Microsoft Tech-Ed 2007 conference was the stage where the company showcased the upcoming version of Office Live Meeting. With advanced support for live 360-degree video, VoIP and rich media integration Office Live Meeting, is expected to also feature "2007" in the final name and to be available in the fall of this year. Microsoft informed that the upcoming version of Live meeting will also bring to the table an overhauled graphical user interface and integrated collaboration. Microsoft's next major release of the web conferencing service is focused on delivering an enhanced experience as far as online meetings go, but also to improve the adjacent events and training.

"The 2007 release of Office Live Meeting is a prime example of Microsoft's software-plus-services in action," said Kim Akers, general manager, Unified Communications Group, Microsoft Corp. "It's important for us to offer our customers choice and flexibility between software that is hosted, such as the next release of Live Meeting, or software that is deployed and managed on-premise, such as the conferencing capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007."

Microsoft has failed to accurately pinpoint the launch date for Office Live Meeting 2007, but did emphasize the fact that the fall 2007 launch will be synonymous with the translating 10 years of Web conferencing operating experience, feedback and input into reality. In this context, the Redmond Company promised that the new UI will ensure enhanced content focus and that Office Live Meeting 2007 will also deliver high-fidelity shared and local recording capabilities and better support for ad-hoc collaboration sessions, web meetings and online communications.

Office Live Meeting is of course just a piece of the Microsoft's unified communications offering puzzle with Office Communications Server 2007 at the core. As such, the web conferencing service will also feature two-way phone or VoIP capabilities, extensive file embedding options and live webcam video.