CIT Web Collaboration Makes Meeting a Breeze

Do you have a meeting at Executive Boulevard but no time to take the shuttle? Are you tired of trying to find a free conference room convenient to everybody? CIT's Web Collaboration Services are here to help you overcome the difficulties of travel time and geographical locations. Offering virtual meeting space at NIH since February 2005, CIT’s current Breeze hardware configuration has the capacity for 1,200 concurrent users. CIT’s present licensing offers two seminar rooms of 50 and 150 users, and will support up to a total of 600 simultaneous users.

What Is It?

CIT's Web Collaboration uses Adobe’s Breeze Meeting to provide Desktop Web Conferencing - Internet-based, synchronous, real-time meetings with participants in multiple, geographically distributed locations using audio and video input devices such as desktop cameras and speaker phones. Breeze enables users to see and speak with colleagues or collaborators across the globe – or just across the NIH campus. In addition, NIH Web Collaboration is a tool with many uses, ranging from rapidly training users with e-learning lectures and online quizzes to conveniently allowing a telecommuter to stay in touch with the office.

Features

Desktop Web Conferencing allows meeting participants to view and hear each other, access shared content, share applications and screens with remote control, markup documents, perform electronic white-boarding, and present slide-shows. Additional functions may include surveys, integration with shared virtual workspace, and presence management.

CIT Web Collaboration Services offer the following features through Adobe’s Breeze:

• Customized virtual conference rooms available 24/ 7


• Easy to use and integrates with Microsoft Outlook


• Provides collaboration, document sharing, white-boarding, chat, and online polling capabilities


• Uses Flash to deliver interactive content on the Web, and provides unique support for video, voice, data, animations and simulations


• Allows viewing and presenting meetings on the many platforms used throughout NIH: Windows, Macs, Unix, and Linux. Currently both PCs and Macs can present


• Rapidly delivers online training courses


• Supports online quizzes

Voice in Breeze is possible through Voice over IP (VoIP). We recommend that when using the voice feature, you test your conference with VoIP prior to the meeting, or you can schedule an audio conference using Premiere, which is tightly integrated with Breeze. A Premier account can also be obtained through CIT by contacting the NIH Breeze Admin (see below for contact info). Or you can use an existing teleconferencing solution.

Creating/Attending Meetings

To create meetings, or to access tightly locked-down content, you need a Breeze account. If you’d like to request an account, simply send an e-mail to NIHBreezeAdmin@mail.nih.gov with the necessary information to enable billing. Contact your administrative staff for that information. If you are simply attending a meeting, an account is not needed. Non-NIH employees can attend and even create meetings, as long as they are sponsored by an NIH IC. Anyone from anywhere in the world can access Breeze using the Internet.

Costs

Breeze costs 10 cents per minute per connected user. CIT does not charge for viewing meeting recordings or setting up the meeting room, and we do not charge if there is only one person in the meeting room. You can schedule meetings for up to 20 participants.

Contact Information and Help

To get more information about Breeze and view some of the easy-to-follow tutorials, visit the CIT Web Collaboration Web site – where we offer more than just tutorials. E-mail us at nihbreezeadmin@mail.nih.gov or call us at 301-435-8660.