Broadcasting the Skype for Business MessageBroadcasting the Skype for Business Message

A new broadcasting capability for Skype for Business is one of many new tools Microsoft debuted as part of its empowerment push.

"Empowerment. It's the engine that drives human progress. Each of us strives to create new and better ways to reach our goals and empower others, to transform what's possible and give everyone the power to overcome limits. ... Each of us holds within us that vital spark, and together we will light the way. We will ignite the future."

With this poetic introduction, rapper Common set the scene for Microsoft Ignite, which kicked off yesterday and runs through the week in his hometown, Chicago.

Nadella and a slew of his executive chieftains previewed an array of new products, all focused around empowering IT professionals for the mobile-first, cloud-first organizations they're now serving. They reflect Microsoft's three "interlocking ambitions," Nadella said: to lead in an era of more personal computing, to reinvent the nature of work by bringing together business processes and productivity, and to build the intelligence cloud.

Many of the announcements struck a chord with me as a regular old user of Windows, Outlook, and various other Microsoft products. So I can imagine IT pros will find many attractive as well, like the Windows Update for Business, a new Windows 10 management option for security and feature updates; and the expanded tool options available today in technical preview for System Center Configuration Management for Windows 10. But, of course, the ones that stood out for me, relative to No Jitter, were those aimed at improving the collaborative experience.

During the keynote, for example, we learned that Microsoft is extending Skype for Business video conferencing with a broadcast capability. BJ Haberkorn, director of product management, and Ben Canning, partner director of program management, shared more details during an afternoon session overviewing Skype for Business.

With Broadcast Skype for Business Meetings, which will be available this summer for on-premises and cloud implementations, companies will be able to broadcast meetings to up to 10,000 people. Participants can be from within or outside of the company, Haberkorn said. Outlook will even suggest use of the broadcast capability should an organization set up a Skype for Business meeting with a lot of participants, he added.

The broadcast meetings run within the Microsoft Azure cloud, using Azure Media Services for streaming audio, video, and PowerPoint presentations. With built-in interoperability with Bing Pulse, team managers would be able to track sentiment and Yammer for audience conversations. Additionally, third parties will be able to add audience polling, formal Q&A, and other functionality, Microsoft said in a press release.

The broadcast capability "is a great example of hybrid -- you can deliver Skype for Business on premises, but take advantage of cloud services, too," Haberkorn said. And, the broadcast will scale down for any device, including Android tablets and iPads, and work in any browser.

Also of note is that the broadcast capability integrates with Office 365, and the recordings of meetings can run within a video portal for viewing on demand, Canning said. And, speaking to Microsoft's intelligence mantra, tying in histograms of the audio can help meeting organizations and speakers figure out which parts of the presentation resonated with the audience, and which didn't, he added.

Broadcast Skype for Business Meetings is but one of the many communications- and collaboration-focused bits to come out during yesterday's formal presentations and one-on-one meetings. So stay tuned, as we'll be sharing more throughout the week.

Follow Beth Schultz and No Jitter on Twitter and Google+!
@nojitter
@Beth_Schultz
Beth Schultz on Google+