On July 31st, Adobe released a new version of the flash player (10,0,32,18) that addressed a critical vulnerability in previous versions of the player. This new player introduced some incompatibilities with Wowza H.264 streaming.

Wowza has issued a patch that resolves the issue, which has been applied to our hosting servers. We recommend that all ePresence sites with their own Wowza server update to the latest version of the software.

The latest patch for 1.7.0 is patch 1.7.0-patch21. If you are running Wowza 1.6.0, you will first need to apply patch 1.6.0-patch24. Please read the instructions included with the patches carefully before you begin.

If you have an ePresence support package, please contact us and we will perform the update.

We’re happy to announce that ePresence 5.0 is ready for release! As you may have already read, version 5.0 is a major release that adds two new lightweight capture solutions to the current ePresence system:

Two New Ways to Capture Content

Mobile Capture
Use your Windows, Mac, or Linux laptop to present PowerPoint™ and share your desktop with a webcam and mic. Or share the desktop of another presenter with an optional VGA2USB device.

Web Capture
Give a live talk via your web browser with just a webcam, mic, and PowerPoint™ presentation – no additional equipment or software installation required.

Capture Station Upgrade

As well, 5.0 will offer some significant updates to our existing Capture Station solution, including:

- High quality h.264 Flash support
- Ability to create chapters for longer presentations
- Enhanced third party support for Content Delivery Networks

For More Info…

The following ePresence Capture comparison table gives a good technical overview of the three production scenarios we will now be offering with 5.0.

To learn more about ePresence 5.0 and get pricing information, visit our store or feel free to contact us for a quote!

The private beta for ePresence 5.0 is wrapping up now, and we’re planning on shutting down the beta site this Friday (April 24th). A big thank you goes to all beta testers, and everyone else involved in testing!

We will be pushing out a Release Candidate later today, which can be used on the beta instance until the end of the week. If you signed up too late, and didn’t get an invitation to the beta, please contact sales@epresence.tv for information on how to request a trial instance to evaluate.

The ePresence team is pleased to announce that ePresence 5.0 is now ready for testing. This is a major release that adds two completely new ways to capture content — through the web or on-the-go. You can learn more about these new solutions here.

Requesting a beta invite

To request a beta invite, please use our contact form, or send an email to beta@epresence.tv. In the body of your message, please include the following details of the computer that you plan on using for capturing content:

• Operating system and version (e.g. Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X 10.5.6, Linux [Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10])
• Processor type (optional)
• Amount of memory (optional)

Please note that we will be sending out invitations in stages. When you receive an invitation, you will be sent instructions for accessing your own ePresence 5.0 beta site, and links to download desktop capture software.

This lecture on the use of technology for the support of teaching and learning is part of an ongoing lecture series hosted by the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) at the University of Toronto. The 2009 KMDI Lecture Series aims to celebrate and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration in digital media innovation.

Webcasts of all talks in the lecture series are archived and available for viewing by visiting the KMDIat13 website. Podcasts of the talks are also available by searching the iTunes music store for keyword “KMDI” or by subscribing to the RSS Feed.

The KMDI Lecture Series continues Thursday, March 26, 4:10pm EDT (UTC-4), with lectures from Professors Nadia Caidi, Megan Boler, and Nicholas Burbules on the theme “Digital Media and the Politics of Truths and Forgetting“.  To attend the live webcast, access the KMDI Presentation Portal on the day of the event, or attend in-person at UofT.

New Ways of Teaching and Learning with Technology Enhanced Classrooms

Professor Jim Slotta, Curriculum Teaching and Learning, OISE/UT
Watch Archived Webcast | Full Abstract and Bio

Professor Jim Slotta presents a new line of research, funded by CRC and SSHRC, that explores a rich form of learning where students collaborate with peers within and between classrooms to establish a knowledge base that will be used in subsequent scripted inquiry activities. Extensions of this work to the topic of “smart classrooms” are also discussed.

Digital Communication Technologies: Educational and Social Practices

Professor Clare Brett, Curriculum Teaching and Learning, OISE/UT
Watch Archived Webcast | Full Abstract and Bio

Professor Clare Brett’s talk focuses on key issues in how new technologies are impacting upon how we teach, learn and collaborate, and uses an educational research project called GRAIL (Graduate Researcher Academic Identity on-Line) under development to illustrate some fundamental issues in adopting new technologies. 

Technologies for Higher Education

Professor Jim Hewitt, Curriculum Teaching and Learning, OISE/UT
Watch Archived Webcast | Full Abstract and Bio

New information and communication technologies offer exciting new possibilities for higher education. Professor Jim Hewitt reviews research conducted on some of these technologies, and discuss problems, barriers and obstacles, both cultural and organizational, that limit the instructional potential of these new tools.

This release, ePresence Capture 4.2.19, offers two new features that our users have repeatedly asked for: high quality H.264 Flash encoding for on-demand presentations and the ability to automatically upload media archives on 3rd party media servers or CDNs via FTP protocol.

We are very excited to announce that both features are now available. A couple weeks back we demonstrated how amazing H.264-encoded presentations look on the web by embedding Steve Trickey’s talk which was published using the Release Candidate of ePresence Capture 4.2.19.

ePresence Capture 4.2.19 is now available for our customers at http://epresence.tv/

One of the things that many of our users have asked for over the years is a truly mobile/lightweight solution for capturing ePresence events. This is important for users that need to travel to capture events, or wish to bring in remote speakers.

Over the past few months, we’ve been working on a new application designed to meet the needs of these users. The name of this application is simply Capture, and it makes it possible to capture ePresence content from anywhere. Capture can be launched as a web application, requiring only a modern browser and the Flash plugin, or as a standalone desktop application, using the new Adobe AIR runtime.

Capture on the web

Launching Capture on the web allows anyone to broadcast a presentation without installing anything on their machine. It includes the following features:

• Works in any modern browser: Supports modern versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari, on all operating systems.
• No-hassle audio/video: Automatically detects a wide range of video cameras and microphones.
• PowerPoint support: Upload any Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
• One-click webcasting: Requires only a single button click for the presenter to start webcasting.
• One-click publishing: Once the presentation is recorded, the site administrator can publish it with just one click.

Capture on any computer

In addition to the features listed above, Capture on the desktop also supports:

• Multi-platform: Installs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
• Desktop sharing: Share your screen, via images or flash video.
• VGA2USB sharing: Share the screen of a presenter’s computer, using an Epiphan VGA2USB device. For the presenter, it’s as easy as connecting to a projector.
• Offline recording: Capture presentations without an internet connection, and publish them later.
• Fault-tolerance: A recording is always saved locally, in case the internet connection goes down or is unstable.

Summary

This exciting new application is currently in alpha testing, and we expect it to enter beta testing within the next couple weeks. Here’s a little teaser of what’s coming:

The ePresence Lab is happy to announce guest speaker Steve Trickey from Flinders University, Australia, will be presenting his work on the Flinders University CPD project this Wednesday, February 4. As part of the Flinders University CPD project, Steve Trickey is developing the IT component to enable a mix of video conferencing, web streaming and on-demand rich media presentations that can be delivered to a diverse range of health professionals scattered across the country.

We have recently opened this webcast to all those interested – we hope you’ll be able to join us!

An allied health workforce continuing education and training program:
Building rural workforce capacity

Steve Trickey, Remote ICT Services, Flinders University

Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Time: 10:30am – 12:00pm EST (GMT-5)

Abstract and Bio:
https://www.events.utoronto.ca/index.php?action=singleView&eventid=3251

Event will be webcast live and archived at:
http://demo.epresence.tv/

NOTE: This live webcast will require a login; please sign-up on the day of the event by clicking “Join”.

ePresence Capture 4.2.18 is a highly recommended update that fixes several bugs and increases overall reliability of the system. Please update your capture stations.

With 4.2.18 the capture process now runs locally in both Connected and Disconnected modes, ensuring that the archive will not be lost in the event of a connection drop. This update also successfully fixes a problem related to slide synchronization in disconnected mode. A few reliability fixes were added to better support Wowza and Adobe FMS. 4.2.18 continues to support remote control for fully automated webcasting using the web based scheduler. The VGA processor was also updated so the system handles plugging and unplugging the VGA on the fly. This hot swap feature can easily handle multiple presenters’ laptops with differing screen resolutions.

If you need assistance with this update please email support@epresence.tv

Update your address books!