United States Zone – Semi-Monthly RC20190714 Released
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 180+ new features and improvements.
- Improved Media Channels Interface with Drag-and-Drop Channel Reordering
The release introduces a more compact, flexible and configurable Media Channels view. This includes a more compact video thumbnail, improved visibility of tabbed Sub-Channels, and most importantly, the ability to re-order published content with convenient drag-and-drop facility.
- Improved Media Thumbnails within Media Library View and Loading Performance
The new, more compact Media Thumbnail has also been incorporated into My Media and EnterpriseTube. New content will also more clearly show key attributes, including duration, using a gradient overlay which uses the available space better. We also made the entire experience load faster.
- Video Quizzes Now Offers “Skip for Now” and “Disable Fast Forwarding” Options
Over the coming months, the Product Team will be introducing over 50+ new interactive video and text quiz capabilities. This release, the Platform now offers two new quiz capabilities to disable fast-forwarding during video quiz attempts, as well as the ability to provide the answer immediately following a question submission.
- Improved Optical Character Recognition Algorithm Deployed
As part of a longer-term project to improve the searchability and quality of auto-generated metadata, the Platform now has an improved Optical Character Recognition (OCR) algorithm. New content will automatically take advantage of the improved OCR algorithm that, among other things, will read the text off recorded slides better. - Improved Auto-Generation of Table of Contents Based on Screen Transition Algorithm
As part of the same longer-term project to improve the searchability of auto-generated metadata, the Platform now has an an improved algorithm for pre-generating the Table of Contents shown within the Media Player. This algorithm leverages screen transition data to better detect truly distinct presentation segments and, in turn, generates a more relevant Table of Contents section. - Improved Iconography for Admin Panel, Analytics and My Account
The Platform now incorporates clearer and more understandable iconography for the Left Navigation Bar within the Admin Panel, Visual Analytics and My Account.
- New SIS, LMS and SSO Auto-Merge Module
Organizations now have new integration options with the ability to integrate the Platform directly into a Student Information System (SIS) while using both a Learning Management System (LMS) and Single Sign On (SSO) system. Both courses and users will be cross-matched among the systems for a consistent and unified media experience.
- New Podcast Syndication Capabilities
For organizations looking to cross-syndicate channels to other forms of distribution, Media Channel owners can now generate an RSS Feed that can be enabled on a per-channel basis. This can be “consumed” by RSS syndication tools such as Apple iTunes.
- Auto-Resizing Media Details Dialog that Fits Better within an LMS and Smaller Screens
The Media Details pane has been improved to dynamically adjust to the available size in two ways. First, the window vertical scroll adjusts to keep the Save buttons visible. Second, the horizontal space is used more efficiently with the left icon labels tucking away when there is not an ideal viewing size.
- Improved Resolution of Default Thumbnail
For new video content, the Platform now generates and associates a higher resolution thumbnail. Previously, the thumbnail generated could appear slightly grainy when viewed within a mid-sized browser window. Please note that this is not retroactive on existing media. - More Flexible External Sharing with the Share Dialog
The Share dialog now supports the ability to input an email address to send a recipient a direct link to a video. Email recipients will get an email and if they have an associated YuJa account, they can also access it within the Shared with Me section of their account.
- Folders and Channels Can Now Be Sorted by Last Viewed
Now that the Platform offers the ability to adjust the order of your content, the Product Team has also released a Sort By Last Viewed option to all production zones.
- Improved the Video Editor’s Launch Behavior
Since the Video Editor opens in a new browser tab, the Platform now provides an on-screen notification that it is being launched.
- Improvements to Media Player Layout and Multi-Source Sync Performance at Faster Speeds
The Media Player now has an improved capability to play multi-source content, in synchronicity, at faster speeds. Previously, we saw edge cases where, in certain browsers, at higher speeds (1.75x or faster), that the sources could become slightly out-of-sync. - Improved Network Quality Detection and Notification of HLS Bitrate
The Media Player now has an integrated notification of the current bitrate being streamed, as well as more reliable adherence to automatic or manual adjustments to the bitrate.
- Video Conferencing Have Ability to Change A/V Sources
The beta HTML5-based Video Conferencing product now has the ability to switch webcam and mic sources while in a video conference meeting.
- EnterpriseTube Tools Can Be Turned On-and-Off
Organizations now can selectively enable the EnterpriseTube Library and Events tab. The Product Team also moved the EnterpriseTube administrative tools into the Admin Panel Platform tab for a more consistent experience.
- Coming Soon – New “Visual Search” to Replace Existing “Intuitive Search” Capability
You may have noticed an emphasis on improved metadata generation in this release. This is part of a new Visual Search capability that the Product Team is launching soon. This will eventually replace the current search capabilities (called “Intuitive Search”). This new Visual Search will enable users to:- Perform a deep search across all their media content and see playable push-pins where there are matches in the captions, optical character recognition, index and more.
- Click Play All Matches to dynamically generate a unified playlist clip that shows all the matches. This enables a user to quickly find topics of interest and watch just those topic excerpts.
Over the coming weeks, we will be launching some new media processing “horsepower” that will re-process in the background the petabytes-on-petabytes of existing media data. The end result is that all your content will be able to take advantage of this new capability.
