I don’t think it’s giving away any secrets to say that Adobe has been working on the next release of Adobe Connect web conferencing for some time now. They invited some lucky users to beta test the product, and I got in the program so I could see what is coming.
The terms of the beta program do not allow me to divulge features or functionality before Adobe makes them public. All I can say is that there are some VERY welcome additions coming up that are going to make structured webinars much more effective on the Adobe platform.
Why bring all this up now? Because Adobe just posted their first publicly-accessible sneak peek at new functionality. Alistair Lee added a post today to the Adobe Connect blog. The post contains a video showing enhanced functionality when editing Connect recordings.
It is easier to work with the timeline index that lets users jump to a spot in the playback, you can select certain audience-oriented content pieces that should be visible or hidden in the playback, and you can show attendee contributions such as chat and Q&A while hiding their individual names.
The index feature was always a little arbitrary, but in the new release you will be able to edit the index titles, delete ones you don’t want, and add your own bookmarks at any point in the timeline.
As far as I know, Adobe has not formally announced a target date for general availability of the next release. We’ll just have to keep waiting. I’m hoping they will give out more advance peeks at new functionality like this one.
