Product Updates

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union. This release focuses on implementing the ability to add a virtual background, enhancing sharing capabilities and providing Meeting Owners with the option to manage the Waiting Room.

1. Ability to Use Virtual Backgrounds during Video Conference Sessions Virtual Backgrounds can be used to create a sense organization when participating in a Video Conference. With real time technology, Meeting Owners and all participants can utilize Visual Effects, choosing between various virtual backgrounds to utilize. In future releases, we look to optimize the Visual Effects so they can efficiently run on all hardware setups. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
2. Improved Waiting Room Experience Previously, the Waiting Room was only active until the moment the Meeting Owner joined a meeting. In an effort to make the Waiting Room more dynamic and provide Meeting Owners with the power to manage the Waiting Room. They now have the option to let in users on an individual basis or all at once. They also have the ability to delegate this responsibility to an admitted user.
3. Enhanced Compatibility with Microsoft Edge Continuing our efforts to deliver a seamless user experience in all browsers, Microsoft Edge users will now be able to utilize screen sharing capabilities.
4. New “Dark Mode” Notification Theme Available Notifications are now easier to view with dark and light themes on contrasting panels.
5. Enhanced Document and Whiteboard Sharing and Downloading Experience To optimize the document and Whiteboard sharing experience, all uploaded documents and Whiteboard creations are no longer infinitely scrollable, making it easier to track where users are currently viewing. The document and Whiteboard download experience has been enhanced to seamlessly allow users the ability download the document and Whiteboard to their device.
6. Improved Video Conference Stability In an effort to significantly improve user experience, we have adjusted our front-end support for document uploads. For future releases, we intend to increase file sharing size while continuing to provide stability on our video conference platform.
7. New “Line” Tool Available in Whiteboard Adding to the tools available in the Whiteboard, Meeting Owners and Presenters will be able to utilize the Line Tool to facilitate discussions. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
8. Mobile Compatibility Release Updated versions of the Video Conference app for iOS and Android are now available.

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States, Canada and the European Union. This release focuses on adding additional participants on video, improving connection stability and improving speaker detection.

1. Expansion of Gallery View to Allow 25 Users with the use of Pagination Continuing our efforts to facilitate large user Video Conference sessions, the Gallery View has been updated to show up to 25 users to a page. Working in conjunction with our enhanced speaker detection.
2. Improved Speaker Detection A new speaker logic was implemented to more accurately recognize the direct speaker, as opposed to catching background noise, bringing the speaker to the main view. In addition, this improvement will lower CPU usage, allowing your device to perform at a more optimal level.
3. Updated UI to Mirror Performance Optimization and Enhanced Speaker Detection Logic Adding the use of pagination to make better use of the space and colored indicators to indicate who is speaking.
4. Support Video Conference Access via Microsoft Edge We are pleased to announce our compatibility with Microsoft Edge. In addition to Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari, users will now be able to launch and access Video Conference sessions with Microsoft Edge.
5. Enhance Responsiveness of Media Sources To improve the user experience, the audio and video source can be toggled on/off in a seamless manner, allowing users to quickly and easily participate in the discussion.
6. Improve Stability of Video Conference Sessions Through a bundle of changes, including the use of a dedicated server and a centralized connection state store, users will now experience fewer connection-related issues and faster response times when utilizing source selection toggles.

We have successfully pushed our monthly update to all instances residing in Canada and European Union. This release includes a myriad of 150+ new features and smaller improvements including an enhanced Visual Search experience, new Video and Image Cognition analysis, ASR-based language translation, new 360 image capabilities, more digital asset management tools, and much more! This will be released to the United States zones next Friday.
Additionally, we are actively working on an enhanced Deployment and Versioning Architecture (code-named Quicksilver) to provide rolling updates, zero scheduled down-time (even during monthly updates!), and selective updates that can span successive versions. While we are proud that our customers were not adversely impacted by any unscheduled down-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, our Architecture Team continues to push the envelope for our partner institutions.

1. New Interactive Transcript that Allows Viewers to Follow Along The Media Player has been updated to offer an additional video playback experience. Viewers are able to view the transcript and follow along closely as the transcript highlights the section while the video progresses.
   Viewers can also interact with the transcript in real-time by selecting a point within the transcript to jump to that part in the video. Additional accessibility options to zoom-in to the text transcript and download the content are also integrated into the Interactive Transcript experience. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
2. New Image Cognition Analysis and Tagging for Uploaded Images To make image content more easily searchable, a new Image Cognition Analysis tool will automatically perform image analysis of uploaded images and add Metadata tags.
   The process allows images to be analyzed and appropriate tags to be added, allowing Content Owners to easily search through content, while optimizing time spent on manually adding Metadata tags. To enable this feature, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.
3. New Video Cognition Analysis Tool Can Generate Searchable Tags Describing the Visual Content Video Cognition integrated with advanced Machine Learning (ML) models now complements our existing audio-based metadata generation capabilities. Content Owners can choose to have their videos analyzed by an advanced machine learning (ML) model to automatically add Metadata tags.
   Video cognition streamlines the workflow for Content Creators to easily search for content. To learn more about this feature. click here. Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager to enable this feature.
4. Ability to Translate Caption Files into 25+ Languages Using Machine-Based Translation Engines Complementing our existing capability to request auto-captions in a variety of languages, Content Creators now have the ability to request that the generated caption files be translated into dozens of languages, including French, German, Spanish, and more.
   This update grants Content Creators with a greater ability to expand their reach to a more global audience of learners without any additional costs. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
5. Upgraded Media Player Support for 360 Image Content Complementing our existing 360 VR video support, we have now added support for 360 image content. To support the ever changing image capabilities, the Media Player has been enhanced to support viewing of 360 VR images. Content Creators will be able to upload equirectangular-panoramic images and receive a 360 viewing experience. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
6. Ability to Customize EnterpriseTube Navigation Experience To give Administrators a greater ability to curate the user viewing experience, Administrators now have the ability to enable/disable, rename and reorder the EnterpriseTube Navigation bar. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
7. Enhanced Visual Search Bar Now Expands and Suggests Past Searches To enhance user experience when searching for content within the Video Platform, UI improvements have been implemented that expands the search bar to include the full view of the search criteria. Additionally, search suggestions will be made based on previous searches.
8. New Digital Asset Management Capability for Non-Video Assets To align with the analytics measured for video content, Content Owners now have access to metrics including the number of views, downloads, size, creation date, last viewed date, etc. of non-video content (such as images and documents).
9. Ability to Add Fill-In-The-Blank Question Types via the Video Quiz Editor To offer Instructors more tools to assess student engagement and understanding, a Fill-In-The-Blank question type is now available in the Video Quiz Editor. Instructors can write a statement and add options for Students to choose from. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
10. Ability for Administrators to Receive and Approve Human Caption Requests Based on popular request, we have implemented the ability for Content Creators to submit a Human Captioning Request to be sent to Administrators for approval. This allows Administrators to have better visibility and management of Human Captioning usage. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
11. Ability to Obtain the Direct Link and Embed Code of a Video Immediately After Uploading We have improved the transcoding pipeline to provide Content Owners with the Direct Link and Embed Code of a video, prior to a video completing the initial (transmux) processing stage. Content Owners will have a near-immediate ability to embed content via the LMS Media Chooser, and by Direct Link and Embed Code. To learn more about this feature, please click here.
12. Ability to Duplicate a Video Using a Copy for Independent Use Content Creators can now easily duplicate any video uploaded to the Video Platform. Utilizing a Deep Copy, Content Creators will experience a refined workflow that allows them to duplicate videos and the associated metadata, including Title and video captions. To learn more about this feature, please click here.

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

1. Drag & Drop Document Replacement with LMS Mirroring of Replaced Version With a refreshed UI, the Accessibility Report allow instructors to Drag & Drop edited documents that they have improved the accessibility for. This provides a quick-and-easy way to update documents. Previously, instructors needed to edit the LMS post, remove the old document and upload the new version.
 
2. Native HTML Accessibility in Canvas Panorama now provides accessibility reporting for HTML files and native HTML webpages in Canvas including Assignments, Discussions, Pages and Syllabus. Users can also access alternative formats of the HTML file and webpage’s text in PDF, Braille, EPUB and more.  
3. Configurable Feature Flags in Canvas New settings are available to let Organizations control Panorama behavior using Feature Flags. These flags support toggling new HTML Accessibility features and Accessibility Score Weighting.  
4. Severity Grade Now Visible in Accessibility Reports In our ongoing effort to provide additional transparency to accessibility scores, we’ve added Severity Scores to each accessibility issue flagged by Panorama’s AI to show Minor, Major and Severe issues.  
5. Customize the Severity of the Accessibility Checks Panorama supports custom Issue Severity Scores that are configurable by an Administrator for PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT and PPTX file types. Organizations can now provide prioritization of accessibility issues that are unique to their users.  
6. Monitor Files Still Processing in Panorama Panorama will now identify and mark files that have not been processed allowing instructors to monitor when a document is ready for review.