[San Jose CA, Sept 3, 2004.] A new server software release brings even more functionality to Marratech, the only cross-platform, web-based e-meeting solution to combine high quality voice, video, whiteboard and application sharing in an encrypted, secure internet environment.

Marratech's new Portal 2 allows for easy integration with LDAP user directory services such as Open Directory or Microsoft Active Directory, further simplifying user management. Portal 2 also includes SIP support, making it possible to reach people without computer access and to have them join the voice portion of an e-meeting from their landline or mobile phone.

Portal 2 is web-based, even faster than before, and removes the need for text-based configuration files. The capacity and functionality of the Marratech Portal can be increased without reinstallation simply by supplying a new upgraded license file.

Said Joe Bishop of Marratech Business Development in San Jose: "Our customers already enjoy a collaboration and video conferencing tool which is simple to deploy, manage and upgrade. Our new management interface is even easier to use and gives significantly more administrative control of their e-meetings."

Administrators can set authentication on a per room basis, establish moderators for rooms, manage multiple server instances from a single web interface, provide telephony integration, and take advantage of a powerful web services architecture to enable integration into their own infrastructure.

"In short, they have total control of meeting functions and management in a familiar web browser environment," said Bishop.

The new portal incorporates several new structures, including the moderator function, a new user and group model and room templates, which increase flexibility and security for e-meetings. Users can now be members of one or more groups and each group can be given or denied access to certain meeting rooms. Authentication and access is on a room-by-room basis, so some meeting rooms can be open to any user, while others are reserved for specific groups.

A user nominated as a 'moderator' can access Marratech's 'kick' and 'lock' features, so only they can eject users and lock rooms. New templates allow administrators to quickly and easily build pre-configured e-meeting rooms adapted for various bandwidth limits.

Changes made to a master node can be automatically transferred to other servers in a cluster while the free Marratech Pro client software will auto-detect the nearest node using it to connect the user to a meeting. Marratech Pro will auto-detect and use IP multicast.

Added Bishop: "These significant enhancements simplify management, give greater control of meetings and optimize bandwidth utilization."