Macromedia today announced a major release of Macromedia Breeze, which enables more than 400 million web users to immediately experience engaging online meetings and rich content without downloading special plug-ins or media players. With Breeze, Macromedia is not only setting a new standard in web conferencing, but also introducing the first true rich web communication system. Now organizations can communicate, collaborate, and train via a single, easy-to-use, integrated solution that includes everything from live meetings to on-demand presentations. For more information, visit www.macromedia.com/go/breeze.
“The Internet has brought down the costs of communication, but today’s web conferencing solutions still leave a lot to be desired,” said Rob Burgess, chairman and CEO, Macromedia. “With Breeze, we want to change how people use the Internet to communicate. Not only does Breeze effectively enable meetings without travel, presentations without meetings, and training without delay but, most importantly, it can be deployed seamlessly throughout a large organization.”
Macromedia Breeze solves problems that organizations face every day, from wanting to avoid the expense and hassle of travel to the need to deliver time-sensitive information without the headache of scheduling multiple people across multiple geographies for a single meeting. Online meetings in Breeze allow anyone with a web browser to share information in real time, while a Breeze presentation or “Breezo” adds audio to PowerPoint content to put rich, multimedia presentations within the grasp of the average user.
For example, customers like General Electric, Intel, and Nextel Partners use Breeze for training their sales teams and channel partners, delivering live webinars and marketing presentations to customers and prospects, and communicating to employees, partners, and shareholders. Breeze is also being used in educational settings to enable graduate courses, conferences, and virtual communities at the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, the New Media Consortium, and San Diego State University.
“We’ve only owned Breeze for a few months, and it is already resolving our need for the rapid development and distribution of critical business information,” said Liviu Dedes, corporate training manager, The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe, and Jack. “As more and more people throughout our corporate headquarters become aware of this new functionality, excitement is growing for new Breeze uses.”
New collaboration features in the release include application sharing, trackable live polls, editable vector-based whiteboards, and file transfer. Recorded meetings are now indexed and searchable, along with presentations stored in the content library. New customization options include a brandable user interface and custom pods for data display or new functionality. This release also exposes the application’s web services framework to enable integration with existing portal and enterprise applications.
Because Breeze leverages the ubiquitous Macromedia Flash Player, anyone can instantly access live meetings, presentations, and rich content (including video, audio, documents, animations, graphics, and Voice over IP) without painful downloads or extensive configuration.
“Web conferencing is gaining a lot of traction as companies use it to streamline costs and communicate more efficiently,” said Paul Ritter, program manager for collaboration research, Yankee Group. “While many solutions focus solely on adding value to live meetings, there is a significant opportunity for companies to achieve even greater value from best-of-breed solutions that provide the ability to archive and search content from previous sessions and to maintain persistent online meeting areas for regular meetings.”
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Macromedia Breeze is expected to be available in trial, hosted, and licensed versions in March. Hosting prices start at $84 per concurrent seat per month. Perpetual licenses start at $22,500 for 25 concurrent seats and scale upward based on additional users and additional options. To learn more about pricing options visit the Breeze website or call (888) 649-2990.
