The next wave of Microsoft's Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) unit products, slated for 2006, is coming into clearer focus.

On the roadmap are new RTC client, server and services offerings, according to company officials, who outlined the division's plans during a recent Microsoft Web cast.

The forthcoming RTC line-up includes "Next Gen Server," the next release of Microsoft's Live Communications Server corporate instant-messaging server product; "Next Gen Communicator," the next release of the Office Communicator instant-messaging client; and Live Meeting 8, the next release of its Web conferencing software.

Microsoft officials and third-party partners had been hinting that Microsoft was building a server-based version of its Office Live Meeting Web/video conferencing software. It turns out, instead, that Microsoft is planning to build Live Meeting conferencing capabilities directly into Next Gen Server.

In addition to on-premise Web conferencing, Next Gen Server also will deliver multi-point audio/video and business-process integration functionality, company officials confirmed.

Next Gen Communicator (the version that follows the recently unveiled Communicator Web client and soon-to-be-released Communicator Mobile Client) will provide group instant-messaging, rich presence and ad-hoc meeting functionality.

When asked whether Microsoft is looking to build Next Gen Communicator into Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft officials have been noncommittal in their answers. Windows XP currently ships with Windows Messenger, one of Microsoft's three different instant-messaging clients.

But Microsoft recently demonstrated a Vista feature, known as Meeting Space, that allowed users to set up meetings on the fly. For now, Microsoft officials are not saying whether the ad-hoc meeting capability is coming from the RTC division.

The 2006 version of the Live Meeting "service," which Microsoft is calling "Live Meeting 8," also is part of Microsoft's 2006 RTC family. Live Meeting 8, according to company officials, will include support for full-duplex VOIP, enhanced "e-Learning Meeting" support and Webcam video and multimedia support.

Again, it is not clear whether the Webcam support will be the long-awaited commercialization of Microsoft's RingCam technology. RingCam is a Microsoft-Research-developed hardware/software bundle designed to deliver and record a 360-degree view of a meeting.The technology has been in development for more than three years.

The VOIP component will likely incorporate technology from Global IP Sound (GIPS), a VOIP vendor with whom Microsoft recently inked a licensing deal. GIPS officials said that Microsoft is expected to embed GIPS' technology into future MSN and Microsoft RTC solutions.

"MSN will use GIPS VoiceEngine, while RTC will take advantage of GIPS AEC (Acoustic Echo Cancellation) and GIPS AGC (Auto Gain Control) solutions to support those services for users that require high quality VoIP functionality," according to a GIPS-issued press release.

(This is an updated version of an article which appeared in the July 14, 2005, issue of the Microsoft Watch newsletter. Want to see what other Microsoft news nuggets you might have missed? Sign up today for a free two-week trial subscription to Microsoft Watch.)