Adobe Announces New Acrobat Connect Pro
Web Conferencing Solution Delivers Engaging eLearning and
Meeting Experiences
SAN JOSE, Calif. —
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced a new version of Adobe
Acrobat Connect Pro, the company’s comprehensive Web conferencing and eLearning
solution. The version includes new functionality that enriches online
communication and collaboration, enabling organizations and schools to offer
more engaging rapid training, interactive virtual classes and dynamic online
meetings.
Acrobat Connect Pro includes many new features for Web
conferencing such as options for archiving and editing recorded online
meetings; new presence capabilities that can allow federation with popular
instant messaging (IM) clients; and powerful compliance and usage reporting
tools. eLearning enhancements include break-out rooms to let students in
virtual classes initiate separate conversations online; rapid authoring of
video-based content; integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS) from
Blackboard and SumTotal; and tools that track and organize online classes.
Users also can easily tailor training sessions or meetings that help capture
participants’ attention and increase knowledge retention, resulting in an
online learning experience remarkably similar to an in-person class.
Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (TABS) has been
using Acrobat Connect Pro to provide dealers and employees with training and
presentations ranging from compliance issues to new product introductions.
“With Acrobat Connect Pro, we have been able to reach more people and maintain
greater control over the content, which has given us a much higher degree of
training consistency,” said Steve Bamberger, national training manager,
eLearning, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. “Integrating Acrobat
Connect Pro into our online training initiatives has been enormously
instrumental in helping us enhance communications and grow business lines, and
we’ve been able to extend this enrichment to other teams for use in product
launches and customer meetings.”
Combined with the new version of Adobe Presenter, also
introduced today, Acrobat Connect Pro can enable users to hold engaging online
meetings that incorporate high-impact Adobe Flash Player compatible presentations.
Adobe Presenter can give virtually anyone the power to easily turn Microsoft
PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that include video,
narration, animations, interactivity and advanced quizzes. New capabilities in
this release include question pooling and randomization, easy-to-work-with
video, and the ability to publish presentations to mobile devices or within PDF
files.
“Organizations and educational institutions alike are
challenged with reaching highly distributed workforces or student populations,
as well as communicating, collaborating, and transferring knowledge at the
accelerated pace of today’s demands,” said Rob Tarkoff, senior vice president
of Adobe’s Business Productivity Business Unit. “Whether it’s meeting with co-workers
across departments, or conducting virtual classes across continents, Acrobat
Connect Pro can help break through technology barriers by letting virtually
anyone participate in effective online communication and knowledge transfer.”
Deployed using the Adobe Flash Player, already installed on
more than 98 percent of Internet connected PCs worldwide; Acrobat Connect Pro
lets virtually anyone connect to an online meeting or classroom instantly using
a simple Web address, regardless of operating system or browser version, and
without the need to download additional software.
Availability
Acrobat Connect Pro is expected to be available by the end of
May 2008, on a hosted or on-premise basis. It will be available in English,
French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese,
Korean, and simplified Chinese. For more information, visit www.adobe.com/acrobatconnectpro/.