Product Updates

We have successfully published Version 1.0 of the YuJa Video Conference for Android application to the Google Play Store. This application provides the ability to attend video conferences on Android phones and tablet devices. We are planning a similar mobile application for iOS platforms in Q2 of 2021. Click here to learn more about the new Android application.

1. Audio, Video, Screen Sharing, and Chat Capabilities

   Attend a video conference session with the ability to participate over video, audio, screen, and chat.

   

2. New Meeting Code Capability to Quickly Join a Meeting

   The web-based Video Conference application within the Meeting Info screen now provides a 7-digit Meeting Code which can be used to join a video conference within the Android application.

   

3. Screen View Supports Both Portrait and Landscape Views
   

   The Screen view is compatible with both portrait and landscape views.

   

4. Users Tab Provides Current Attendee List

   The User tab provides a listing of attendees and their current sources available. In future releases, additional participant management capabilities will be integrated into this view.

   

5. Real-Time Chat Capabilities
   

   Participate in a real-time chat session while inside a video conference session.

   

A new Hub firmware is available for both the RCS-430 and RCS-550 models focused on improving the handling of specific scenarios and edge-cases. To request your Hubs to be updated, please provide a list of Hub UDIDs to your designated Customer Success Manager.

1. Improved Source Recovery Logic During Disconnections

   The Hub-side and video processing-side has been improved to better handle situations where the audio or video source disconnects intermittently during the recording.

2. Improved Internet Disconnection Recovery Logic

   Improved live stream resumption in situations where the Hub’s Internet becomes unstable or disconnects temporarily.

3. Added Firmware Version Summary within Source Details Tab

   To help organizations track the versions of the specific components of their Hub’s firmware.

   

4. Improved LCD Screen Status Indicators
   

   Improved the status indicators that are displayed for the Hub’s recording statuses.

5. In addition to the above improvements, a number of fixes for specific scenarios were also improved including:
   • Resolved issue where, in some situations, RS 232 commands did not transmit correctly to the RCS-550 Hub.
   • Improved source synchronization when a pause and resume operation occur via RS-232 commands.
   • Resolved issue where if inline audio is unplugged during the recording, the audio wouldn’t record after being plugged in back.
   • Resolved issue that prevented capture at the 1920 x 1200 aspect ratio
   • Resolve issue that could result in a slow memory usage and generate excessive logs
   • Improved stability and quality of HDMI Embedded Audio recording

We have successfully pushed an update to all Video Conference instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union. This release was primarily focused on 25+ internal scalability improvements, performance of key functionality, as well as fixes and product improvements.

1. Dynamic Recording Pause and Resume

   Ability to Pause and Resume recordings dynamically during a given video conference event. Previously, it was an all-or-nothing recording capability, however now these operations can be performed as needed, as a way to skip the recording of specific sections of the video conference.

   

2. Unified Video Conference Entry Screen

   A single entry screen to enter your name, select webcam, and test mic sources makes getting into a meeting easier and faster.

   

3. Infrastructure Improvements

   Improved load detection on the server-side as a precursor to more dynamic server assignment of video conference sessions.

We have successfully pushed an update to all Panorama instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union.

1. Updated Course Accessibility Report with Clearer Indications and Action Items

   The Course Accessibility report has been redesigned to provide clearer visual indicators, summary information, and more organized tables for detailed information.

   

2. Updates to Microsoft Office’s Word and PowerPoint Accessibility Engines

   Based on feedback provided by our partner institutions – submitted through the integrated Feedback tool or through our support channels – we have updated the Accessibility Engines for Word (docx, doc) and PowerPoint (pptx, ppt) documents to provide improved preview accuracy.

3. Improved Accessibility Score Calculations for Word Documents

   The heuristic used to provide Accessibility Scores for Microsoft Word documents has been improved to provide a better single-score assessment.

4. Updated LTI Role Mapping

   Updated the default LTI role mapping to be more representative of the permissions provided by each LMS’s base roles.

5. Updated Contents Tab with Clearer Indicators of Accessibility Scores and Additional Filtering Options

   The Contents Tab now provides clearer indicators of Accessibility Scores. Additional course and file filtering options were also implemented.

   

6. Improved Navigation Structure Aligned with Other Products in the YuJa Portfolio

   The navigation structure of the YuJa Panorama for Digital Accessibility product has been refined and aligned with other products in our portfolio for a more consistent user experience, better use of vertical space, and product branding.

   

7. Added Accessibility Status Information to the Institution Report

   Added a new courses tab inside the institution report, which allows administrators to easily view the accessibility status of their courses.

   

8. Refined Settings and Configurations View

   The Visualization configuration and Course Settings have also been updated to provide the ability to configure Panorama options within a single, integrated panel.

   

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 Panorama instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union.

1. Updated Institution Reporting User Interface

   The Institution-level report has been updated to provider clearer scorecards, trends indicators, and summaries. Over the upcoming releases, each report and screen will experience a similar update.

   

2. Improved Accessibility Checker for Issues That Span Paragraphs
   Improved the accessibility reporting for Microsoft Word documents with improved support for issues that span across the full paragraph.
   
3. Other Improvements
   • Accessible formats button now always fetches the latest, most up-to-date alternative formats instead of the latest versions available during the initial page load. Replacing a document now refreshes the page, to display the updated document.
   • Accessibility reports no longer show preview documents without the associated red lines (when applicable).
   • Improved compatibility of Microsoft Word contrast checking.
   • Improved the method of calculating accessibility scores for newly uploaded documents, including fixing the tendency for large and problematic documents to have an unusually high score.

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. Video Editor Now Supports Insertion of “Virtual Backgrounds”
   Users can record with any tool within our Capture Portfolio (Hardware, Software, In-Browser or Mobile), a third-party capture tool, or simply upload content and then use the Video Editor to apply a “Virtual Background”. The Video Editor also supports adding different background images to each stream. We will continue to enhance this new capability in two keys ways:
   
   • Refine the Artificial Intelligence models used to generate the “Virtual Backgrounds”.
   • Continue to scale out the deployment of a newly introduced GPU-Accelerated Processing sub-system (a cluster of more advanced processing infrastructure).

   Click here to learn more about this capability.

   

2. Dedicated GPU-Enabled Adaptive Bitrate Live Streaming Now Available for PC and Apple Capture Applications
   The Live Stream sub-system has been extended to support adaptive bitrate streaming for live streams originating from both the PC and Apple Capture applications. This same capability was recently introduced for live streams originating from our Hardware Capture appliances.
   
   
3. New WebEx Enterprise Connector for Video Conference Content Ingestion
   Similar in function to our Zoom Enterprise Connector, the new WebEx Enterprise Connector enables ingestion of video conference recordings from WebEx video conferences. Based on user feedback, this feature will continue to be customized to support deeper system interconnectivity. Click here to learn more about this capability.
   
   
4. Additional Zoom Connector Integration Options for User Synchronization, Related Metadata Ingestion and More
   The Zoom-to-YuJa integrations has been extended to support new user enrollment options including Manual Enrollment, Self-Enrollment, Bulk Enrollment, and Automatic Enrollment. Further, we added additional features including:
   
   
   • Importing the Zoom-generated auto-captioning for use within the Video Platform
   • Improved support for multi-fragmented Zoom recordings when a recording is stopped and resumed within a single meeting
   • Ingestion of meeting poll and chat information

   Keep in mind that you will need to refresh your Zoom Marketplace application to take advantage of these new capabilities. Click here to learn more about this capability.

   

5. Improved Social Media Connectors for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube
   The Social Media Enterprise Connectors that provide the facility to cross-syndicate video content to social media platforms have been updated to use each platform’s latest APIs. Click here to learn more about this capability.
   
   
6. Video Player Optimizations and Caching Improvements
   The Video Player is now smaller in size, offers faster load times, aligns better with existing caching infrastructure, as well as utilizes the Content Delivery Network for the Video Player’s “front-end script” assets.
   
   
7. Lightweight Button Style to Better Align Video Platform UI with LMS UI
   A new lighter-weight button style enables more natural brand alignment with the Organization’s LMS.
   
   
8. Granular Capabilities to Configure Course Name Provisioning
   Organizations can now design their own course name provisioning template based on the standard LMS fields of Label, Term and Title. This enables Organizations to fully align Video Platform course names with their existing LMS course provisioning structure. Click here to learn more about this capability.
   
   
9. Improved Support for East Asian Language Character Sets in Search-Filter and Drop-Down Menus
   Based on a review of incompatible UI elements, the filtering capabilities were improved to better support East Asian language character sets.
   
   
10. New Gradient Top Bar Style Branding Option
    A new gradient Top Bar styling provides added customization and styling options. All existing Top Bar color options are retained.
    
    
11. Improved Live Streaming Performance in Low Bandwidth Scenarios
    The Live Streaming capabilities have been bolstering to better support live streaming in lower bandwidth scenarios including where the Internet quality fluctuates or experiences longer latencies.
    
12. Media Library Thumbnail Now Shows Recording Status for Live Streamed Sessions
    Now the Media Library overlay shows the current recording, uploading, and processing states for live stream sessions just as it already does for non-live recordings.
    
    
13. Offline Download Availability Can Now Be Limited to In-App Downloads Only
    Content Owners can now limit offline downloading of content to only YuJa’s native iOS and Android mobile apps. This balances the viewer’s desire for flexible viewing options with the Content Owner’s concern with maintaining secure digital rights management.
    
    
14. Institution-Wide Auto-Publish Delay Now Provides Time-Based Granularity
    Organizations using the delayed auto-publishing capability for auto-scheduled sessions can now specify a specific time at which the recording is made available to the published Media Channel. Click here to learn more about this capability.
    
    

We have successfully pushed an update to all Panorama instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union.

1. Reports and Configuration Now Available Within New LTI-based Application

   Unified and updated the Panorama reporting into a consolidated LTI-based application. Now all reports can be accessed within a unified LTI application. Please contact your Customer Success Manager for updated installation steps.

   

2. New Blackboard Plugin for Easier Installation
   The Blackboard installation steps just got easier with the release of a YuJa Panorama Visualization Plugin for Blackboard. This capability also adds an additional layer of security and integrity checks. Please contact your Customer Success Manager for updated installation steps.
   
3. New Configuration Panel within LTI-based Application
   Added ability to view the latest Visualization version, with the corresponding integrity hash on the Configuration panel.
   

We have successfully pushed an update to all Video Conference instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union. This release was primarily focused on 50+ internal scalability improvements, performance of key functionality, as well as fixes and product improvements.

1. Increased Maximum Video Boxes to 12

   The total number of simultaneous individuals on video has been increased to 12 alongside up to 200+ attendees. We will continue to increase this capability within the Video Conference Platform over the coming months.

   

2. Who’s Talking Indicator
   

   Any persons with active and consistent audio signals will now have a green outline shown within their video box.

   

3. Unified Video Conferencing Entry Screen

   As part of a process to turn the two-step entry-screen to a one-step one, we simplified the screen UI with options to join a video conference directly on the entry screen. Relevant media source toggling, preview, and phone dial-in are available within the unified panel.

   

4. Mute While Taking Warning

   When a participant is talking while muted, an on-screen message will now appear letting them know that they are muted.

   

5. Improved Participant Labeling. No-Video View, and Landscape Video Boxes

   We now offer a more space efficient and participant labeling along with a wider-aspect ratio for participant video boxes.

   

We have successfully pushed an update to all Panorama instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union.

1. Faster File Scanning with Smart Prioritization

   In addition to the automatic background processing of newly added LMS content, Panorama now prioritizes newly added files to pages that LMS users have visited recently.

2. Per-Course Activation of Panorama within Moodle

   The YuJa Panorama for Moodle Plugin has been updated to support enabling Panorama on a per-course basis. To take advantage of this new capability, please request the latest Moodle plugin.

3. New LTI-based Canvas Application for Enabling Courses Selectively
   Canvas deployments can now take advantage of a new LTI application which provides Administrators the ability to enable and disable courses, as well as update how Panorama is configured with your LMS.
   
   
   
4. Support for Term-Level Reporting
   Instructors can select all terms, one term, or many terms to be included in both Course-level and Institution-level reports.