The Meeting Suite is aimed at improving the effectiveness of distributed meetings, particularly audio conferencing. We define distributed meetings broadly to mean two or more people in different locations doing any sort of communication. This includes a quick phone call, an instant message, an ad hoc meeting with a few people, a regularly scheduled group meeting, or a large formal meeting. As a result of studying the needs of people conducting various types of audio-only meetings, we created a suite of tools aimed specifically at solving those problems that have the biggest impact on meeting effectiveness.
The Meeting Suite has been in use internally at Sun Microsystems since June 2004. The software has evolved to include a set of features for a range of types of distributed meetings, from informal meetings to highly confidential, executive-level meetings. The key features can be seen in this three part video demonstration (in the form of Quicktime movies):
The audio features included in the Meeting Suite are based on the SunTM Labs Voice Bridge which provides both high-fidelity, stereo audio as well as the infrastructure to support such features as private voice chat, waiting rooms, and individual volume control.
