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Echo360 Status: 

Deployment Notes: 25-26 January 2022

Echo360
  • Updated

These Deployment Notes contain a summary of the changes made to the Echo360 platform for the January 25-26, 2022 production deployments. For changes made in previous deployments, see the other Release/Deployment Notes articles located here in the online resource center, or contact support@echo360.com.

New Features

Users can now apply a Custom Thumbnail/Preview image for Video and Audio Media

The thumbnail is what users see on the media tile in the Library or in a Group, and what administrators see in the Captures page for media. In addition, the thumbnail is also the preview image that users see prior to playback, for media posted or embedded outside of Echo360.

Historically, the image used has been a random selection from the very first portion of the recording. For class lectures, this is often an empty room, or just the instructor standing at the front, waiting to begin. And all of the same course’s recordings may have nearly identical images shown.

To address this, Echo360 now allows you to select ANY moment from the video to use as the thumbnail and preview image. This can go a long way more easily identify which recording is which, and which one you may want to view, or add to a collection, or post somewhere for students.

Even better, you can upload your own image to use, if using a still from the media isn't appropriate, or there isn't a moment that conveys any useful visual information about the media. The ability to upload a custom image is also useful for Audio-only media, where the default image is a simple “speaker” icon.

See Applying a Custom Thumbnail/Preview Image for Video or Audio Media for more information.

Enhancements

Improved accessibility for media transcripts - We have added "term" and "definition" tags for the necessary items in the media transcripts, so that screen readers can properly parse and announce the speaker names from the transcript panel.

iOS devices can now play embedded media without enabling cookies - We have removed the last dependency on cookies for iOS devices in the embedded player.  Prior to this, embedded playback of Echo360 media, typically from LMS/VLE windows or campus websites, worked without cookies on all browsers on Windows, macOS, iPadOS, and Android devices, but not for iOS devices. Now, iOS devices no longer need a cookie to serve embedded media.

Fixes

  • Resolved an issue where interrupted captures (recordings that have multiple segments due to users logging in/out, Universal Capture computer restarts, etc.) were either failing to process completely, or only the first segment was processed, even though the full capture completed. This was released as a hotfix.
  • Numeric polls once again allow for the use of negative numbers and exponents in the Range Answer fields.
  • We are now clearing the media editor cache during deployment of an updated media editor, so that users no longer need to hard refresh or manually clear their own cache to see new features.
  • The media editor now prohibits users from creating segments shorter than 1 second (which would subsequently be removed when the edits were processed).
  • Media editor playback now returns to the beginning of the media after reaching (or starting from) the end.
  • Updated Universal Capture to use nginx v1.20.1 to address an RCE (remote code execution) vulnerability in the version used previously.
  • It’s no longer possible to operate the media player in the background via shortcut keys if the download media modal is visible.
  • Fixed an issue where certain changes to a capture schedule would result in the course class list being out of order.
  • Addressed an issue where the Cancel button in the interactive media editor would remain active even if a change made had been undone (e.g., changing a poll timestamp then changing it back).
  • Addressed an issue with the Public API where a GET Departments call would sometimes return a negative number of courses in the department.
  • When adding media to an empty class, the Interactive Media entry in the selection drop-down list no longer wraps, and the words now appear properly within the list box.
  • In the unlikely event a course class list has duplicate lessons, reordering of the class list no longer errors out and the reordering does complete properly.
  • Resolved an issue where the Share button on the Add a Member modal for Groups remained disabled if the user's email was fully typed in rather than selecting the user from the matching user list.
  • Resolved an issue where very long Group names would not wrap properly, and the text would interfere with the Actions and Add Media buttons on the Group.
  • Addressed an issue in the video media editor where the trim handles would not appear after zooming into the middle portion of the media then scrolling to either end.