Lately I've been remiss updating this blog with news and my views. It's been a pretty cold summer up here in the Great Lakes, maybe that's affected my ability to type. It certainly hasn't been because of a lack of anything to write about. Back in June I mentioned that we were beginning to focus on improving the scalability of Screencast.com. I'm happy to report that our efforts have been successful and we're just about finished with some of the more significant aspects of that process. This means that we'll be turning our attention back to the fun stuff that you all have been asking for - features!

At the end of this month, we're releasing an updated version of the MediaRoll which will let everyone customize the look to match their own preferences. Here's an example of a MediaRoll in action on the Jing Blog. If you have an existing MediaRoll embedded on a Web page or blog, and you want to take advantage of the new capabilities, you'll need to re-embed the new object. Of course existing MediaRolls will continue to work just fine. At release time, we'll have tutorials available in the Screencast.com Help Center to walk you through the steps to customize your own. After our release at the end of this month, we will start work on allowing users to customize other aspects like the Library and Folder views.

We will also be releasing an updated Flash Player that will let viewers seek to a point in a video that has not yet been downloaded. This will enhance viewing experience by not having to wait until the entire video is downloaded before viewers can jump to a section that's later in the production. By itself, this is a pretty neat idea that gives the playback of MP4 content streaming media-like capabilities. However, TSC products will be able to take advantage of this feature in unique and valuable ways in the future. Imagine when lengthy Camtasia Relay (TechSmith's lecture capture software) and Camtasia Studio videos will contain tables of contents with headings that relate to points in the video that have yet to be downloaded. Jumping to those points will be faster, especially for those viewers with slow Internet connections.

We're still working on redesigning the playlist. I know that it's taking a lot of time - I wish I could just wave a wand and fix everything. What it has done is cause us to rethink how people today share their playlists, folders, and individual pieces of content. We want to make sure we're making the new playlist the best it can be while ensuring existing playlists and other shared content remain viewable. Our team has completed several brainstorming and work-flow design sessions and we are planning to test some ideas that we've developed, with help from recruited volunteers of course.

Like I said, we haven't been wasting time playing golf all summer...well...I shouldn't speak for everyone. I have a lot more to share, but I don't want to spill all the beans just yet. Besides, I need something to write about next month. Happy Screencasting!

Dirk Frazier
Screencast.com Product Manager
TechSmith Corporation