Adobe Systems unveils Adobe Connect 8, the latest version of the company's Web conferencing software.
Adobe Systems has announced
Adobe Connect 8, a new version of the company's Web conferencing solution.
Adobe officials said Adobe Connect 8 represents a significant
update to the company's
Web conferencing
solution for powering effective and engaging Web meetings, online training and Webinars.
"Adobe Connect 8 is a transformative release. It enables
organizations to standardize on a single Web conferencing platform to support a
variety of use cases," said Arun Anantharaman, vice president and general
manager for Adobe Connect. "Presenters can completely tailor 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. No other solution on the market comes close to offering the ease of
meeting entry, richness of interactions or extensibility."
Adobe Connect 8 is based on the
Adobe Flash Player and
enables enterprises and governments to deliver rich experiences across multiple
devices, while maintaining easy, reliable meeting entry, Adobe said.
"We are continually expanding our use of Adobe Connect. The
easy-to-use interface lets new users get productive in Adobe Connect faster,
while enabling our most experienced users to do even more in their Web
conferences," said Denise Fleming, program assistant for Public Health
Emergency Preparedness in the Office of Public Health Preparedness for the
Michigan Department of Community Health.
"We're seeing the adoption of Web conferencing as a core
collaboration technology for everyday use accelerate rapidly," said Andy
Nilssen, a senior analyst at Wainhouse Research. "In addition, we're also
seeing enterprises increase expectations for their Web conferencing solution.
These organizations want to go well beyond everyday meetings and seminars to
enable myriad and divergent use cases, easily extend solution capabilities with
key new functionality, integrate with existing infrastructure such as video
conferencing room systems, and support meeting access via a wide choice of
mobile devices. All while providing meeting participants with a great user
experience."
Key new features of Adobe Connect 8 include a simplified
interface for greater usability, expanded and more flexible collaboration
capabilities for sharing ideas more freely, and enhanced audio and video
integration for richer multimedia experiences. In addition, Adobe Connect 8
offers a software development kit (SDK) for greater extensibility, a new,
optional desktop client based on the
Adobe AIR runtime for easier
meeting management, and support for a range of mobile devices to extend reach
and enhance productivity.
Adobe Connect 8 features a
more intuitive user interface
that provides meeting hosts, presenters and participants with even easier
access to capabilities, allowing presenters, for example, to quickly and
flexibly adjust meeting room layouts in real time, as needed.
In addition, there are enhancements to sharing, chat, video,
notes, Q&A, whiteboard and other functionality "pods" to
facilitate
collaboration.
And Adobe has added two-way
Universal
Voice that allows customers to bridge audio from any conferencing provider
into an Adobe Connect room and provide two-way communication between
participants on both VOIP (voice over IP) and telephone audio.
Adobe also has integrated Adobe Connect with existing
video conferencing systems,
enabling meeting hosts to bring live audio and video broadcast streams directly
into an Adobe Connect room.
The enhanced collaboration
SDK provides support for
Adobe Flex, Adobe Flash and
Adobe ActionScript 3, which allows developers to create custom pods or
integrate Adobe Connect with other systems.
Also, the
Adobe
Connect Desktop, based on Adobe AIR,
lets users set up and manage meetings right from the desktop. And the optional
application allows users to download recorded sessions for offline viewing.
In addition,
Adobe
Connect Mobile enables participants to view meetings on mobile devices.
Adobe Connect Mobile works on the Apple iPhone and iPad, as well as Google
Android and other mobile devices enabled with Adobe Flash technology.
"Adobe Connect provides a mission-critical, real-time
collaboration solution for enterprise environments." said Al Paz, manager
of global learning solutions and applications at Xerox. "The enhanced
features and functionality in Adobe Connect 8 eliminate technology barriers for
all users, by providing an engaging, intuitive, rich user interface."
And La Tricia Austin-Downer, a customer support specialist at
ADNET Systems in support of the Federal Highway Administration, said, "Adobe
Connect continues to deliver a comprehensive and easy-to-use solution for Web
conferencing-offering a set of features that stands apart from other Web
conferencing solutions."
Adobe Connect 8 is expected to be available worldwide on an
on-premises basis by the end of November 2010. It is expected to be available
on a hosted basis in North America starting in November
2010 (phased rollout), and on a hosted basis in other parts of the world
starting in February 2011 (phased rollout). Adobe Connect 8 will be available
in English, Brazilian, Portuguese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Turkish language versions.
Pricing is determined by solution configuration.
Education
pricing is available. For more information on Adobe Connect 8, visit
www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.
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