Video Conferencing for Online Meetings
The Blog for your Online Video Conferencing 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.
Hyundai Motor Comapny Selects Lifesize Video Conferencing
January 20th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
Korean, Hyundai Motor Company, the fifth largest auto manufacturer has selected Lifesize Communications to host and provide its video conferencing and telepresence solutions. The selection process involved many different companies and after months of selection, selected Lifesize, in part for their high definition video services. The technology will be used throughout the company, from high level meetings to the production floor.
Hyundai Manager, Choi Kwang-Mook:
Hyundai intends to continue our strong global growth, and LifeSize HD video is a critical lever in the current economic climate. LifeSize shares Hyundai’s vision for strong growth through technology leadership, customer satisfaction and continuous innovation. In all we do, Hyundai looks for standard based high definition videoconferencing system, and LifeSize earned Hyundai’s business by delivering an ideal combination of superior quality of experience, unique flexibility and unmatched price performance.
Lifesize CEO, Craig Malloy:
LifeSize is honored to be chosen as Hyundai’s HD video communication provider, and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Hyundai has built a dynamic success story through focus, hard work and determination, and is at the forefront of technology and innovation.”
Hyundai sees HD video as an essential tool in managing its operations with offices worldwide. Lifesize’s support of high bandwidth communications, customization and value were particularly essential for the Korean auto manufacturer.
Korea has one of the world’s most advanced and high speed data networks, however Hyundai has offices located throughout the world, many that have very poor network infrastructure. The Lifesize video conferencing services proved in their comparisons to be the fastest over a wide range of network quality and strength, making it a good choice for the global company.
Videoconferencing: An Effective and Efficient Communication Tool
January 10th, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
In a new book, published by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, “Being in Two Places at Once: Telepresence vs. Videoconferencing in the Enterprise,” the authors take a comprehensive look at videoconferencing and telepresence services, based on the data of over 180 corporations that use the technology. The book illustrates how the best companies are reducing startup time of video conferencing presentations by 63%, using dedicated video conference rooms 56% more and are reducing corporate travel by as much as 24%.
In the past, videoconferencing has been seen as a difficult technology to implement in the workplace. Concerns over the video quality, latency and lack of business purpose has left many skeptic of the benefits. However as more and more companies adopt the technology and use it more frequently and more efficiently, many companies are realizing the cost savings and other benefits provided by regularly using video conference services and technology.
Aberdeen Research Editor, Hyoun Park:
In these difficult economic times, companies must look for an edge in cutting costs while optimizing multinational and remote operations. By properly implementing a robust video collaboration solution, firms can reduce corporate travel and drive business value in many ways. Video is no longer solely an executive tool, but a technology that can catalyze efficiency throughout the workplace.
Minoru 3D Webcam Now Available
January 3rd, 2009 by Video Conferencing Expert
The Minoru 3D webcam finally launched at CES this week after months of teasing us with the technology. The camera is a single unit that has two cameras spaced about the same distance as human eyes to capture the stereoscopic effect of 3D. The fact that the camera has two eyes makes it seem a bit more human like, and users have a tendancy to look directly into the camrea, creating a better presentation for video conference viewers. Viewers need to wear special red and blue colored 3D glasses to view the effect, and the camera comes with five pairs.Designer, David Holder:
It’s been a fantastic process to see my design go from drawing board to finished product. There has been tremendous interest in the Minoru 3D Webcam, and I’m excited to finally have products that people can try out, and hopefully buy.
Minoru translates to “Reality” in Japanese, and is a reflection of the life-like representation in a 3D video conference. Minoru can be used with Windows Messenger, AIM and other video conferencing services. It can also be used to record video and uploaded to video services such as Youtube. The camera can also record video in standard 3D format.
Minoru is now available at Amazon.com for $89.95.
IP Communications Driving Video Conferencing Growth
December 19th, 2008 by Video Conferencing Expert
While video conferencing services have been used and promoted for the last several years, it hasn’t been until recently that their usage has grown at such a rapid rate. One of the driving factors of the adoption of this technology is the availability of affordable high speed internet access that can support high definition video streams, while also using other advanced web conferencing technology. Now that a majority of people have high speed internet at home and almost all businesses have high speed internet at the office, video conferencing is becoming a practical and affordable solution for online communications.
Other trends that have boosted the usage of video conferencing include the globalization of so many different markets that now have clients, suppliers, vendors and partners all across the globe. Where vendors used to have to fly from Europe to Asia to pitch their latest product lineup, they can now fire up a video or web conferencing session for a fraction of the time and cost that conventional travel took. Another driver for many industries is that video conferencing supports “going green” initiatives and reduces the companies total carbon footprint.
In a recent Wainhouse Research survey of 247 video conferencing users, two of the greatest drivers of visual collaboration and communications solutions were improved decision making and reduced travel. The survey, indicated that almost a quarter of the respondents either currently use or plan to start using telepresence in 2009.
Companies like Polycom, Cisco, InstantPresenter, LifeSize, Tandberg, Vidyo, and others are all benefiting from the growing interest in video communications technologies as the industry continues to grow, the technology becomes both more affordable itself, and video conferencing becomes an attractive alternative to conventional travel in a declining economy with rising travel costs.
Video Conferencing Usage Increases Among Government Agencies
December 12th, 2008 by Video Conferencing Expert
Glowpoint, a video conferencing and collaboration company, annoucned today that it was renewed its contracts with several of the government’s largest agencies. Glowpoint’s IP-based services provide video conferencing communications to many government agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board which uses Glowpoint’s services in 50 different locations.
National Labor Relations Board Member, Rob White:
Glowpoint has been a trusted vendor and provider of our video services for over eight years.They have been very flexible in working with us to create service bundles that make it easy for us to work video into our budget each year. Glowpoint’s service has always been very reliable and their support has been unmatched.
In addition to the renewing existing contracts with government customers, Glowpoint has created many new contracts with other agencies, suggesting that the US government is starting to collaborate and communicate online more than before. Along with standard video conferencing solutions, Glowpoint offers full telepresence solutions, and is setting up 8 dedicated telepresence rooms for an undisclosed government agency.
Glowpoint President and COO, Joseph Laezza:
In the current economic climate, government agencies are especially sensitive to controlling costs and maximizing their budgets. Our unlimited usage model gives government agencies a way to increase their use of video communications without worrying about their communications costs rising as they use it. Glowpoint’s TEN is increasingly being seen as a key value point for government clients as they look toward more effective means of leveraging their use of video to connect with other government departments and outside companies.
Glowpoint’s current government contracts exceed $1 million in annual revenue.