities, and more.

We have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in the Canada. For a summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding tag for United States zones.

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 70+ new features and improvements including:

1. Improved In-Video Commenting with Timeline Commenting and Pop-up Comment Bubbles – We improved in-video commenting by enabling the ability to comment directly on the video timeline, see comments on the timeline, and see “pop-up” comments as the video plays. As you’re using the new capabilities, we encourage you to provide feedback on ways you’d like to use this capability so that our Product Team can extend and expand it.
2. In-Video Quiz Suite Now Part of Media – We’ve extended the video quizzing to be integrated more deeply with the Video Platform as a whole. While this will change how users create and access quizzes, we are confident that the improvements will make it even easier to create video-based assessments. Here are some of the details:
   • Top-Bar Take-Quiz Workflow – Quizzes that are available for users to “take” are now linked directly within the top-bar of the Platform (look for a new “Bell” icon). This makes it easier for students to find available quizzes without having to “dig into” the Polls & Quizzes suite.
   • Quizzes Stored in My Account tab – Created text-based and video quizzes are now stored in your My Accounts under a sub-tab called My Assessments.
   • UI Refinements – We also tidied up some naming inconsistencies with the use of the term “poll”, resolved a Unicode oversight that prevented non-English languages from being used for quiz questions, as well as a few other smaller improvements.
   • Supports In-Video Commenting – In-video quizzes can be used in conjunction with in-video commenting.
3. New Tab Orientation for Media Details – To accommodate the new Comments tab within Media Details, our design folks switched the tabs to stack vertically. We will be further refining the user experience within the Media Details sub-tabs in upcoming releases.
4. HTML5 Video Conferencing (alpha) – Our plan to migrate capabilities from the Flash-based Video Classrooms tool to the HTML5-based Video Conferencing continues. In this release, we moved over record-and-replay capabilities. We’re getting there!

Looking ahead, in the next release we’ll be providing some feature updates to the HTML5 Video Editor, providing better self-service Bulk Downloading capabilities, new Live Streaming capabilities, and much more.

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 80+ new features and improvements including:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

We have successfully pushed an update to all physical zones residing in the Canada. For a summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding tag for United States zones.

We have successfully pushed 5 optimizations focused on improving the dynamic generation and loading of the new Overview tab for Visual Analytics. The result of this optimization is that on our customer’s production data workloads, there is a 5x improvement in load speed compared to the version we deployed on Friday.