Microsoft unveiled the new version of its hosted web-conferencing offering at its TechEd developer conference in Orlando, Florida. The 2007 release of Microsoft Office Live Meeting is designed to improve online meetings, events and training.

Microsoft redesigned the user interface for the service to help conferencing participants remain focused on core content.

The updated software also allows users to share media files such as embedded flash, video and audio files to help presenters deliver rich content to conferencing participants. In addition, users will be able to participate in conferences over either two-way phone or VoIP.

Likewise, the back end of Live Meeting has been revamped to integrate smoothly with Office Communication Server and take advantage of other technologies, such as the company’s upcoming Roundtable Webcam.

Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 is expected to hit the market in the third quarter. By that time, Office Communications Server 2007, with its Web conferencing capabilities, is expected to become widely available.

The linkage of Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 and Office Communication Server 2007 is a software-plus-services approach, which gives conferencing user a consistent user experience whether using the hosted Office Live Meeting service or Office Communications Server conferencing.

“The 2007 release of Office Live Meeting is a prime example of Microsoft’s software–plus-services in action,” said Kim Akers, general manager, Unified Communications Group, Microsoft Corp. “It’s important for us to offer our customers choice and flexibility between software that is hosted, such as the next release of Live Meeting, or software that is deployed and managed on-premise, such as the conferencing capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007.”

The 2007 release of Microsoft Office Live Meeting and the conferencing capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007 are integral components of Microsoft’s unified communications offering. Both conferencing solutions enable businesses to connect with and engage audiences of all sizes through a reliable enterprise-class collaboration solution.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 10:24 pm under Microsoft.

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