OpenMeetings 1.0 RC1 and Moodle Mod 0.6

we are happy to announce to release 1.0 RC1 of OpenMeetings and the compatible Moodle Module 0.6.

Major changes in Version 1.0 RC1

• New third room-type: "Restricted"
• New Calendar Module to Plan Meetings
• New Room configuration with option to add Default Moderators and Super Moderator
• Super Moderators (cannot be removed)
• Simplified and reworked UI, various bugfixes and help-texts
• New Secure Method for generating HASH's for direct Login via SOAP
• OpenMeetings as WAR-Version
• Various fixes and improvements
• Change to Eclipse Public License for OpenMeetings

Major Changes in Moodle Mod 0.6

• Compatible with latest Nightly Builds and Version 1.0 RC1
• Grouping and Group Configuration
• New 3th Room-Type "Restricted" available via Module Form

There are also Nightly Builds now available and you can compile a complete distribution only by using ANT.
http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/wiki/BuildSourceNew?tm=4#Nightly_Builds

And you can develop all tools according to our new source setup by using simply Eclipse tools.
http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/wiki/BuildSourceNew

Download:
http://openmeetings.googlecode.com/files/openmeetings_1_0_r2688.zip

Moodle Mod:
http://openmeetings.googlecode.com/files/openmeetings_moodle_mod_0_6.zip

Changelog:
http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/wiki/ChangeLog

Flash Player hidden feature - Echo Cancellation and P2P Live Streaming

I recently discovered two features of the Flash Player that are only available for "Premium" customers. These are interesting for Web-Conferencing Systems.

Did you ever notice that this flag in the ActionScript API *useEchoSuppression* does not seem to have any effect to the behavior? (API Docs: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0_de/ActionScriptLangRefV3/flash/media/Microphone.html#useEchoSuppression)
Well it is because there IS NO! This echo Cancellation is only available if you use Adobe Connect Pro. You can find a hole history of reports about this feature and people that investigated at the Adobe Bug Tracker (you have to sign up): http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-273 (this issue has started in August 2008, so its not really new). It seems like Adobe has the Code for the Echo Cancellation ready since SWF 9. But they refuse to include it into the Flash Player for everybody. You get an additional Add-On for this feature.
Another interesting feature can be seen live when you watch the CNN Live Broadcast:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream1

you should watch your network through-put. You will encounter after some minutes, that your upload is as big as your download rate! That means the Flash Player is able to use P2P to broadcast a Live Stream. Quite nice, unfortunately it seems the same thing here, you need a modified Version of the Flash Player for that feature.

Lets see how long they can follow that route...