New York — Adobe Systems has just polished up its web conferencing system Monday, with the launch of “Adobe Connect 8,” a new version of their web conferencing solution, which is based on Adobe Flash Player, and supports videoconferencing on desktops, in conference rooms and most mobile devices, and is designed to deliver effective and engaging Web meetings, primarily by making it easier to set up and use.
According to the software giant, the current release boasts some general improvements, better video and audio quality, more collaboration features and so on, but also a great expansion in platform availability, with support for multiple devices, including handsets and mobile devices.
“Today, we introduced Adobe Connect 8, the next major version of our web conferencing solution for delivering effective and engaging Web meetings, online training and webinars,” Adobe’s John Cristofano announced.
“Based on Adobe Flash Player, the latest version provides enterprises and governments broad capabilities for powering rich experiences across multiple devices, while maintaining easy, reliable meeting entry,” he added.
Among the headline new features is a revamped user interface which Adobe says will make it easier for users to manage and modify the conference session. Adobe has worked to make the Adobe Connect 8 interface streamlined and intuitive that provides meeting hosts, presenters, and participants with easier access to capabilities — allowing presenters, for example, to quickly adjust meeting room layouts in real-time.
Additionally Adobe Connect 8 includes improvements for sharing, chat, video, notes, Q&A, whiteboard and other functionality to facilitate collaboration. The drag-and-drop interface lets the meeting leader grant meeting attendees video, audio, or on-screen sharing capabilities, or shift attendee roles on the fly while the meeting is in progress. The more flexible the platform is, the more productive the meeting can be–enabling all participants to actively contribute and collaborate rather than simply watching and listening.
Peter Ryce, Adobe’s Connect Evangelist, described that the latest offering allows companies to implement video conferencing without a major network upgrade. “We are a lightweight system that is optimized for low bandwidth,” he said. “We are very network friendly. Our aim is to democratize the usage here — the only thing you need is a Flash player. We are not competing with [high end] telepresence.”
He said many video-conferences work fine with 250 Kbit/sec of video bandwidth, with some down to 30 Kbit/sec.
“Adobe Connect 8 is a trans-formative release,” said Arun Anantharaman, vice president and general manager of Adobe Connect, in a statement. “It empowers organizations to standardize on a single Web conferencing platform to support a variety of use cases. Presenters can completely customize their meeting environments prior to and during meetings, thereby dramatically improving collaboration. In addition, the product is highly extensible, enabling organizations to leverage third-party pods, as well as integrate with existing systems.”
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Adobe Connect 8 is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Citrix XenApp6, and other operating system environments. Virtually any device that can run Adobe Flash Player can engage with Adobe Connect meetings. For the Apple iPhone and iPad mobile devices that conspicuously lack Adobe Flash capabilities, Adobe has developed the Adobe Connect Mobile client.
Available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Turkish language versions, Adobe Connect 8 is expected to be available by the end of November 2010 worldwide on an on-premise basis.
The update is expected to be available on a hosted basis in the US starting in November 2010 (phased rollout), and on a hosted basis in other parts of the world starting in February 2011 (phased rollout).
Those interested in taking a look at a detailed features list of Adobe Connect 8 should head over to Adobe’s website here.