Great news: Cisco WebEx will be upgrading our stanford.webex.com service to the newest release, Cisco WebEx Business Suite 27.20 (WBS27.20). The change will take place on Saturday, November 27, 2010, between 9 p.m. and 12 midnight PDT (GMT-7).
All WebEx users — you, your hosts, and attendees — will be offered the new version of WebEx when entering a session for the first time after the upgrade. You'll experience an improved look and feel, as well as several feature additions and enhancements.
Here are two documents to help you become more familiar with this release:
What upgrades do you get with WBS 27.20?
Cisco WebEx Meeting Center
High Quality (HQ)video
This release introduces a new high-quality video experience with the following features and functionality:
- New higher resolution video — 640 x 360 pixel resolution at up to 30 frames per second.
To fully experience the video functionality, we recommend the following web cameras that have been tested and work well with WebEx HQ video:- Cisco VT Camera II
- Cisco VT Camera III
- Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000
- Microsoft LifeCam HD
- Tandberg Precession HD
- Full screen video display mode with Active Speaker and up to five video thumbnails.
Additional video thumbnails can be viewed by scrolling. - Automatic Active Speaker switching.
Note: Active Speaker functionality works with sites that have integrated audio (WebEx Audio and Telephony Service Partners). For sites without integrated audio, the Active Speaker will follow the presenter's video. - Active Speaker video window is displayed when sharing in full screen application or desktop sharing mode.
- Presenter can lock the video on a single participant with the Active Speaker Lock Video feature.
- Self video is displayed as picture within picture.
- Auto adjusting video to the highest quality for each participant according to their available bandwidth and computer capabilities.
- Attendees can connect and switch webcams while in a meeting with "camera hot plug-in."
- HQ video support for Java clients.
User experience enhancements
This release introduces several new user interface enhancements for a converged web, audio, and HQ video meeting experience. These include:
- Quick Start page
Meeting actions such as inviting and reminding participants to join a meeting, sharing your desktop/application, etc., have been consolidated for ease of use. The following items are now represented on the Quick Start page via three individual buttons:- Join Audio Conference
- Invite & Remind participants
- Single sharing button for Desktop, Application, or Document sharing
All secondary meeting action options are available after clicking one of the three buttons, such as send an email to invite attendees, select specific applications to share, etc. This includes all original Quick Start features and functions in WebEx Meeting Center.
- Participant Panel
- Video has been incorporated into the Participant Panel above the participant list. Note that there is no longer a separate video panel.
- The video displayed at the top of the Participant Panel will automatically switch, based on the Active Speaker.
Note: Active Speaker functionality works with sites that have integrated audio (WebEx Audio and Telephony Service Partners). For sites without integrated audio, the Active Speaker will follow the presenter's video. - Two new buttons are displayed next to each participant in the participant list:
- Send/Stop Video (for those with a webcam)
- Mute/Un-Mute Audio
- Self video is displayed as picture within picture in the corner of Active Speaker.
- Full screen sharing mode
When a presenter is sharing in full screen mode, the Active Speaker and video will be shown through a separate floating window called a widget. - Floating icon tray
- The Floating Icon Tray has been redesigned and enhanced with new icons and labels.
- By default, the Floating Icon Tray is docked at the top of the screen when in sharing mode. It can also be moved to the right or left as needed.
- A Record button has been added to the Floating Icon Tray.
- When the Floating Icon Tray is hidden, notifications will fade in and out as the following events happen: user joins or leaves meeting, chat message is received, or participant sends video.
- Audio dialog box
Microphone and Speaker volume controls have been integrated into the audio dialog box when using VoIP.
Training Center
Single-point and Multi-point Video are now supported for attendees with the Linux operating system.
All centers
WebEx Personal Audio (PCN) for WebEx sites using the WBS27 or above release
- With this release, the existing WebEx audio-only service will be discontinued. At the same time, WebEx will introduce a new offering, WebEx Personal Conferencing. The new WebEx Personal Conferencing service is an easy-to-use service that seamlessly integrates audio, web, and video conferencing into a single, versatile meeting service. The new Personal Conferencing service will be available as an option for users of the WebEx Meeting Center service.
- The WebEx scheduling option, Request Conference Number, which allows a host to request a passcode for a scheduled audio-only meeting, is also being retired at this time. Pre-existing Request Conference Number scheduled meetings will still operate.
Browser and productivity tools support
- Support for Chrome 5 on Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6
- Support for Microsoft Office 2010 (32-bit) to easily schedule or start a WebEx meeting with WebEx Productivity Tools and Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Office.
Forgot password link and site admin options
- When logging in to a WebEx account, the Forgot your password? link located under the Username and Password boxes will be displayed for all sites. This enables users who have forgotten their password to click the link to get assistance to retrieve their password.
- In Site Admin, there are two forgot password options that can be set when a user clicks the Forgot your password? link:
- You can specify to send the user an email with a link to change their password
- For SSO (single sign-on) sites, you can specify that the user's request for help be directed to the site administrator(s). Password requests can be directed to specific email addresses. Both the email addresses and the email content are configurable in Site Admin.
Email template changes
- Disclaimer notices for NBR (Network-Based Recording) have been updated in the host meeting notices and attendee invitation templates.
- Explicit references to specific smartphones are being replaced with a general reference to "mobile devices."
