Version 4.0 is Very Cool and What You’ve Been Asking For

I’m ecstatic about our new version 4.0, which is no doubt the biggest upgrade we’ve ever released and includes great new features that are designed to support your instructional goals.

Our vision for enhancing SAFARI Montage has always been a direct reflection of what our customer’s evolving educational needs are. I think Version 4.0 is a very good example of how we’ve listened to you, have made changes in areas you’ve requested and think that you’re going to love what you see. 

In particular, many of you have asked for a method of organizing your growing number of Playlists. Now in 4.0 you can do exactly that with district and personal playlists using a folder system. Also, we added permanent links for playlists in this version -- WOW! Think about what this means. This allows you to tie a complete playlist into your online curriculum with content from SAFARI Montage or content you create. You also requested that we include new features in our CreationStation Module, including the ability to upload documents like Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), PDFs, and Flash & H.264 video formats. Done! In addition, we’ve made changes to our Media Player, which now allows users to speed up or slow down video playback on the fly (think of the value to special needs students or ELL populations when used in conjunction with closed-captioning -- how cool is that?!). And did I mention SMART support for managing Notebook files? These are just a few examples. I’ve included a full list of features below.

So where does this next step take all of us? While these new features provide you with a fully functional way of managing all your media, we are now giving teachers the ability to deliver a true digital lesson from one interface on one output display. Today’s students understand the value of strong presentation materials and visual resources, and we understand their expectation of being engaged at school. I am excited that we are providing a model that really works from the district perspective, as well as for the teacher and student. The challenge for all of us is to provide good resources that help our students learn and SAFARI Montage does just that!

How do you get your upgrade? If your school/district is under warranty, or has purchased a Software Upgrade Plan, you will be receiving an upgrade packet in the mail over the next couple of weeks. If you’re not under warranty, contact your Account Executive or call Customer Service to order your upgrade at 800.843.4549.

For those who are already running 4.0, we hope that you’re enjoying it and that it supports you better than ever before in the classroom. Once you’ve had a chance to use it, we’d really like your feedback – both good and bad – so please join our forum and tell us what you think. Of course, it goes without saying that we want to hear from you no matter what version of SAFARI Montage you’re running. Our Development Team is always working on new things (Pathways SM coming shortly) and relies on customer feedback to help make SAFARI Montage work smarter for you. 

SAFARI Montage Version 4.0 – New Features

SAFARI MONTAGE MEDIA PLAYER FEATURES

Variable Speed Playback enables the user to speed up video playback, which is helpful for teacher previewing and to slow down video and audio playback, which is ideal for special needs students or English Language Learners.

USER INTERFACE FEATURES

Expanded Interactive Whiteboard Integration

SAFARI Montage® now supports integration with SMART BoardTM in addition to Promethean® interactive whiteboards, allowing users to freeze a video and use their whiteboard tools to annotate over the image. Promethean Flipchart and SMART Notebook files can be uploaded through SAFARI Montage CreationStation® and shared with teachers throughout the district. You can also add SMART Notebook and Promethean Flipchart files to any playlist. The system also supports other interactive whiteboards (annotating video and embedding into an interactive whiteboard file).

Enhanced Playlists/Multimedia Lesson Plans

• Organize Your Playlists Within Folders: Users can now organize their playlists into district and individual folders for easier access.
• Permanent Links for Playlists: Now the popular feature that allows you to hyperlink from any document or portal outside of SAFARI Montage is available for playlists.
• Supports Additional Media: In addition to video, audio and image files, playlists now also support Microsoft Office® files, PDF, SMART Notebook, Flash interactive and Flash video files.

MANAGED HOME ACCESS

Now teachers can upload files from home to a central server through enhancements to SAFARI Montage CreationStation® made possible with the release of Version 4.0. Remote school users from home can also log in using LDAP credentials used at school.

SAFARI MONTAGE LIVE! INTEGRATION

Play back archived SAFARI Montage® Live! Videoconferencing sessions from SAFARI Montage and access via convenient links on the dashboard.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION

Managed Video-Based Resources

When using SAFARI Montage® Selective Video Streaming, improved organization video-based resources on the dashboard, such as Internet streaming media, digital TV channels, DVD titles and live video from digital cameras, are accessible to teachers and students, ensuring that only appropriate content reaches the classroom.

Improved Permissions for Users

Assign permissions that allow more control of individual user types and their permissions.

CREATIONSTATION

Supports Additional Media and Document Files

With the release of Version 4.0, 33 of the most popular media and document files are now supported. In addition to Windows Media Player, QuickTime®, and MPEG-4 (H.264) video files, JPG, GIF and BMP image files, MP3 audio files, Promethean Flipchart and other interactive whiteboards, 4.0 allows support for the following additional file types:

• Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint®)
• Adobe Acrobat® PDF, OpenOffice.org® and text (.txt, .rtf)
• Flash video (.flv) and Interactive Flash (.swf)
• SMART Notebook files
• MPEG-1 video files

Expanded Permissions for Users

Users who are uploading original content via CreationStation can now assign permissions at a more granular and controlled level.

Virus Protection

Virus protection for content uploaded via the CreationStation Module.

Digital Rights Management for Licensed Content

Tracks and manages license expiration dates and facilitates copyright adherence.

For in-depth discussion on this topic, please visit the forum(s):

SAFARI Montage - Core System