Video Conferencing for Online Meetings
The Blog for your Online Video Conferencing Meetings
Hayes Purchases Vidyo Video Conferencing System
April 8th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
Hayes Pumps, one of the largest distributors of pumps in the country has purchased a complete personal telepresence and video conferencing solution from Vidyo, a video conferencing company who’s services close the gap between typical video conferencing systems and large and expensive telepresence systems. The “personal telepresence” offered by Vidyo will be a major component of the company’s communications systems to stay in touch with over 20 different remote suppliers.
Hayes Pump CEO, Eric Zadravec:
We had been using another, well-known HD video conferencing product since 2007, but we soon realized that it had some very serious limitations. The cost of growing that room-based system was problematic, and the fact that we wanted to expand our network to support internal communications as well as external, clinched our decision to investigate other possibilities. Our existing system did not have a desktop video conferencing option, and we needed to be able to offer video communications to our remote team via their desktops and laptops; not just through a room system. After trying the Vidyo system and experiencing its ease of use and crisp HD quality, for both room and desktop video conferencing, we canceled our plans to order additional equipment from the other company.
Many companies are switching to Vidyo’s video conferencing services because of its ease of use and the versatility the service provides. The system can be used for individual use on a PC or in a full-scale telpresence conferencing room.
While Hayes is currently using the conferencing service for internal communications, it does plan to expand the reach of the technology and in the future use it to collaborate with engineering firms, customers and other partners to reduce expenses and increase productivity.
Fujitsu Upgrades Video Conferencing Solution to High Definition
March 31st, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
Fujitsu services have upgraded their internal video conferencing solution, provided by Videocall to high definition. The company is upgrading its standard video conferencing hardware, and integrating telepresence-style high definition video services across its company. Fujitsu also announced that it will be extending its service contract with Videocall for another 3 years.
Fujitsu Voice and Data, Jim Clarke:
Videocall have given us the right blend of service and support. Videoconferencing is about an experience and ensuring that Fujitsu personnel get this experience every time is very important. To this end Videocall is a company big enough to meet our needs while remaining agile and personable in responding to our requests.
In 2003, Fujitsu integrated video conferencing into their daily business to reduce costs on travel, improve employee and customer work-life balance and also to improve their carbon footprint. Today, Fujitsu uses video conferencing services on a daily basis and has 222 systems deployed through 22 sites of the enterprise.
Videocall CEO, Rob Portwood:
Fujitsu Services is a long standing Videocall customer and over the years the relationship has developed well. With this latest upgrade to a high definition telepresence style experience Videocall look forward to being able to meet Fujitsu Services’ video communication objectives for years to come.
Polycom Converged Management for Video Conferencing
March 26th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
Videoconferencing is becoming commonplace in many businesses, from small to large. The problem for many of these companies is that they use more than one system, and managing them can be difficult. Typically large companies have a range of video conferencing solutions from small webcams via messenger to full telepresence solutions and there is always a disconnect between them.
Polycom has introduced a solution with their new Converged Management Application that can manage an array of video conferencing systems. Polycom’s CMA can manage up to 55,000 video endpoints across a network, including Polycom equipment and any video system that uses the H.264 codec. The console is web-based, so administrators can access the system, check the status of equipment and even update firmware and software from anywhere on the netork.
Polycom Marketing Manager, Marty Sexton:
Up until now, videoconferencing has been struggling with high numbers of deployments. Key to enabling new growth is operation in a standards-based way.
The Polycom CMA can apply network polices on bandwidth and usage. You can set priority for certain employees so that they are provided more bandwidth when using conferencing services, assuring high-level meetings receive the highest transmission
quality. The system also tracks usage throughout the company, to make a case for more or less equipment based on usage.
Video Conferencing in Schools
March 19th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
The Rapides Parish School District in Alexandria, LA is investing in more video conferencing technology, and making it available to more students. The high cost of remote teaching had kept the district from expanding its offerings too quickly. However a local donation will double the amount of online courses they can offer.
High school students can take as much as a Semester of courses through online teaching, putting them ahead of other students and saving them money on tuition. Next year, courses will also be available to middle school students who can take high school classes to get ahead as well.
The technology is perfect for high school students who want to take physics courses although none are offered at the highschool. Such a small numbern of students wouldn’t justify starting a physics program, but video conferencing allows them to join other schools who have.
The video conferencing projects was started last year at a cost of $130,000. The initial infrastructure was paid via a federal grant, and a second grant will allow the school to offer more courses. Distance learning allows everyone to save time, money and allow students with the initiative to get ahead and be better prepared for college.
Video Conferencing Slow to Catch on in Europe
March 2nd, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
Despite the economic crisis and many companies turning to video and web conferencing services to reduce travel costs, a new study finds that European companies aren’t switching to video conferencing as a replcement for conventional travel as quickly as others are. According to research from Easynet Global serivces, while 87% of the European companies surveyed realized the savings potential, they believed the technology lacked the personal touch of conventional meetings.
The study also found that a quarter of businesses felt that the technology was too complicated and too impersonal to create a suitable replacement for in-person meetings which they considered more productive.
Of the businesses that have already implemented the tecnology 21% felt the technology was too complicated and were switching from dedicated systems to managed services that allowed less time to organize and set up the meeting, and more time to meet.
More than 60% of the businesses felt the consideration of video conferencing was the main reason to switch to the technology. The companies also recognized the time savings when using instant meetings and appreciated the ability to schedule meetings with little notice. Finally, for 31% of European businesses surveyed, the environment was a main factor for considering the switch to online meetings.
NewCom Releases “VideoMeeting” Videoconferencing Service
February 26th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
Global telecommunications company NewCom has released a new video conferencing service called VideoMeeting. The company claims that for the same price as a round trip business flight, the company can provide a full year of VideoMeeting services.
NewCom Director of Sales, Dora Mejia:
Executives can’t just hop on a plane for a quick meeting or presentation like they used to. This new service can save businesses thousands in travel costs, and gives them added efficiencies that face-to-face meetings can’t. That’s a powerful leg-up in today’s tough economy.”
VideoMeeting provides full videoconferencing services that has all the benefits of conventional meetings,with added features such as online document sharing and collaboration. The system also provides chat both public and private among members of an online meeting. The product is aimed towards meeting to larger sized businesses that have travel requirements or long distance relationships with suppliers, clients, resellers and employees.
Businesses are going to have to get creative to stay efficient and competitive while keeping within tighter and tighter budgets. Our VideoMeetings service enables them to do both. What’s more, we’ll take care of all the meeting logistics so company executives can focus on the important areas of their business.
Palbee Videoconferencing Closing Down
February 19th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
According to its website, Palbee will be closing down its services on February 25th. The South Korean video conferencing service was founded in 2004. Their site is still up, but when you load the page, it dims with a screen that reads:
Palbee was an experiment in making interactive web conferencing available for free to the masses, with the objective of making it easier to share knowledge and stay connected with people around the world. It was a smaller part of a larger project aimed at facilitating knowledge sharing. After much consideration, we have decided to take down the existing Palbee service. The Palbee web conferencing service will be replaced by a platform that enables people around the world to create rich e-learning courses, to teach learners around the world. Thank you for being a part of Palbee. If you require free multi-user web conferencing, we recommend that you take a look at Adobe’s Acrobat ConnectNow service. Please note, we will not be providing technical support or bug fixes for the free Palbee service between now and the date that the service is discontinued.
Palbee had always been in beta as long as the site was active and no word yet on exactly what services their next platform will provide. Palbee was a Flash-based video conferencing service that allowed people to video conference across all computer platforms and browsers free-of-charge. Wikipedia states that the startup had 20 employees and a revenue of $2.5 million, although with a completely free service and no advertisements, I’m not sure where that was coming from, or it might have just been an annual average of capital investments.
FreeConference Releases New Version of SharePlus
February 12th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
Shareplus, a previously free desktop sharing application that has been in beta for the past year, has just announced new features to it’s flagship (and now pay) application. Shareplus now provides more document sharing features, allowing spreadsheets, online PowerPoint presentations and web pages to be shared and simultaneously collaborated with.
The interface is now easier and faster, and users can upload simultaneous files allowing them to have their files ready to share more quickly. The updates also include a feature that allow attendees of the web conference to alert the presenter, should they have a question or there be a problem with the presentation.
Global Conference Partners CEO, Ken Ford:
 Our goal is to provide our customers with options to fit their conferencing needs. He said that the new enhanced conferencing tool, SharePlus, is “better than ever.”
SharePlus is now out of beta and is available for purchase. SharePlus is just one of a number of online collaboration tools offered by FreeConference that can be purchased individually and used together with other services provided by the company. It remains to be seen though if the service that was up until no free, will be able to draw enough clients to make the business model viable, particularly in the current economic climate.
InterCall Unified Meeting Provides Click-To-Start Conferencing
February 7th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
InterCall, a leader in web conferencing and collaboration services has announced the launch of a new web conferencing product, Unified Meeting, featuring easy-to-use and feature rich applications that make web conferencing as simple as putting together a regular meeting.
InterCall President, Scott Etzler:
InterCall Unified Meeting gives InterCall customers a new way to increase productivity and collaboration wherever they are. The ‘click -to -start’ feature makes access straightforward and gets people collaborating in a quicker, simpler way, making InterCall Unified Meeting great for seasoned conferencing pros and novices alike.
Using the Unified Meeting application, does not require any download and is cross-platform compatible like most web conferencing solutions are today. The focus of the product is to be inexpensive and a quick way to get people communicating for projects, processes and sales meetings.
Unified Meeting has been developed as a result of InterCall acquiring Genesys Conferencing. Only a few months after the acquisition, InterCall was able to integrate the proprietary web conferencing system of Genesys into their conferencing framework.
The advent of InterCall Unified Meeting demonstrates InterCall’s commitment to Unified Communications and solidifies our pursuit of UC offerings our customers care about in the future. Validating InterCall’s plans, the company was recently recognized by Frost & Sullivan with the group’s 2008 North American Award for Customer Value Enhancement for expanding its conferencing and collaboration offerings and integrating new technologies that broaden the Unified Communications portfolio.
Zoos Broadcast Animal Habitats to Schools Via Video Conferencing
January 27th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has installed videoconferencing solutions into the animal habitats and conducts live video conferencing sessions with different schools, allowing children to see the animals, “close-up” in their natural habitat.
Cleveland Zoo Animal Manager, Tad Schoffner:
You can’t always guarantee [the animals] are going to do what you want, but when it works, it works great. Even if the timing isn’t just right, it’s still a lot better than standing in a studio.
The video conference project was named the winner of the Media, Arts & Entertainment award my Computerworld for its innovative and practical use of the technology. The program at the Cleveland Zoo began in 1998, using basic video conference equipment. Today, they use wireless a wireless solution which allows them to move the equipment through all of the different animal habitats allowing the children to see more than ever before.
Cleveland Zoo Education Specialist, Cathy Ryan:
I taught in a room with four walls. The kids were going from one classroom into another. I wanted them to see more. Now we have a lot more teachable moments. We can say, ‘Take a look at that joey — it’s pushing its head out of the pouch,’ and we can zoom in on that for the kids to see.
While the initial cost of setting up a wireless video conferencing system was high, the ability to move it around the zoo has made it a very useful tool. The system, set up by Total Systems Integration of Ohio allows the presenters to move the system around on a cart and send the video directly over the web.