One can find Feature details directly on the home page. Features overview is provided herein.   

4.0.Х set of features

User options of OpenMeetings satisfy to a "gentleman's" set of requirements for web conferencing systems.  When entering a demo website user observes the dashboard, see Fig.1  below, which by default looks absolutely equal irrespective of where a server part of OM is set up - on a demo website of developers or on a client's server. In the dashboard via menu, links and widgets user can do the following:

  1. start a new web conference;
  2. use virtual conference rooms;  
  3. create unlimited number of private virtual rooms via calendar screen;
  4. write to a chat and read chat messages from other participants;
  5. send e-mail invitations messages with option of automatic binding to virtual conference room and communicate with other users via the internal mail client, conduct a calendar for scheduling meetings with automatic mailing of invitations to all participants;
  6. manage directory of meetings recordings;
  7. test technical capability of his internet connection;
  8. edit his user profile;
  9. run a search in a database of OM registered users;
  10. read a news line of mail groups;
  11. control a dashboard layout through widgets;

  12. users with administrator permissions can create an unlimited number of groups, users, public and private virtual rooms for all of them.


Fig. 1 User dashboard on OM public demo server 

Virtual Rooms

Rooms can be of 3 different types: 1) «Conference» - with equal permissions for all participants (up to 32 persons), 2) «Webinar» - with limited permissions for video and moderation (up to 100 persons), c) «Interview» - with two video windows (up to 2 persons). When planning a meeting via calendar a room of selected type is created on the server automatically. All 3 types of public rooms are available on the demo server.

After entering the room user see several main components (Fig. 2):

  1. whiteboard to draw, write, upload pictures, video and documents in popular office formats (compatible with OpenOffice); it can be several boards in one room;
  2. whiteboard bar to create several whiteboards for different purposes;
  3. toolbar and related properties pop-up window for whiteboard.
  4. video windows of all conference participants on top of white board, which can be easily moved elsewhere;
  5. top menu for management user actions and rights;
  6. panel of participants/documents and recordings lists;
  7. panels for chat, activities and actions.

Room provides the following functional set:

  • multimedia (audio and video) data transmission;
  • whiteboard for teamwork with documents, images, video;
  • screen sharing: one of the participants in virtual room can share his desktop screen with the others of web conference;
  • chat common and private;
  • polls for participants' voting and publication of the results;
  • management of user permissions inside a room.

One can go to the dashboard or directly into the room also by following a link from any site or portal integrated with OM. More details about integration are described below.

Fig.2 Web conference room view.

Mobile Client

Mobile version is adapted for use on mobile devices with reduced functionality compared to desktop version. The mobile client user can enter virtual conference room from his device, see video windows of the participants, hear and communicate with them, write in private and public chats.  In the meantime, mobile user does not have access to the whiteboard and shared screen yet, he cannot moderate the meeting, follow the list of participants, upload files. So far, mobile application OmMobile is available for Android, the release for Apple mobile devices under iOS is planned.

The full functionality of OpenMeetings will be available to mobile users after porting user interface to html5/webRTC technology. Nevertheless, for small size mobile devices (phones), the reduced mobile version will in any case remain the most convenient option.

Integration Options

The OM developers made more than 10 integration modules (plug-ins). Predominantly, these are popular CMS systems. Some plugins can be downloaded for free from OM website, but not all of them are up-to-date and compatible with OM latest versions. Most plugins for the latest versions of OM are paid being not supported by the free community.


 

 



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