Kaltura Player Upgrade: Timeline and Impacts

Upgrade Date: August 1, 2024 (tentative)

At the University of Minnesota, Kaltura in Canvas and MediaSpace use Kaltura’s “v2” (aka “version 2”) player. The vendor’s next-generation player is “v7” (aka “version 7”), which brings a number of functionality and security improvements. 

The v2 to v7 upgrade is tentatively scheduled for August 1, 2024. At that time, much of the University’s Kaltura content will be upgraded to use the new player without issue. However, the upgrade will cause some Kaltura embeds to break. Impacted media owners/publishers will need to take action in advance, but as of this writing in April 2024, it is not possible to create new embeds with the v7 player. We expect that to change in the coming months. Consider this article to be a “save the date” notice, and a place to find further information in the coming months.

Kaltura v2 Players Managed Automatically by the Upgrade

On August 1, 2024, the Kaltura players used for hundreds of thousands of videos and other media in Kaltura in Canvas and MediaSpace will be upgraded to use the newer “v7” player automatically, including:

Embed Codes Created in MediaSpace and Posted Elsewhere Will Break on August 1, 2024

Unfortunately, the upgrade process will break embed codes that were created in Kaltura MediaSpace and then posted elsewhere. Examples of places where MediaSpace-generated embed codes have been published include:

  • In Canvas, on pages, quiz questions, and other resources
  • On public web pages such as it.umn.edu, in Google Sites, etc.
  • In web applications such as Qualtrics

People who can edit the above will need to work with the Kaltura media owner, co-publisher, or co-editor to locate embeds that will break, then update the embed codes so they work with the v7 player.

Updated Embed Codes Coming Soon

As of this writing in April 2024, Kaltura’s v7 player has some issues that present barriers to users of adaptive technologies such as screen readers. Due to these issues, it is not possible to implement the new player widely at the University of Minnesota at this time. 

University staff are working with the vendor to resolve the issues. More information will be posted here when it becomes available.

Contacting Media Owners and Next Steps

Impacted media owners are being contacted in late April 2024 so they are aware of the date, and that action will need to be taken before August 1, 2024. OIT intends to contact impacted media owners again at least one more time before August 1, 2024 with updated information.

If you have copied an embed code from MediaSpace and pasted it into Canvas, consider finding those codes and replacing them by using the Add Media Using Kaltura button in the Canvas Rich Content Editor, since those will upgrade to v7 automatically.

Finding Embeds That Need To Be Updated

For now, as a Kaltura media owner, you can use Kaltura Analytics to find which of your media will break, and often can “drill-in” to the data to view which specific web page has a Kaltura embed that will break. 

Recommendation: Use this information to build an inventory of your Kaltura media embeds that need to be updated before the upgrade on August 1, 2024. 

For more details, refer to steps for Finding Embeds That Need To Be Updated Before the Kaltura Player Upgrade.