Macromedia Says Coordinating Voice And Visual Presentations Online Is A BreezeMacromedia Says Coordinating Voice And Visual Presentations Online Is A Breeze

Macromedia Inc. has upgraded its online conferencing software, Breeze, to allow a multiple-point telephone briefing and online Web videoconference to run in tandem.

Breeze version 5.0 debuted Monday as a hosted service and will be available at the end of May as packaged software for on-site installation. Its coordinated teleconferencing is made possible through a new telephone gateway that lets a company manage its own teleconferences through its existing telephony bridge.

In addition, a Macromedia partner, Premiere Global Services Inc., a teleconferencing service supplier, can also provide Breeze-based teleconferencing services.

Using the technology for a training session, for example, an instructor can speak to a class scattered across multiple geographic locations, direct them to fill in answers on a quiz through their desktop browsers, and illustrate the students' level of understanding by showing scores or other forms of feedback assessment, says Michael Fitzpatrick, senior product manager.

The Breeze conferencing interface includes the ability to call the participants and manage their registration or entrance into the conference. Individual participants would have the ability to control the volume of the conference or change it as different speakers take center stage. Individuals may also mute their own phone lines through the Breeze interface without triggering the recorded music that normally signals a meeting participant's line is on mute.

Breeze can also archive both the visual presentation and audio portions of the teleconference. Such a record can be accessed through a browser at a URL afterward, Fitzpatrick says.

Breeze 5.0 is designed to compete with WebEx Communications, an online conferencing service supplier, Microsoft's Live Meeting 2005, and teleconferencing services from IBM.

Earlier versions of Breeze allowed an online conference presenter to display Microsoft Word documents or PowerPoint slides to scattered participants.

Macromedia is pricing the hosted version of Breeze at 32 cents per minute per user, as an incentive for small and midsize businesses. Service can be purchased on a monthly or annual basis as well. Fitzpatrick says Breeze 5.0 will also be available May 31 as a software package, priced from $25,000 to $50,000.