Next Level Video Technology, New UX, and More!

byCarson

2.4M followers

Updated 7 years ago

Hi Everyone,

Today is an exciting day, we have just rolled out the new video technology and a full redesign of our video player. This is going to lead to more efficiency in your training, faster load times for videos, and more control for you as a reader and student while you move through the training here at WA!

First things first though, we have vastly improved technology behind the videos here at WA and this is the first thing I want to discuss.

We Detect You. We Deliver Optimized Video.

We are leveraging the latest and greatest technology along with a unique integration into the WA Video platform. We are utilizing what is called HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), which is an encoding standard in adaptive bitrate video. The advantage to using this technology is that it will recognize your connection speed (bandwidth capacity) and we will deliver the videos here at the most appropriate format.

If you are on a fast connection, you will get a higher resolution video. This happens in real time and if your bandwidth fluctuates, the video platform here will remain elastic in nature and continue delivering the "best quality" video to you while retaining its delivery speeds.

Here is a diagram (from encoding.com), that breaks down how video can dynamically change based on the connection speed. If your bandwidth gets better, the video quality gets better, if bandwidth gets slower, then your video will step back to a resolution that is more efficient.

HLS technology is very much compatible across all devices as well. Whether you are on your desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone, you are going to get excellent playback with the videos here.

Quality...Well how about full HD!

Going forward, all new video at WA is going to be encoded in full High Definition. We've added a new "settings" option to the video player which allows you to choose the option that you wish. As mentioned above, we will choose the best video quality that your internet connection can stream, but if you want more control and want to force full HD, you can do that as well. Click on the "settings" icon and you'll get a list of video qualities that you can choose. Jay looks pretty darn good in FULL HD I must admit!!!

Choose Your Speed. Ogre, Normal or Chipmunk.

Some people find video training voices too fast, some find them too slow. Most find normal play speeds just perfect. But we want to cater to everyone's preference, so we are offering you a wide range of play speeds for all the video training and live classes here at WA.

As you can see below, you have the choice between 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x if you want slower video play speeds. If you are watching Kyle's video, you could probably anticipate a very slow Canadian accent. lol

1x is real time sound and play speed if you want to watch the videos in the most natural form (which is typically going to be the preferred option).

If you want to speed up the play speed, you can certainly do that now as well. You can move anywhere from 1.25x the speed, all the way up to 2x speed.

This has been one of the most requested features within the video player here at WA and now we have put you in full control of the play speeds. You requested, we listened, we created and now have integrated!

Fastest Loading Speeds, Ever.

Regardless of your connection, location in the world, or WiFi upload/downloads speeds you should be able to watch the videos efficient here at WA. The requirements for your connect were a slight issue for some on the past, but this is no longer going to be an issue moving forward as our videos now load in "segments", versus requiring much larger renders to load the videos.

In layman, it's a lot quicker for you, and for everyone watching the videos. Regardless of your connection speed, your videos will play smoothly and efficiently. If you have a fast connection, you may not notice much difference because videos already load fast for you anyways, but for those on a slower connection or that experience intermittent WiFi lag will have a much improved experience.

Currently all new videos from this point forward are using this technology and this will be followed by us moving many of our core videos to HLS. If you build video training and add it, it will be using this and all live classes moving forward will be using HLS.

Here are a few video's that are already using our new video player:

Alphabet Soup Technique - 2018 Edition

7 Brilliant Traffic Strategies You Must Know in 2018

7 Unconventional Ways to Amplify Your Brand in 2018

The Future of Training at WA is Almost Here.

We have further updates to the video training platform that are very close to being released, so I figured I would give you an "inside look" as to what we have going on behind the scenes.

Video training is great, it is by far the easiest way to deliver content and explain a process. The problem is, it is difficult to navigate video efficiently to the most important stop points. Well not for long.

We are going to be introducing "internal video navigation" and providing playlists within each video. This will allow for quickly browsing to particular points within the video - really helpful stuff. Think of a table of contents, that is exactly what you are going to be able to utilize within video's at WA!

This is initially going to be rolled out to the core training here at Wealthy Affiliate and is going to be integrated into the Live Classes moving forward. But availability of this functionality is going to be opened up to everyone at some point within Q1 of 2018.

We are really excited about the introduction of our new video platform, along with some more advanced features such as video navigation which are going to be included in near-future updates and evolution of the video training here at WA.

OK, that wraps up our last release in 2017. I want to personally wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we truly are looking forward to a bright, exciting, and energy filled year here at Wealthy Affiliate in 2018.

If you have any feedback, questions, or comments about the introduction of our new video player, the new technology behind it or future iterations (and suggestions you may have), I would love to hear it.