Sametime 8.5.2 clients: Something for everyone!

We have discussed many of the nuances of Sametime 8.5.2 servers. Let us now turn our attention to Sametime clients. Sametime 8.5.2 offers not only server architecture flexibility but many client options as well. Companies and organizations can pick and choose how they deploy and provide Sametime services for their users.

Let us start with the Sametime Connect Client. This is the primary Sametime client. If you are already a user of Sametime software, then you may be most familiar with this client. In Sametime 8.5.2, if your environment includes a Meeting Server, then your users will see a new Sametime Meetings section in their client view.

Lotus Notes 8.5.x users with the embedded Sametime client will see it as well. Refer to the Sametime Meetings area in the following screenshot:

If you click on the meeting icon, then a new dialog box appears that shows several options for what will be displayed in the Sametime Meetings area. Scheduled Meetings displays all meeting events, and you can click on the item to quickly join the meeting.

To set preferences for meeting room servers, a new section has been added to the preference list. Sametime Meeting Rooms allows users to create profiles for each meeting room server community to which they belong.

Meetings can also be accessed directly from the new Sametime meeting shelf. In Sametime 8.5.2, meetings are now "virtual conference rooms" in that the meetings are persistent and users will not have to schedule them each time they need to meet online.

The best meeting experience is from the rich meeting client that users simply either access through the Sametime Connect client or the embedded Sametime client by clicking on Enter Room. Some new meeting features include:

• The ability to add or invite additional attendees to the meeting, by simply dragging their name from their Sametime Contact list into the meeting room

• Customization of the meeting room layout by dragging areas and resizing

• Photos of participants can be included, and audio and video integration is much simpler to use than in previous versions of Sametime

• Client-side recording of meeting

Meeting rooms can also be accessed from a web view which is hosted by the Meeting Server's HTTP proxy. The new web meeting view has a similar appearance to that in the rich meeting room client. However, users cannot modify the screen layout dynamically and there are a reduced set of features. If a user is on the Proxy client, then they will automatically be directed into the browser interface for their meeting as the Proxy client has no rich meeting client available to it. Whichever meeting client you use, you and your users will notice how quickly the meeting rooms load in the browser. In previous versions of Sametime, a Java applet was required to load first. This was sometimes difficult to implement especially when users did not have administrative access to their workstations or were working from kiosks. With the Ajax underpinnings of the new web interface, this is no longer an issue. And meetings are easier to join—with just a single click.

Sametime 8.5.2 introduced a new client—a lightweight browser-based client that can also be used by smartphone clients such as iPhone, iPads, and Android devices. These new Sametime clients include functions such as awareness, online status, business cards, and group messaging.

The following table describes Sametime client operating systems and browser support. Check out the following website for more detailed and up-to-date information: https://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27016451.

Client	Operating system	Operating system releases and browsers supported
Sametime Connect	Windows	Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 or later; Microsoft Windows XP Pro 64-bit (32-bit certification only); Microsoft Windows Vista Business 32-bit (note "Aero" GUI support for all Vista versions); Microsoft Windows Vista Business 64-bit; Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise; Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition; Meeting Playback: VideoLan Client (VLC) Media player; Note: 2 GB physical memory (RAM) recommended, 1GB minimum
Lotus Notes embedded client	Windows	IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 FP1 standard (with Sametime 8.5 client upgrade installed); Sametime 8.5 supports Meetings calendar integration through Notes 8.5.1 FP1 standard
Web browser	Windows	Mozilla Firefox 2.0 on Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10 SP2; Mozilla Firefox 3.0 on Microsoft Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista; Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 on Microsoft Windows XP Pro; Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 on Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Microsoft Windows Vista, and Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC; Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 on Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Microsoft Windows Vista, and Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC; Web client JDK/SDK; IBM or Sun JRE 1.5, and 1.6 for Web Conferencing; IBM or Sun JRE 1.5 and 1.6 for STLinks API applications; Audio/video not supported except in Classic Meetings
	Linux	Mozilla Firefox 2.0 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10 SP2; Mozilla Firefox 3.0 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2. Note: Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is not supported on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10 SP2 since the operating system patch is required to run it.; Audio/video not supported
	Mac	Apple—Safari 3.2 and 4.0.x on Mac OSX 10.5.x; Mozilla Firefox 3.0 on Mac OSX 10.5.x; Web client JDK/SDK; IBM or Sun JRE 1.5 for Web Conferencing; IBM or Sun JRE 1.5 and 1.6 for STLinks API applications; Audio/video not supported
Mobile	Windows	Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 SE Pocket PC; Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 PocketPC/Smartphone; Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 Standard/Professional
	Nokia	ESeries
	iPhone	Apple iPhone first generation 3G, 3GS (2.x or higher OS versions) and all supported Apple—Safari browser versions; Apple iPod Touch first and second generations with all supported Apple—Safari browser versions
	Android	OS2 and higher
	RIM Blackberry	7100, 8100, 8700, 8300, 8800, 9000, 9530
	Sony Ericsson	M600i, P990i, P1i