Adobe Connect Blog

Today, we’ve begun upgrading customers using the hosted version of our product to Adobe Connect 8 Service Pack 2 (SP2). If you have an on-premise or managed service deployment, this upgrade is available today as well, and your account administrator will be provided with additional information on how to access it. For customers already on version 8.1, SP2 will provide several key product enhancements to help improve user experience.

Adobe Connect hosted customers will be upgraded to Adobe Connect 8 SP2 per our migration schedule.  For information on the timing of your upgrade, please visit our migration center here. On the right-hand side of the page, mid-way down you can enter your Adobe Connect meeting URL and learn more about when your server is expected to be migrated.

Adobe Connect 8 SP2 enhancements include:

Customizable display of attendee information

In Adobe Connect 8 SP2, account administrators will have greater control over how attendee names and information are displayed in the meeting environment (attendee pod, chat pod, share pod, etc.).  Attendee information can be customized to display profile information such as location, title, rank, and any other supplemental information that exists for users.  This helps enable meeting hosts and presenters to quickly know who they are sharing information with, understand audience demographics at a glance, and segregate information sharing in meetings more effectively.

In-product notification enhancements

Adobe Connect 8 SP2 can enable account administrators to create their own in-product notifications and immediately notify all end users on the account with any information that they want to broadcast.  Hosted customers will continue to receive critical in-product notifications from Adobe as well.

Ubuntu Linux 10.04 64-bit Add-in now available

Adobe Connect now supports hosts and presenters using Ubuntu Linux 10.04 64-bit OS with a new Meeting Add-In.  This Add-in is not required for Adobe Connect 8 SP2 and is completely optional.  The Add-in can be downloaded here.

We hope that you will enjoy these enhancements in Adobe Connect 8 SP2.  Please check out our migration center for additional information and to look up the expected timing of your upgrade.

As always, we look forward to your thoughts or comments here and on Twitter @AdobeConnect and @ConnectSupport.

Yesterday, at the Enterprise Learning! Conference & Expo, the Best of Elearning! 2011 awards results were announced. Program recognition is significant because nominations and winners are determined by executives and business managers engaged in the areas of enterprise learning and workforce technology.

We’re very pleased that Adobe Connect has been recognized in two categories:

• Best Web Seminar Solution – Winner

 “Nice interface, great performance that allows in-depth learner interactions.”

• Best Virtual Classroom – Winner

Nominations and voting were conducted over a three month balloting period. Given both the quality of competition and quantity of nominations – this year featured 1,750 nominations, covering 56 products across 20 categories – we thank all who took the time to vote and support Adobe Connect!

To read more about the awards and results, please see the press release from the Elearning! Media Group here.

And if you’re not already following us on Twitter, check us out @AdobeConnect.

-Randah McKinnie, Principal Product Manager

Following our recent post on the importance of extensibility to web conferencing, and having highlighted how one of our customers—California State University Chancellor’s Office—is putting Adobe Connect and extensions to use, we’re checking in today to discuss another real-world example of this combined capability.

New Horizons Computer Learning Centers is using Adobe Connect and extensions from our partner, RefinedData Solutions, to create competitive advantage and attract new customers worldwide. Recently, we had the opportunity to talk with Tim Broom, owner and general manager of New Horizons of North Florida. He told us how the IT training company produces innovative and engaging eLearning with this combination of technology.

New Horizons adopted RefinedData’s Talking Stick, Hands Up and Footprints extensions to Adobe Connect to offer high-definition video and increase training interactivity. Additionally, with RefinedData’s Connect-to-Moodle integration, New Horizons is realizing the value of a Single Sign On environment, taking full advantage of its LMS, and moving its business to the next level.

In addition:

• New Horizons and its customers have saved more than one million miles of travel and more than 600 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through web conferencing in place of travel

• The security and compliance capabilities of Adobe Connect have allowed New Horizons to reach audiences in vertical markets with tight parameters, such as government agencies

We encourage you to check out the full story on New Horizons here.

And as always, please stay in touch with us here and on Twitter @AdobeConnect. We’ll have more to say and share on the topic of extensibility soon, so we’ll be in touch, as well.

Last week, we discussed extensibility as the future of web conferencing. Well for some, the future is already here. Jennifer Wicks, Executive Producer at California State University Chancellor’s Office, recently talked to us about how the university, in partnership with Refined Data Solutions, uses Adobe Connect in combination with extensions from Refined Data Solutions to deliver engaging, high-impact online meetings to CSU campuses across the state. With Adobe Connect, CSU saved more than $1 million on travel-related expenses and reduced carbon emissions by more than 600,000 metric tons over a two-year period. The Chancellor’s Office has also seen dramatic improvement in real-time interaction and collaboration among dispersed administrators and faculty.

For the CSU Chancellor’s Office, Adobe Connect provides seamless, reliable access to online meetings that include high-quality videos and interactive participation—without requiring participants to download additional hardware or software.  The dynamic solution can also communicate in real-time the environmental benefits of each online meeting in session. To learn more about how California State University Chancellor’s Office is using Adobe Connect with the inventive extensions from Refined Data Solutions, click here.

We appreciate the conversation on extensibility so far, and look forward to continuing it – including additional posts here in the coming weeks.

The world of web conferencing is evolving. Quickly.

While many think of web conferencing as simple screen sharing — sharing PowerPoint and “passing the ball” from one presenter to the next—that’s a limited interaction that hasn’t changed much in 10 years.

In contrast, we’re seeing organizations expanding what they’re doing and what they expect from online meeting solutions. Beyond simple screen sharing, they’re enabling more effective collaboration, supporting a range of use cases throughout their enterprises, and in some cases, managing highly specialized interactions such as guided selling, telemedicine and cross-border disaster recovery coordination – to name a few.

We’re glad to be right there with them, helping support and lead this movement toward a broad and rapidly growing range of more advanced use cases. We’ve taken an open approach with our product development over time and focused efforts on creating a rich, flexible solution that integrates well with other systems and is highly extensible. Our APIs, free SDKs and other developer resources encourage development and enable customization. We encourage you to read on for more about our perspective on extensibility, our ecosystem that’s growing around it, what a few of our customers have accomplished, and how you can get your hands on the latest and greatest.

Market Trend – Customization

In this video, Arun Anantharaman, our VP and GM of Adobe Connect (@arunster), discusses overarching trends in web conferencing including increasing demands for customization and solutions that integrate with other systems.

Extensions Ecosystem

We’ve built out a unique extensions ecosystem. Looking at the image below, dark blue represents areas where ours is the only solution that provides such extensions, and light blue where we’re one of few that offer the capabilities. Several vendors, including Adobe, provide integrations to other systems and mobile support.

We’ve divided extensions into seven groups:

• Integrations:  integrations with audio, CRM, chat, learning management and other systems
• Custom Meeting Pods: specialized, in-meeting applications; either pre-built or custom
• Custom Solutions: end-to-end solutions — e.g., guided selling, telemedicine
• Deployment: managed, single tenant version of Adobe Connect offered via Amazon cloud
• Video Teleconferencing: integration with several video-teleconferencing systems
• Mobile Devices: support for mobility platforms — e.g., iOS, Android, Blackberry PlayBook
• Adobe Technologies: utilization of Adobe technologies including Flash and AIR

For more information and to download the very latest, see our extensions and integrations page here.

Customer Uses

The extensibility of Adobe Connect is a direct response to the real-world requirements of customers — the need to solve unique business problems, and to have personalized experiences. Here are a few great examples:

• The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations agency, uses Adobe Connect and a specialized extension from our partner, RefinedData to support simultaneous interpretation, allowing multi-lingual, interactive remote online meeting participation; see their press release

• The California State University Chancellor’s Office has standardized on Adobe Connect and in-meeting extensions to improve collaboration with rich video and save travel expense while lightening environmental impact; check out their story here

• A high-profile political event recently incorporated our TwitterConnect custom pod in its Adobe Connect large-scale webinar solution to include conversation with supporters and elevate community building

Developers

The Adobe Connect Developer Center has the free SDKs, APIs and learning materials developers need to get started extending capabilities; additional resources include tutorials and a forum.

Looking Forward

We have many customers using Adobe Connect in conjunction with key extensions to realize value today. And we’re definitely looking forward to what the creativity of developers and our customers brings to bear as we move forward. Please do stay in touch.

Best regards,

-Michael Londgren, Director, Product Marketing, Adobe Connect (@MichaelLondgren)

-Peter Ryce, Senior Technical Evangelist, Adobe Connect (@PeterRyce)