Mediasite Announces General Availability for Mediasite 8 for the World’s Leading Enterprise Video Platform

Rhea-AI Summary

Sonic Foundry has launched Mediasite 8, enhancing video creation and management for hybrid work environments. Key features include improved video storage, advanced encoding for quality playback, and integration with platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. The update offers greater control for content owners, supports third-party streaming, and introduces accessibility options. With an average of 1 million video views per month among users, this release aims to meet the growing demand for effective digital communication.

Positive

• Launch of Mediasite 8 enhances video creation, improving user engagement.
• Integration with Microsoft Teams enhances functionality for users.
• Optimized video storage and advanced encoding improve quality and efficiency.
• New user interface and accessibility updates enhance user experience.

Negative

• None.

Latest release supports massive video creation and usage worldwide

MADISON, Wis., June 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This week, Mediasite announces its latest release – Mediasite 8 – that includes a powerful mix of new tools and features to support the emerging hybrid world of work, learning and events.  

This next generation of Mediasite is the modern video experience required to create the most engaging, interactive and personalized communications regardless of time and distance. More efficient video storage, smaller file sizes, accessibility updates, new integrations with video conferencing systems and an enhanced user experience with a new player and editor are among the extensive new features in the Mediasite 8 family – some available now and others coming soon.  

Mediasite 8 is the foundation of a reimagined video platform with a design-first, user experience focus. Mediasite 8 will:

• Empower content owners to control more of the video lifecycle while also still allowing organizations to implement policies around the content.
• Support automation with greater flexibility to ingest third-party streaming sources directly in Mediasite. Making Mediasite more open will help users scale faster by allowing even more content to come into the platform.
• Emphasize innovative capture solutions with a full suite of room-based and desktop software that can automate the content being created in classrooms, training rooms and board rooms.  

“Over the past year, video communications adoption has taken an unprecedented leap forward. Video is now pervasive, accessible and convenient to everyone worldwide daily. Mediasite has never been more suited to deliver that in this new digital world,” said Joe Mozden Jr., CEO, Sonic Foundry, the maker of Mediasite. “The latest release of Mediasite builds upon our strong foundation of simple, reliable and flexible technology. It is the culmination of our efforts to open our platform further to content coming in during the pandemic, expand interoperability with third party platforms and foster customization for our users, and it is only the beginning. This Mediasite 8 release is laying the groundwork for strong growth of our solutions going forward with even more innovations in the coming months.”  

Manage videos more efficiently and reduce storage demand

A typical customer’s Mediasite usage has grown to an average of 1 million video views per month. Mediasite 8 has a new video engine, available now, designed to support ubiquitous usage, allowing users to store videos more efficiently. Benefits to users include:

• Better quality playback: Any video, regardless of where it was created, can now be optimized in Mediasite with advanced encoding settings to match users’ needs, greatly reducing file sizes while improving quality. As the amount of content and usage scales, it’s important that systems can keep up, and the enhancements to Mediasite encoding sets users up to best scale their video deployments.
• Higher quality vodcasts: Using the new video engine creates the best quality downloadable files. Today’s users need portable content that they can watch anytime, anyplace. Mediasite 8 is a big step in the direction of maximum flexibility and portability in content.  

Record and deliver videos with new tools for creative flexibility

An enhanced user interface makes it easier than ever to teach, learn and connect via Mediasite, including:

• Accessibility updates such as light, dark and high-contrast themes that enable choice, focus, comfort and access.
• Bulk content management that makes it quicker and easier to modify large amounts of content in Mediasite.
• Unified publishing options that give users more interactivity and engagement with a modern interface.

Coming soon:

• A new editor that allows for more video enhancements -- background colors and images, watermarks, additional video clips and more.
• A new video player that maintains the user’s ability to choose where they focus their attention. The new player provides a modern experience that starts and loads faster, requires less bandwidth, and provides optimal use of screen space. The player takes advantage of live streaming latency, which in turn improves interactivity when using polls, chat and Q&A.
• A new integration with Microsoft Teams, in addition to the Zoom integration already available in Mediasite. Users will be able to automatically import, manage, search and access valuable conference calls recorded in Teams anytime in Mediasite. Teams recordings will benefit from Mediasite’s searchable and secure video management system.    

The first release of Mediasite 8 is available now. Learn more at www.mediasite.com/mediasite-8.    

About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.

Sonic Foundry (OTC: SOFO) is the global leader for video capture, management and streaming solutions as well as virtual and hybrid events. Trusted by more than 5,200 educational institutions, corporations, health organizations and government entities in over 65 countries, its Mediasite Video Platform quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand streaming videos. Learn more at www.mediasite.com and @mediasite.

© 2021 Sonic Foundry, Inc. Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. or their respective owners.

FAQ

What features are included in Mediasite 8 by Sonic Foundry?

Mediasite 8 includes improved video storage, advanced encoding for quality playback, integration with Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and enhanced accessibility features.

How does Mediasite 8 support content owners?

Mediasite 8 empowers content owners by providing more control over the video lifecycle while allowing organizations to enforce content policies.

What is the average monthly video view per customer using Mediasite?

The average customer using Mediasite experiences around 1 million video views per month.

When was Mediasite 8 officially launched?

Mediasite 8 was officially launched on June 22, 2021.

How does Mediasite 8 enhance the user experience?

Mediasite 8 enhances user experience through a modern interface, accessibility options, and bulk content management features.