Market-leading collaboration environment for the cloud deeply integrates with Microsoft technologies

LANSDALE, Pa. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — January 26, 2012 — ProtonMedia has introduced ProtoSphere 2.0, the company’s immersive business collaboration environment for the enterprise. ProtoSphere 2.0 is an innovative approach in immersive, social, learning and collaboration for global, multi-national enterprise organizations in life sciences, health care, insurance, consumer products, high-tech, energy/manufacturing, and other vertical markets. Organizations can now create an always-on virtual workspace where, at any moment, they can bring together the right people from around the globe and their content to increase the speed and effectiveness of knowledge transfer, learning, and social engagement and provide context to business-critical information.

ProtoSphere 2.0 includes major new features, including:

• Deeper integration with Microsoft Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) offerings – Lync Server 2010 and SharePoint 2010. ProtoSphere 2.0 features Lync presence extending throughout the virtual immersive environment. This includes contact cards, voice conferencing, text messaging, enterprise-wide IM integration, application sharing, and the ability to invite individuals to join you directly in ProtoSphere with just a single click. ProtoSphere 2.0 also has compatibility with Microsoft Office Communicator.
• Enhanced integration with Microsoft SharePoint 2010. ProtoSphere 2.0 includes integration with enterprise SharePoint 2010 deployments for native content storage and full read/write access to document libraries. SharePoint enterprise social networking via MySite profiles can be tied to each collaborator’s avatar in a ProtoSphere immersive engagement.
• Enhanced Media Boards. New multi-content media boards within the immersive environment encourage dynamic presentations of live and stored content from multiple-sources, simultaneously, each with its own information format. All media boards can be co-viewed and discussed interactively by collaborators in a virtual social engagement. Media boards can be used to post and update content for brainstorming, forecasting, onboarding, business strategy, product development, and focus-group collaborations. Supported formats include popular Microsoft Office file-types used by PowerPoint, Word and Excel, text and image content, broadcast or stored video feeds, Adobe .pdf and Adobe Flash interactive, and any application that can run on the desktop.
• Build Your Own World . Administrators and virtual session organizers can now choose their own immersive rooms and spaces and monitor permission and access to meet their specific needs on demand. This provides the ability to select from a wide range of virtual room sizes, layouts, styles, and the number and arrangement of media boards, note boards, and SharePoint boards.
• Greater Moderator Controls . Moderators now have the ability to lock rooms, restricting access when meetings are in progress, and lock content within a location. Moderators can also proactively send individuals to specific locations enabling breakout meetings for corporate learning/training sessions.
• An Updated UI. ProtoSphere’s new application interface focuses on the end user, removing any unnecessary clutter and providing the most immersive experience possible. A new action bar provides contextual navigation elements when needed without taking up valuable real-estate on the interface. And existing Microsoft Lync users will find familiar interface elements of that platform.
• Usage Reporting and Monitoring. ProtoSphere administrators are provided the ability to run usage reports anytime they require from a simple-to-use web interface. This enables them to track the amount of time spent in different locations and overall product usage.
• Secure Authentication with Federated Services. All authentication in ProtoSphere is now accomplished via a federated relationship with a trusted identity provider. This allows users access into ProtoSphere without the need to create additional accounts, and frees IT and network administrators from the burden of managing a separate user store.

“ProtoSphere 2.0 has been a significant undertaking for ProtonMedia, and I could not be prouder of what our team has accomplished with this release,” says Ron Burns, CEO of ProtonMedia. “We have believed for some time that meetings alone are not real collaboration. ProtoSphere 2.0 is an extraordinary combination of a 3D immersive environment, a deep unified communications platform, the power of social networking, and the functionality of a next generation e-learning platform, all delivered in a cost-effective cloud offering. This holistic blend of content with context will bring new levels of efficiency and creativity to knowledge-focused industries.”

ProtoSphere 2.0 is available via ProtonMedia direct sales and select systems integrator partners and can easily be deployed within any organization through either a cloud-based SaaS offering or a traditional on-premise installation. Call 215-631-1401 for sales information. For more information on ProtoSphere, please visit ProtonMedia’s website or blog. To download a free demo of ProtoSphere, please visit ProtonMedia’s website .