What is going to be new in the upcoming all new Sametime 8.5? The new release brings out radical changes to Sametime meetings and Sametime instant messaging. These changes introduce many enhancements to the product by means of improved meeting UI interface with many useful features such as chats, poll, record and report functions. Sametime connect client has been enhanced to conduct real-time audio/video chats. In addition, users can initiate and connect to chat sessions via web browser. In this article, we'll provide an overview of enhancements and features in each of the major areas: the Sametime meeting server, Sametime Connect client, Sametime web client and system administration. This article assumes that you are familiar with the Sametime Meetings and Sametime Connect client.
Sametime 8.5 Family:
Sametime 8.5 release will include the following products.
Sametime 8.5 System Console
Sametime 8.5 Meetings
Sametime 8.5 Community Server
Sametime 8.5 Proxy
Sametime 8.5 Gateway
Sametime 8.5 Media
Sametime System Console:
Sametime System Console is a web-based application which is used for installing, configuring, administering, and monitoring the Sametime 8.5 family of products. The main purpose of the Sametime System Console is to deploy and administer sametime products effectively.
Figure 1. Sametime System Console
Sametime Meetings:
Sametime 8.5 meetings will offer both rich client and web browser access to meetings. The new Sametime 8.5 meetings client will be delivered via a plug in to either Sametime Connect or Lotus Notes clients. Meeting joins will be extremely fast, compared to the time taken today.
Sametime 8.5 will also introduce a new web browser client which does not require any Java download for those viewing meeting content. This will enable fast, reliable entry into meetings for anyone with any popular Web browser. Users who wish to share application data or use audio or video using a Web browser client will require a download to their browser as Sametime does today.
Users of Web browsers and Sametime rich clients can find and search the full list of meeting rooms available in the Sametime Meeting Center.
Reservationless meeting "rooms".
Sametime 8.5 meeting rooms can be created and reused indefinitely and will be accessible through a readable URL which will never change. Simply being able to bookmark a link to such a meeting room will significantly improve a user's ability to locate and use an online meeting when needed. There is no need to reschedule a new meeting room every week. Content in the meeting such as slides and minutes can be added to and kept in the room from meeting to meeting. The room can be kept secure via passwords as in Sametime today.
In addition to the Sametime Connect enhancements, Sametime 8.5 includes new features to make it easier for you to attend and participate in Sametime meetings.
Figure 2. Sametime Meeting rooms
Sametime meetings take place in reservationless meeting rooms.
Meeting rooms give you a place and all the tools to carry out your online meetings. Meeting rooms have the following characteristics:
They do not "end," but rather remain over time until they are explicitly deleted.
Whatever content is stored in them, such as documents, presentations, and so forth, also remains until the meeting room owner removes it.
Meeting rooms can be hidden and password protected to ensure security.
Each meeting room has one owner, but the owner can give different roles to participants, such as allowing some participants to manage the meeting and others to play less active roles.
You can create a meeting room when you schedule a meeting in your Lotus Notes® or Microsoft® Outlook calendar. Or, you can create a meeting room independent of a scheduled meeting using the IBM Lotus Sametime Connect Sametime Meetings panel or the Lotus Sametime meeting room center in a browser.
Figure 3. Inside Sametime Meeting room
Unlike traditional scheduled meetings that have start and end times, a meeting starts when people join a meeting room. Any activity that takes place in the meeting room, such as participants joining, content being shared, and so on is captured in a meeting room report, which the meeting room owner can produce. When participants leave the meeting room, that meeting is over, but the meeting room and its contents remains.
Sametime Community Server:
Sametime® Community Server runs on Lotus Domino. It supports all presence (or awareness) and instant messaging activity in a Lotus Sametime community. Sametime client (UIM client) that contains a presence list must connect to the Sametime Community server for initiating chats and associated functions
Sametime Proxy :Sametime Proxy Server communicates with the Lotus Sametime Community Server, Lotus Sametime Meeting server, Lotus Sametime Business Card Server, and Lotus Sametime Telephony Conferencing Server. Users can initiate chats via web-based browser client and conduct instant meetings.
Figure 4. Sametime Proxy webclient
Sametime Gateway:
Sametime Gateway can connect with any non-sametime messaging client through the following gateways or communities:
Lotus Sametime Gateway
Sametime SIP Gateway (available in Sametime 6.5.1 and 7.0 versions)
AOL Instant Messenger
Google Talk
Jabber
Yahoo Messenger
Sametime Media:
Sametime Audio/video provides audio-visual and telephony services for meetings. It requires a Sametime Community Server. Sametime connect client is used to conduct 2 way or n-way AV chats between users.
Compatibility and requirements:
Supported server platforms include IBM AIX, IBM i5/OS, Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Novell SUSE Linux), Sun Solaris, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (including 64 bit versions). Sametime Community server supports IBM Lotus Domino 8.0.x or Domino 8.5. Sametime supports running on VMware ESX.
Supported client platforms include Linux (Red Hat Linux, Novel SUSE Linux), Apple Macintosh OS X 10.5, Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista. The Sametime Connect Client runs on Citrix XenAPP for presence and many basic text instant messaging features.
Supported PC Web browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Firefox 3.0 and higher (Windows, MacOS, Linux) and Apple Safari (Windows and MacOS)
Sametime 8.5 adds support for the following new platforms:
Domino 8.5
Microsoft Windows 2008 (32 bit and 64 bit Standard and Enterprise editions)
64 bit Linux Operating Systems (RHEL 5.x and SuSE 10.x)
Sametime's open architecture extends to the support of multiple LDAP directories, usually without requiring costly schema changes. Directories supported in Sametime 8.5 include Microsoft Active Directory on Windows 2003 or Windows 2008, Microsoft ADAM (Windows 2003), IBM Tivoli Directory, SunOne, Novell. Other LDAP's can be supported with the assistance of IBM Software Services for Lotus.
Sametime 8.5 supports the following mobile devices.
RIM Blackberry 8700, 7100, 8300 Curve, 9000 Bold and Storm
Nokia Enterprise eSeries: E51, E60, E61, E62, D65, E70, E90
Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 SE,
Windows Mobile 5 & 6 (Standard & Professional)
Sony Ericsson P1i
Apple iPhone & iPod Touch (browser)
Resources
Introducing Sametime 8.5
Sametime release news from ibm
Sametime 8.5 meetings beta
Sametime 8.5 Beta infocenter