Web conferencing: It's like being there, virtually

This limitation aside, Breeze is a showcase for Macromedia’s Flash technology, which drives the presenter and attendee UI. Presenters access various Pods (palettes), which have been prearranged for sharing, discussion, or collaboration. For example, the sharing arrangement includes Pods for video, attendees, chat, and notes, and they are neatly clustered around the main presentation stage.

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In addition to creating a pleasing appearance, Macromedia clearly seeks to enhance usability in Breeze 5. During PowerPoint presentations, a sidebar allowed me to quickly scan through thumbnails of slides and perform full-text search of slide content. Controls for other basic tasks, such as drawing annotations, are now placed where you’d expect them to be -- within the presentation frame.

A more significant change permits asynchronous content such as a recorded Breeze presentation with audio to be played within a live meeting. For hosts who aren’t familiar with a niche topic, this allows them to retrieve a multimedia presentation from the library and effortlessly include it in their overall meeting.

Pod management has been streamlined in Version 5. Each Pod includes a clearly marked pop-up menu capable of grouping relevant options. This functionality makes it much easier to change participant rights, including an attendee’s role or Pod access.

In keeping with a main industry trend, Breeze 5 boosts audio support. Breeze’s VoIP setup wizard optimizes settings, including sensing background noise so that you can hear users only when they speak. I controlled audio-conferencing functions from the unified Breeze audio interface, including calling participants.

Another previously weaker area, Q&A sessions, is now far less disruptive. As presenter, I revealed a Q&A Pod that collected questions from a chat Pod. I then answered these queries as time permitted -- both publicly and privately -- and forwarded a few to another presenter. In the past, presenters had to pay attention to their main content while monitoring real-time chat.

In a similar way, Breeze 5 allowed me to perform “behind-the-scenes” content preparation and layout customization during a meeting, which I then showed to the live audience when all was ready.

The hallmark presentation part of this product, Breeze Presenter, remains strong. I quickly edited audio that accompanied PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, Breeze provides four new question types -- fill-in-the-blank, rating scale, matching, and short answer -- and question branching. Plus, quiz feedback can now be provided using audio and video. These capabilities form the foundation of the training module, and trainers can now use a wizard for creating progressive learning tracks. I built a custom program that blended self-paced courses and live training. It is also easy to assign prerequisites, scoring, and completion requirements and to view reports that show employee participation.

Breeze also maintains its Web Services Framework. For this test, I used the software’s XML output to build a personalized course list that appeared in a Microsoft SharePoint portal.

Finally, Breeze Events is a new application for managing large meetings. I created custom online self-registration forms and was able to track responses, authorize participation, and create post-event follow-up e-mails.