Over the past few years, the Adobe Connect team has been working on improvement and innovations that deliver enhanced functionality and user experience. Adobe Connect 11.2 was released earlier this year, and brings alot of these efforts to bear, both with new capabilities and fixes.
In June 2017, Adobe announced the retirement of Flash, by 31 December 2020. The long transition would allow users to gradually move away from Flash. Now, Adobe Connect users can no longer join from old flash-based browsers like IE11. To join an Adobe Connect room, you need to either use a modern HTML-based browser or one of the new native applications for desktop or mobile.
From 2017 to the big release of Adobe Connect 11 in 2020, Connect has progressively moved towards a modern flash-free architecture and the next 6 months are crucial as the final leg of this transition as Adobe helps customers complete their move to HTML.
Adobe Connect 11.2
Adobe Connect 11.2 upgrade comes with 4 exciting new capabilities and other smaller enhancements:
- New Native application for MacOS
- Native Closed Captioning
- Enhanced Audio option
- Consistent user experience for all participants in a room with Standard View as new default
New Native Application for MacOS
While Mac users have been able to use Standard view via a web browser for some time now, this new Mac App provides a richer experience with improved audio and support for HD video, and more webcam feeds. The new application brings complete Standard View experience to Mac users while maintaining support for the Classic View until the end of June 2021. Adobe recommends that users update to the latest version of the application, which includes bug fixes and optimisations to provide the best Adobe Connect experience.
Native Closed Captioning
Adobe Connect 11.2 now features Closed Captioning natively inside the application without requiring extensions or custom pods. Captioning can be enabled by manual cautioners in various languages, or by captioning services like StreamText. Participants have the ability to customise font size, colour and placement in compliance with WCAG 2.0 requirements. The captions with chosen settings during the session, persist in the recordings and across all layouts.
Enhanced Audio
Hosts and administrators can now choose to enable Enhanced Audio experience for browser and app participants using Voice over IP, Universal Voice, or Integrated Telephony. The modern audio codecs allow us to deliver remarkable improvement in audio quality with little discernible change in bandwidth.
The Enhanced Audio experience will be delivered using a modern audio codec for rooms set to Standard View. It is supported in the latest versions of Adobe Connect desktop applications for Windows, Mac, and HTML-based browsers.
Consistent user experience for all participants in a room with Standard View as new default
With Adobe Connect 11.2, all participants in a room will experience a consistent UI. New rooms will default to Standard View. Old rooms will continue the pre-existing interface settings. The hosts or account administrators will have an option to disable standard view as default and use classic view until June 2021.
Usability enhancements in Adobe Connect 11.2
These smaller enhancements should make a big impact on your ease of use.
- Q&A pod – The Q&A pod made better with more efficient use of space, replay indicator, an option to all answered questions at any time, and more.
- Attendee pod – The attendee pod in version 11.2 is more usable, making it easier to Select All or Clear All participants for breakout rooms with just a click.
- Recording editor – The updated HTML recording editor for smoother and more precise functionality.
