What’s New in Adobe Connect 10.8?

Adobe Connect 10.8 is a limited release and as such will only be available for on-premise and Managed services deployments. It will not be rolled out to the Hosted Services.

On-premise deployments: Will be available from Jun 8, 2020.
Managed services: Contact your Adobe Connect Managed Services (ACMS) representative to schedule an update.

What’s new?

HTML CLIENT FOR HOSTS AND PRESENTERS
With Adobe Connect 10.8, the hosts and presenters will be able to seamlessly start a meeting, a virtual classroom, or a webinar with HTML client in their web browser without downloading additional software.

Inside the HTML client, hosts would be able to

• Start and manage meetings, virtual classrooms and webinar sessions.
• Upload and share supported content types — PowerPoint files, PDF documents, MP4 videos, MP3 audio, Captivate and Presenter files (HTML or hybrid formats).
• Use Whiteboard for drawings and annotations on content.
• Share their camera.
• Start and manage audio conference.
• Create, edit, change and manage layouts and pods.
• Access the hosts and presenter area.
• Switch to prepare mode.
• Get host controls for all pods.
• The only restriction of the HTML client is that the hosts cannot screen share from the browser. They will need to install and launch the existing Adobe Connect meeting application in order to share their screen.

Apart from the HTML client, hosts and presenters can continue to join through the previously supported methods — the Adobe Connect desktop application and the Adobe Connect Flash-based browser client.

Account administrators and room owners can choose whether to enable or disable the HTML client for participants at the account or room level. For more information on how to enable these settings, see Enabling Adobe Connect HTML Client.

HTML CLIENT IMPROVEMENTS
Following improvements and new features will be available to hosts and presenters in the HTML Client:

Notes Pod

• Ability to add hyperlinks in Notes pod.
• The Notes pod title is also included while exporting Notes pod as text file or emailing Notes pod.Chat Pod
• Emailing chat history will now include the Chat pod title.
• The email chat option will also include the chat transcript from various open conversation threads that the host is part of, including Everyone tab, Chat with hosts, and any private chats.
• The chat pod display has been further optimized to display more messages in a given screen area.Attendee Pod
• Various attendee pod menu controls have been optimized for better access.
• Added full screen option in Chat Pod for enhanced accessability.Breakout Rooms
• Added the ability to rename breakout rooms. (Note: when a breakout room is renamed, all associated pods titles reflect the new name).
• Added the ability to rotate participants in various breakout rooms.

Share Pod

• Added support for gif files in Share Pod (Note: gif files are still not supported when viewed directly from Adobe Connect Central pages).
• Hosts can now drag-n-drop supported content from their local machine in the share pod.Whiteboard
• Improved the whiteboard performance overall including when drawing long patterns and when multiple users are drawing simultaneously.

File Share Pod

• Hosts can now drag-n-drop files (upto 5) to File Share pod.Layouts
• Added ability to search for layouts in ‘Manage Layouts’ view.
• Added ability to lock layouts to prevent fat finger errors during live presentations.
• Enhanced ‘Manage Layouts’ view to support multi-column view.

Host and Presenter Area

• Presenter only area is renamed to Host and Presenter area
• Host and Presenter area can now be made visible to either only hosts or to both hosts and presenters.

Prepare Mode

• Prepare mode has been visually enhanced to show the live pods distinctively

Miscellaneous Improvements

• Added full screen option in Chat, Attendee, Q&A, Poll, File share and Weblinks pods for enhanced accessability. Host have the option to enable or disable the full screen option for all attendees at room level.
• Added a new Recording reminder prefence to prompt hosts to start recording during a new session.
• Added a new preference for automatic buffering of mp4 videos at participants end.

MEETING LAUNCH WORKFLOW
Option now shown to all browser users joining a virtual classroom, a meeting, or a webinar session to join through browser (with HTML client or with classic Flash client) or Connect desktop application meeting.

ENHANCED RIGHTS FOR PARTICIPANTS
The participants can now be given enhanced rights for various pods including webcam rights and drawing rights in the HTML client. The participants in HTML client will now get presenter rights when moved to breakout rooms.

ADOBE CONNECT CENTRAL PAGES
The content uploaded and shared from Adobe Connect Central pages will now open in HTML format.

MISCELLANEOUS IMPROVEMENTS AND CHANGES
Added the following legal disclamer in login page — ‘The Adobe General Terms of Use will govern use of Adobe Connect’.
A ‘What’s New’ information dialog is now shown to let users learn more about new features and improvements in the new release version. The information dialog is shown only once to the users joining through HTML client.
Any new flash only Adobe Captivate and Adobe Presenter content cannot be uploaded from either Connect Central or from within meetings.
The video published from HTML client is set at 180p.
When screenshare is present in the meeting, the video feed will drop to 180P for all publishers (flash or html)
Inactive video cells in Video Pod when in Grid layout are automatically paused.
Upgraded JDK to version 1.8.0_231
Upgraded log4j to version 2.12.1
Upgraded spring.jar to version 5.2.4
Upgrade Tomcat version to 9.0.27