SAFARI Montage^® Version 8.8.x

Introduction

This document contains the release notes for SAFARI Montage v8.8. Please note that this version has several server requirements that must be met before updating:

• Servers updating from SAFARI Montage v8.5 and earlier utilizing OneRoster CSV imports must migrate the OneRoster import configuration from the previous SIS Import implementation to the new OneRoster implementation as soon as possible. SIS Import is no longer supported, and will be removed in the Summer 2021 release. A guide for this migration is available here.
• Servers updating from SAFARI Montage v8.2 and earlier require FreeBSD v10.1 or later OS drives.
• Servers updating from SAFARI Montage v7.5 and earlier must ensure SSL is configured to support third party integrations and LTI Consumer Tools use HTTPS when configuring the LTI Launch URL.
• Servers updating from SAFARI Montage v7.2 and earlier will require an intermediate update to SAFARI Montage v7.5.13.
• Servers updating from SAFARI Montage v4.x and earlier will require a new OS drive and may require increased RAM or a new server.

Please contact SAFARI Montage Technical Support (1-800-782-7230) regarding SAFARI Montage v8.8 update options.

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New in 8.8.x

Microsoft Teams^™ Integration

• Teachers can now search for, select, preview, and assign content from the SAFARI Montage LOR directly within Teams using the SAFARI Montage Microsoft Teams App

LOR

• The SAFARI Montage Media Player now features keyboard shortcut navigation controls mirroring the shortcuts available on many popular media platforms
• A listing of these controls can be found by clicking the keyboard shortcuts icon

LOR Lesson Presenter

• When rostered via OneRoster with class and course enrollments, the LOR Lesson Presenter now presents teachers with a classroom dashboard listing participants in their class
• The Teacher Resources attachment now supports image learning objects

Playlists

• Students and Teachers can now expand content to a full-screen view when viewing content in Teacher and Student playlist views
• The Student playlist view has been optimized to maximize content display area on Chromebooks, mobile devices, and other smaller browser sizes

Interoperability

• SAFARI Montage now supports LTI 1.3 tool and platform integrations

Help and Tutorials

• SAFARI Montage Basics lessons have been updated to cover new features from v8.x, including the SAFARI Montage Zoom Integration
• A teacher's guide for the Blackboard integration is now available under Admin > Interoperability Support > Services

Administration

• Inactive user accounts are now hidden by default on the users page, and can be viewed by clicking the Only Show Inactive Users selection

Reporting

• The District Usage Highlights report has been revamped to provide better insight into how your SAFARI Montage system is being utilized
• The Highlights report provides a snapshot view of several key metrics that can be filtered by school, school group, and displayed for specific timeframes
• The Schools report displays total plays by school, organized from highest to lowest utilization
• The Content report provides the total number of plays by content package over time

Video Streaming Library

• Over 2,700 new Free and Open Education Resources have been added to SAFARI Montage
• CASE and Academic Benchmarks standard correlations have been updated for new and existing content

Web Browser Support

Operating System	Microsoft® Edge®	Microsoft® Internet Explorer®	Chrome®	Apple® Safari®	Firefox™
Microsoft Windows® 10 (Desktop Mode)	98.0 or greater	11.0	98.0 or greater	N/A	97.0 or greater
Apple Mac OS® X 10.15 or greater	98.0 or greater	N/A	98.0 or greater	15.0 or greater	97.0 or greater
iOS 15.0	N/A	N/A	98.0 or greater	15.0 or greater	N/A
iPad OS 15.0	N/A	N/A	98.0 or greater	15.0 or greater	N/A
Android	N/A	N/A	98.0 or greater	N/A	N/A

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SAFARI Montage Media Player

• SAFARI Montage Media Player v7.0.10 (Microsoft^® Windows^® 10)

Network Requirements

• Minimum 100Mbps Full Duplex Wired Ethernet

SAFARI Montage Applications

• SAFARI Montage Media Player
• Version 7.0.10 (Microsoft^® Windows^® 10)
• Required for:
• Selective Video Streaming (SVS) multicast streaming support in browser
• Playback of packaged content at bitrates greater than 300Kbps on content drives prior to SuperSet 32
• Requires:
• Browser support for NPAPI plugins:
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 11
• VideoLAN (VLC) Media Player 32-Bit
• SAFARI Montage Chrome Browser Extension
• Version 1.0.8 available in the Chrome Web Store
• More information
• SAFARI Montage iOS App
• The SAFARI Montage server (including any ULB server used for iPad Broadcasting) must be configured with a commercial SSL certificate
• Lecture Capture Client
• Requires version 1.0.59 or greater

Third-Party Applications

Additional software maybe required to create or view certain LOR content.

• VideoLAN (VLC) Media Player
• The SAFARI Montage Media Player is compatible with the use of the VideoLAN VLC media player for live stream and Video on Demand (VOD) playback, along with the Launch in VLC feature for SVS streams
• Version 3.0.12 32-bit (Windows 10)
• Sun^® Java^®
• Java is available as an alternative method to upload update ISO files if HTML5 uploads are unavailable
• Version 8 or greater
• Software clients for the associated file types
• SMART Notebook^® software / SMART Notebook Interactive Viewer software - .NOTEBOOK / .NBK
• Promethean^® ActivInspire^® / ActiveStudio^® / Flipchart Viewer - .FLIPCHART / .FLP / .AS3A
• Hitachi^® StarBoard^® - .YAR
• eInstruction^® Workspace^™ - .GWB
• Egan^® TeamBoard^® - .TMB
• Mayer-Johnson^® Boardmaker^® - .BM2
• Clear Touch Interactive^® EasiNote^® - .ENB
• Microsoft Office / Office Vewiers - .DOC/.DOCX, .XLS/.XLSX, .PPT/.PPTX
• OpenOffice.org^® - .SDW/.ODT, .SDC/.ODS, .SDD/.ODP, .ODG; .ODF, .SDP
• Apple iWork^® - .PAGES, .NUMBERS, .KEY
• Adobe Acrobat Reader - .PDF
• eBook Reader - .MOBI, .LIT, .EPUB
• Interactive Whiteboard Integration - supported software versions
• SMART Notebook Software / Notebook Interactive Viewer - v 9.5 or greater
• Promethean ActivInspire (v 1.5 or greater) / ActiveStudio (v 2.5 or greater) / Flipchart Viewer
• StarBoard (v 8.11 or greater) / StarBoard LE - Viewer Only (v 3.0 or greater) / StarBoard for OS X (v 9.2 or greater)
• eInstruction Workspace for Windows (v 8.90 or greater) / eInstruction Workspace for OS X (v 5.10 or greater)
• Egan TeamBoard Draw v3 or greater
• Mayer-Johnson Boardmaker (v6 or greater) / Boardmaker Studio (v14 or greater)
• Clear Touch Interactive EasiNote v 3.1 or greater
• VivEd 3D Science
• Requires:
• Graphics card support for Web GL 2.0 (OpenGL ES 3.0)
• One of the following web browser types:

• Operating System	Microsoft® Edge®	Chrome®	Apple® Safari®	Firefox™
  Microsoft Windows® 10	98.0 or greater	98.0 or greater	N/A	97.0 or greater
  Apple Mac OS® X 10.15 or greater	98.0 or greater	98.0 or greater	15.0 or greater	97.0 or greater
  Chrome OS	N/A	98.0 or greater	N/A	N/A
  iOS 15.0	N/A	98.0 or greater	15.0 or greater	N/A
  iPad OS 15.0	N/A	98.0 or greater	15.0 or greater	N/A
  Android	N/A	98.0 or greater	N/A	N/A

Special Considerations for your SAFARI Montage Environment

• Interoperability Support
• LTI integrations require that SSL be configured and LTI Consumer Tools must use HTTPS when configuring the LTI Launch URL in version 8.x or later
• SAFARI Montage Endpoints
• SAFARI Montage Endpoints must be configured to use the host name of the SAFARI Montage server in version 8.x or later. Using an IP address in 8.x or later will result in a security error displaying on the Endpoint.
• Lecture Capture and SupeTube
• SupeTube and Lecture Capture recordings do not support ABR conversion. The SAFARI Montage Auto-Converter must be configured to enable "Convert to H.264 MP4s:" if the "Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR)" auto-conversion option is enabled.
• Classroom Media Contollers (CMCs)/KIOSKs
• CMCs and KIOSKs do not support playback of ABR video and require that the SAFARI Montage Auto-Converter be configured to enable "Convert to H.264 MP4s:" if the "Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR)" auto-conversion option is enabled and requires SuperSet 37 or earlier content drives for playback of packaged content

Instructions For Updating SAFARI Montage to v8.8.x

Please read these instructions in their entirety before you begin:

• These instructions and all related documents are available online at http://www.safarimontage.com/support
• It is important that you review the SAFARI Montage 8.8.x Release Notes available online, as these may include Known Issues that you should understand before running the upgrade
• Review the SAFARI Montage 8.8.x System Requirements, which include important information that will ensure your environment meets all requirements
• Allow for time to back up your system in your update planning
• No one should use the SAFARI Montage System during the update process, so please perform this update during off-hours
• For customers utilizing the SAFARI Montage Media Player, we recommend you update all client computers to the current version of the SAFARI Montage Media Player prior to running the server update. Not doing so will result in all users receiving an alert upon logging in to SAFARI Montage instructing them to update the player. Administrators can suppress this notification in the following location: Admin > Settings > System > Alert to Install SAFARI Montage Media Player. The latest version of the player is available for download at http://www.safarimontage.com/support
• If monitoring the update from the console, be aware that the system may appear to be inactive at certain times during the upgrade. This does not mean that the upgrade has stopped.
• Review any questions with Technical Support in advance. Please note that SAFARI Montage Technical Support is available Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time and they may be contacted by telephone at 800-782-7230 or online via http://www.safarimontage.com/support

Requirements

• An email from SAFARI Montage containing a link to download the update ISO
• FreeBSD v10.1 or later OS drives

Please note the following version-specific requirements before starting the update process:

• Servers updating from SAFARI Montage v7.2 or earlier will require an intermediate update to SAFARI Montage v7.5.13
• Servers updating from SAFARI Montage v4.x or earlier will require a new OS drive and may require increased RAM or a new server

WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO APPLY THIS UPDATE IF YOUR SYSTEM DOES NOT MEET THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS. DO NOT INTERRUPT THE UPDATE IN ANY WAY OR POWER OFF THE SERVER AT ANY TIME DURING THE UPDATE PROCESS OR DATABASE OPTIMIZATION. DOING SO WILL RENDER YOUR SERVER INOPERABLE.

Download and Upgrade Instructions:

1. Back up your SAFARI Montage system via the Administration tools:
1. Navigate to Admin > Data Recovery > Backup
2. Perform a full backup:
• Set Type to Data & User Content and select to either keep or overwrite the previous backup
2. Download upgrade media (ISO) using the link provided in the email from SAFARI Montage
3. Upload the ISO file to the SAFARI Montage system via the Administration tools:
1. Navigate to Admin > Tools > Software Update History
2. Click on the Upload an ISO image of the update and install link
3. Browse to the location of the ISO file downloaded in Step 2 and click on Open

The ISO will begin uploading to the server. Once the upload is complete, the upgrade will begin and will take approximately one to two hours, after which the server will reboot.

If you are running WAN Manager with Expansion Server(s):

1. The Expansion Controller must be upgraded first. See Upgrade Instructions above.
2. Once the Expansion Controller has been upgraded, it will automatically push the upgrade to all of the Expansion Servers. The progress of the upgrade can be viewed by navigating to Admin > Expansion Server > Expansion Servers.

If you are running WAN Manager with Remote School Server(s):

1. The WAN Manager Parent server must be upgraded first. See Upgrade Instructions above.
2. Once the upgrade is completed on the WAN Manager Parent server, you will be able to automatically 'push' the upgrade to the Remote School Servers, thereby eliminating the need to upgrade them separately on-site
1. Navigate to Admin > WAN Manager > Remote School Servers
2. Either check 'Remote update all servers', which will update five servers at a time until they have all been upgraded, or select individual servers to be upgraded by checking the box next to the server name.

Total time to upgrade all expansion and/or remote school servers will depend upon the total number of servers and available bandwidth. The upgrade will be downloaded to each remote server, where the upgrade process will run automatically and can take several hours to complete. If 'Remote update all servers' is selected, servers will be processed in groups of five, and upgrades will run concurrently on each group of remote servers.

~ THIS COMPLETES THE SERVER UPDATE PROCESS. PLEASE TEST FROM A CLIENT BROWSER. ~

Deploying the SAFARI Montage Media Player:

Go to http://www.safarimontage.com/support/ to download the latest version of the SAFARI Montage Media Player and for instructions on how to deploy the player to your client environment