Blog from October, 2018
Here is a list of all improvements made to Webcast (Manager, Operator and Consumer) since April 2018.
Registration
- When registering, viewers who already have registered a user account can update their details.
- If a Company account is marked as being applicable to the new EU GDPR, we now require the entry of a URL to that Company's online Privacy Policy. Then, when Webcast viewers are requested to either perform registration, or log in to chat/QnA as a "guest user", they must check a box to confirm their acceptance of the privacy policy of both movingimage EVP GmbH (via www.movingimage.com/privacy), and the Company streaming the webcast (via the URL mentioned above).
Note: This is a feature toggle on the Customer account--the GDPR confirmation request will not be visible unless the feature is enabled.
UI Changes
- We updated the Webcast player to the latest version and applied styling changes to the UI.
- A new chat option allows for questions raised by viewers to be moderated before being published for all to see. Moderation takes place in the WebcastOperator console or the expanded WebcastOperator Chatwall. The previous "free for all" Chat option is now called "Unmoderated Chat".
- To support our European partners, the WebcastConsumer UI is now available in Italian. A Language Set marked for Italian is required in the Webcast configuration.
- We mark unpublished videos as un-selectable pending a future change to the release status, and prevent saving if a video is unpublished. This is particularly important since uploaded videos from a live presentation are not immediately available for VOD playback, but will automatically be released when transcoding is finished.
- In the Customer Account settings, we added an option for for hiding optional fields in registration, and only absolutely required data be collected.
- After adding email addresses to the list of those permitted to register for a Webcast, it is now possible to create a templated email inviting those users to visit and register for the Webcast.
- The body of the email is localized depending on the language used for the Manager UI.
- Recipients are included in BCC, avoiding disclosure of potential viewers to others.
- In the English email template, if a start date/time is set, those times are localized for display in UTC, EST, PST and GMT.
- Password and registration options are now in the Security area.
- Options for Q&A and moderated / unmoderated chat now exist in the Appearance tab:
- The configuration tab is now just for setting the Webcast metadata and stream information per state.
To support Webcast and Video Conference scheduling, a date and time must now be set for each Webcast. Default values are provided.
- Videos that are referrer-protected in VideoManager Pro are now supported for use in Webcast, if the domain *.movingimage.com or webcast.movingimage.com is included as a permitted referrer domain in the VideoManager Pro security policy.
- The localized URL to the Consumer page is now sent in the "Description" metadata when uploading live streams to VideoManager Pro. This URL is displayed in Corporate Tube.
- You can now use different credentials for Primary and Backup Wowza API connections.
- VOD and Live streams can be published to the Kollective network, and the response URN stored for later use.
- For customers using Kollective P2P streaming, the use of the P2P network can now be toggled on a per-Webcast basis. By default, the option is enabled, meaning that the P2P network is the primary source for video streams.
Google has made changes to how Chrome handles videos that autoplay. This means that while videos are allowed to autoplay, they do so without sound. The viewer must make a "meaningful interaction" with the player to enable sound. Typically, this would mean "pause-then-play" to start the audio. See: https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes
This means there are several browser-specific behaviors:
- Safari iOS / MacOS: never autoplays.
- Chrome Android: never autoplays.
- Chrome Win / MacOS: autoplays without sound until interaction.
- Firefox Win / MacOS: autoplays with sound (for now...)
So, we took a view that the easiest workaround for now is to always require "click-to-play", since there is no programmatic way to avoid this issue in Chrome.
Therefore: for all video states, the user must now click play to start the video (and audio).
We introduced Video Conference Connectors. With Connectors, you can use Webcast to redistribute all the participants in a video conference to an audience of "view-only" attendees. You can use a variety of video conference platforms, including Skype for Business and Google Hangouts. Please note that this is a separate feature package.
Metadata about a Webcast (status, scheduled date/time and name) is now shown in all tabs when configuring a Webcast.
- WebcastOperator now shows controls to dial into and disconnect the Video Conference, which makes the video stream available to WebcastConsumer.
- Disconnect RTMP Participant when going Post-Live / On-Demand / Archive: When a Webcast is complete, this function removes all participants from a connected Video Conference, and releases the Connector for use in other Webcasts.
- We also show the status of the RTMP streams in Operator, allowing users to verify that all streams are working correctly without needing to access Wowza directly.