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 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.

   

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

1. Improved Media Recoverability for Recordings with Simultaneous Live Streaming
   We’ve built upon the media recovery algorithms transitioned to the Cloud previously by extending PC Capture media recoverability capability in situations of abnormal or improper termination to include recordings that are also being live streamed.
2. Extended Delcom Button Support
   We extended the Delcom button support available on PC Captures to include improvements to the pause/resume status indicator. Further, we added a stop action initiated by pressing the button for 5 seconds.
3. General Fixes and Minor Improvements
   We also added about a dozen fixes to various resolution detection, boundary cases, and error handling. Highlights of the fixes are noted below:

   
   #162774776 – PC Capture – Improved detection of screen resolutions for some unusual resolution sizes such as 3000×2000. Previously the detection would be short a few pixels.
   #162917978 – PC Capture – Resolved rare issue where a Windows scaling factor (such as 125%) could fail to be detected properly and used during resolution size calculation.
   #163135066 – PC Capture – Resolved issue where the application could crash when selecting a Media Channel when authenticating via LDAP.
   #163099963 – PC Capture – Improved error handling where a selected Profile contains a device that is not available or changed name.
   #163373527 – PC Capture – Added lower bound threshold for minimal screen capture area when using the Capture Area capability. Previously an extremely small capture area could result in the recording to fail to process properly.
   

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. A corresponding release will take place in the Canadian and European zones next week.

1. Improved Media Recoverability for Recordings with Simultaneous Live Streaming
   We’ve built upon the media recovery algorithms transitioned to the Cloud previously by extending PC Capture media recoverability capability in situations of abnormal or improper termination to include recordings that are also being live streamed.
2. Extended Delcom Button Support
   We extended the Delcom button support available on PC Captures to include improvements to the pause/resume status indicator. Further, we added a stop action initiated by pressing the button for 5 seconds.
3. General Fixes and Minor Improvements
   We also added about a dozen fixes to various resolution detection, boundary cases, and error handling. Highlights of the fixes are noted below:

   
   #162774776 – PC Capture – Improved detection of screen resolutions for some unusual resolution sizes such as 3000×2000. Previously the detection would be short a few pixels.
   #162917978 – PC Capture – Resolved rare issue where a Windows scaling factor (such as 125%) could fail to be detected properly and used during resolution size calculation.
   #163135066 – PC Capture – Resolved issue where the application could crash when selecting a Media Channel when authenticating via LDAP.
   #163099963 – PC Capture – Improved error handling where a selected Profile contains a device that is not available or changed name.
   #163373527 – PC Capture – Added lower bound threshold for minimal screen capture area when using the Capture Area capability. Previously an extremely small capture area could result in the recording to fail to process properly.