Product Updates

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

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. Video Editor Supports Telestrations Diagraming Overlays
   Inspired by Sunday football, we incorporated freehand telestrations capabilities into the video editor. This features multi-color pen selection with the ability to annotate freehand on top of a video source. As we observe how users take advantage of this capability, we’ll continue to incorporate further capabilities.
   
2. Media Chooser for Moodle Extension Now Supports Video Quiz Insertion and Multi-Column Gradebook Integration
   Similar to the Canvas, Blackboard and D2L Brightspace implementations introduced in the last few releases, we have rolled out Moodle 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.
   
3. Video Quiz Insertion Improvements
   To ensure a video quiz can be used for multiple assessments simultaneously or sequentially – and at the same time export as multi-column gradebook for each course – we enhanced our native API integration for each of LMS. We also incorporated about a dozen smaller fixes and improvements including an improved overlay mode layout when viewing four-or-more response options.
4. Improved 4k and 2k Video Support Processing Support
   As more organizations generate ultra resolution quality, we have added improved capabilities to manually adjust between various resolution types. Further, our transcoding and transmuxing sub-system will now more quickly process 2k and 4k content.
   
5. Video Conferencing Improvements in Intermittent Bandwidth Scenarios
   We released and improved fault tolerance in intermittent bandwidth scenarios, as well as recovery mechanisms. We’re aiming to release Android (tablet and phone) browser support for video conferencing in the next major update.
6. Video Quiz Overlay Style Now the Default for Tighter LMS Locations
   We now show the overlay style by default within the LMS, as well as incorporated a View External button. This button enables quiz-taker to view the video quiz in an external browser with the video and questions shown in a side-by-side layout. This serves the ability to show video quizzes in more confined spaces, while still providing the end-user with a variety of viewing options.
   

We have released a new version of our YuJa Mobile iOS application for phones and tablets that is compatible with zones in all geographies. This new application version features:

1. New Manage Uploads – This new tab enables users to view the real-time upload status of both captures and uploaded media as they are transferred to their cloud-managed YuJa account.
   

2. Improved Recording Robustness – Now screen locks or situations where the application becomes inactive does not impede an active recording. Further, recordings are also stored into your Photos section as an added safety measure.
   

3. New Color Scheme – The previous green color scheme has been refreshed with a more modern blue scheme which is also consistent with our web-based Platform.
   

4. Minor Fixes and Improvements – In addition, we improved compatibility across iOS versions, as well as resolved about a dozen or so smaller issues.
   

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

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 20+ improvements.

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

   
   #163670023 – Visual Analytics – Set of small consistency fixes across the Content tab focused on correcting data aggregation issues, consistency between tabs, and calculation method for a number of fields. Adjustments made in this ticket will affect calculations going forward.
   #163768811 – Visual Analytics – Improved performance of Contents tab where creation visualizations necessitated calculating large volumes of playback position data.
   #164117963 – Mobile Apps – Improved channel load performance in situations where channels have a large number of videos published to it.
   #164188942 – Admin Panel – Significant performance improvements to Accessibility Dashboard where loading large volumes of internal and external caption requests. Also made the individual caption request lists to be fetched asynchronously.
   #164342266 – Infrastructure – Improved, cloud-hosted media recoverability algorithm to cover some recovery scenarios not previously addressed.
   #161461360 – Video Editor – Made zoom-level warning message less obtrusive.
   #164224624 – Video Editor – Resolved issue where the Play button needed to be pressed twice when commencing a video quiz.
   

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

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 80+ new features and improvements.

1. Media Chooser for D2L Brightspace Extension Now Supports Video Quiz Insertion and Multi-Column Gradebook Integration
   Similar to the Canvas and Blackboard implementations introduced in the last few releases, we have rolled out D2L Brightspace 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, Blackboard, and D2L Brightspace are released, Moodle is next.
   

   

2. Improved Viewability of Embedded Quizzes
   Our new LMS-specific quiz integration released this past quarter with multi-column gradebook integration has created new use-cases around embedding quizzes. To improve the viewability in “tight spaces”, we’ve created a special overlay mode in instances where the side-by-side layout isn’t possible. Note: To take advantage of this new style, the quiz will need to be re-embedded within the LMS.

   

3. Improved Performance of Visual Analytics’ Bandwidth Summary and Top Videos
   Improved the query performance for loading the Top Video and Bandwidth Summary analytics data.

4. New Fast “Initial Thumbnailing” Algorithm Implemented
   We’ve improved the algorithm used to generate thumbnails to generate it very quickly after the video file has uploaded to the Platform. This is part of a new smarter heuristic project we are working on during the month of March to improve job queueing behavior and sub-task execution.

   

5. Multi-Caption Account Support for Organizations
   To provide support for organizations using multiple caption accounts – across various departments and hierarchies – organizations can setup integrations with multiple, simultaneous caption vendors and/or accounts.

   

6. New In-Progress Recording Indicators within Media Library
   As a precursor to end user-facing audit logging project for non-admin users (also a project this quarter), we are introducing a Processing icon indicator that appears for in-progress (and un-uploaded) captures. Once our end user-facing audit trails are finished, a user will be able to accurately and fully trace the current status of any uploaded or recorded media item. These capabilities will be released in phases through the month of March and April.

   

7. Video Editor Now Has Ability to Set the Primary Stream
   For multi-stream recordings, Content Owners can now select which source is the primary source (the one that initially appears as the larger source).

   

8. Audio-Only Files Now Generate Audio Waveforms
   The Video Editor has extended support for the audio waveforms to include audio-only media.

   

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

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.