Communicator for Mac 2011

Updated November 10 with more details on Mac Messenger 8.x for Hotmail.

Updated November 7 with answer re: Enterprise Voice and a question about forums you use -

Updated October 26 with a Volume License reference below

I have received a new Macbook Pro in order to get a first hand experience with the non-Windows communications with Lync Server 2010. The Office:Mac 2011 release introduces a change to the IM client experience by separating the personal and corporate clients as Windows did with Windows Messenger and Communicator. You now have Mac Messenger 8.x and Communicator for Mac 2011. Customers that were using Mac Messenger 7.x will have to upgrade to Mac Messenger 8.x for their personal or Windows Live account, the Communicator for Mac 2011 client only connects to OCS 2007 R2 and Lync Server 2010. At this time I have not used the Mac Messenger 8.x client.

So you should begin seeing some new posts from me about the IM, Meeting, Voice experiences with this new hardware and client. I will share that the first quick call I tried yesterday sounded ok on my side but my peer indicated it was not good quality for him. I think this is nothing more than the use of laptop speakers and microphone just as on my Lenovo T60p laptop. I will test with my USB headset in the future.

Looking for docs: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7c4f539d-eb3c-422a-9b35-022970fc9c34

Customers with a Volume License looking for the new Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 and Microsoft Communicator for Mac 2011 should look for the version that includes Standard in the name – Microsoft Communicator for Mac 2011 Standard. Thanks to Henry for asking about this.

There was an anonymous question about whether Communicator for Mac 2011 is a supported Enterprise Voice endpoint with OCS 2007 R2. Based on my usage and the content of this link the answer should be yes - https://mac2.microsoft.com/help/office/14/en-us/deploy/item/a8a2ef4e-c3b6-4f6d-840f-74f28e186036?category=e189da12-170f-4118-8d02-f66f4fd4c291  For those needing support, have you posted to any forums, if so I want to know what forum you are currently using, I suspect this one https://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/MacOtherProducts/  and I want to know if this is the forum you expect to use so I can figure out how to handle directing feedback to others for monitoring, also have you contacted support as support calls with voice tend to be more difficult and there is a chance both the Lync/OCS team and Mac team would need to collaborate. You should have seen my email alias one or two times in a post or the OCS forums and you can always use the contact form and I will reply.

TomL

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 07, 2010
    Any OC --> PSTN calls? Any A/V conference calls?

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2010
    Hello, I installed Communicator for MAC 2011 a few days ago and had a PC to PC call and the sound quality was sharp and clear. I used a PowerBook Pro and on the other end the user had the Communicator 2007 R2 with the latest patches installed. Also the other use was at his home office going through the edge servers and I was in the office. Ed

  • Anonymous
    October 28, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2010
    i almost trying to get start with communicator with my hotmail id still i m getting some trouble to start can u help me out for this trouble ? suggest me how to use this.

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2010
    So all our users are EV enabled in OCS 2007 R2 and they work perfectly with the Windows client, but the Communicator for Mac 2011 client refuses to acknowledge the users are EV enabled.  I've done some searches and I've seen lots of people reporting this same issue but no one has reported a fix.  MS is completely silent on the issue.  I really need this working.  Any advice?

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2010
    So all our users are EV enabled in OCS 2007 R2 and they work perfectly with the Windows client, but the Communicator for Mac 2011 client refuses to acknowledge the users are EV enabled.  I've done some searches and I've seen lots of people reporting this same issue but no one has reported a fix.  MS is completely silent on the issue.  I really need this working.  Any advice?