Web Conferencing Resources

IVCi Adds Web Conferencing to its Suite of Collaboration Services

August 20, 2008 – 2:25 am

IVCi, a leading enterprise collaboration solutions company, announced today the addition of web conferencing to it’s suite of solutions including high definition video conferencing, telepresence, audio visual integration, and managed conferencing services. In addition to the IVCi web conferencing services, IVCi is also introducing a new audio conference solution, and a built-in security model, that notifies clients if their account has been used suspiciously.

IVCi Vice President, Chriss Bottger:

We are providing our customers a one-stop shop for all of their conferencing needs. Our high performance, feature rich, and secure audio and Web services not only deliver great value on their own, but are unique in that they can be added to our customers’ video conferencing services. By managing all components of the conference, our in-house customer service team can eliminate noisy lines and disturbing parties without having to mute the entire audio bridge. In addition, our built-in security model notifies users if their account is being used fraudulently, which is something many large organizations fall victim to.

IVCi’s new web conferencing services include two different models to suit their clients needs:

Glance Web Conferencing includes desktop sharing and remote control with just one mouse click. The interface has a simple and easy to use interface, and participants do not need to install any additional software, accessing the system through their standard web browser.

Presenter Web Conferencing is a feature rich application that includes control and sharing, annotation, polling, recording, and a built-in chat system. The presenter can show online PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and more, allowing the presenter and audience to Work collaboratively in real time.

For additional information about IVCi’s new audio and Web conferencing services, visit them on the web at www.ivci.com

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WBS Connect Adds High Definition Conferencing

August 19, 2008 – 2:34 am

Video conferencing firm, WBS Connect, announced at the Fall 2008 Channel Partners Conference & Expo that it is now offering Virtual In Person HD video conferencing. This new service offers a high definition gateway that gives customers the ability to easily and securely conduct video conference calls between companies using different networks and disparate equipment.

Enterprise customers of the WBS Connect service can create a collaborative work environment where employees, partners, suppliers and customers can communicate face-to-face over the network worldwide in high definition. The SLA-driven offering is supported by virtual network operations center services giving users web-based call scheduling, proactive monitoring of equipment, on-demand support and more.

The WBS Connect services portfolio also includes IP transit, transport, content delivery network services, data center co-location services, and expert network consulting services. WBS Connect leverages multigigabit commitments with IP transit carriers to offer direct connections in the US, Europe and Asia. It has a presence in carrier neutral data centers in Amsterdam, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York City, Seattle, Toronto and other major cities.

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Asian Pacific Video Conference and Collaboration Market Shows Huge Potential for Growth

August 14, 2008 – 2:42 am

In a recently released study by Wainhouse Research. Findings indicates that there is a huge opportunity exists for the audio/ video conferencing and web conferencing markets. For the Asia Pacific region, 6% of the minute volume and 8% of the revenue from those services has been achieved for audio conferencing which indicates that the emerging market has plenty of room for growth.

The Wainhouse Research study reviewed six local markets including existing usage by county, local employment data by title, and current telecommunication company penetration rates. Local markets profiled include Australia & New Zealand, Japan, China, Southeast Asia’s group of countries, India, and Korea. While each local market has varying degrees of market penetration, overall region data for the reviewed areas were as follows:

• 1.4B employed labor force, of which 84M would be addressable for collaboration & video conferencing service use
• 76.5B audio conferencing minute opportunity versus a forecasted 4.3B minutes for 2008
• $6B audio conferencing revenue opportunity
• $1.3B web conferencing revenue opportunity
• $53M video bridging services opportunity
• China & India hold the most opportunity, but each of the six markets profiled typically exceed an opportunity for over 1B more audio conferencing minutes than forecast for 2008

The study details opportunity by country for audio conferencing revenue and minutes, web conferencing revenue, and video bridging revenue. For each of the countrys that were profiled, the study shows the comparable minutes and revenue to the 2008 forecast.

Posted in Collaboration, Audio Conferencing, Web Conferencing | No Comments »

Vidyo Inc. Video Conferencing Provides Telepresence for Beijing Olympics Teams

August 13, 2008 – 1:58 am

Vidyo Inc., one of the first companies to deliver personal telepresence systems, has announced that it will be providing Great Britain’s Royal Yachting Association, with the telepresence services to keep the team in China connected with the support team in Great Britain. Through Vidyo’s “VidyoConferencing” service, the Royal Yachting Association support staff and the sailing team at the Olympic Sailing Center in Qingdao, China will be in constant audio and visual communication with its staff in Hamble, Southampton in the UK, for the duration of the Olympic Games.

Royal Yachting Association Team Manager, Stephen Park:

While we are here in Qingdao it is fantastic that we are able to visually communicate with the team on the ground back home from the heart of the Olympic competition. Although there is a team of sailors and support staff out here in China, there is a significant team of people still in England who have played a key part in the build-up to the Games and will continue to do so throughout them. We want everyone at RYA HQ to be part of our Olympic experience and this Vidyo technology enables us to share our unique insights and experiences and keep the whole ‘team’ together even though we are thousands of miles apart.

Vidyo Inc, unlike other video conferencing and telepresence services, do not require dedicated networks to achieve high definition video with fast frame rates. Vidyo is the first company to license technology and deliver products built upon an entirely new video conferencing architecture that utilizes the recently approved H.264 video compression standard. Vidyo’s new “scalable video coding” technology delivers very high quality video over unreliable networks. The system scales from a telepresence room to high definition desktop video conferencing offering natural, high definition conferencing to desktop and room system participants anywhere in the world.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics marks a special milestone for the Royal Yachting Association, as they celebrate one century of competition in Olympic Sailing. Beginning in the 1908 Olympics in London, the British team swept the competition, winning medals in all classes of the event. To date, no country has been able to beat the UK’s record of 19 gold medals since sailing made its debut as an Olympic sport in 1900.

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iPhone to Get High Quality Voice Over IP

August 12, 2008 – 3:10 am

Global Exchange, a leading provider of VOIP and web conferencing services, today announced that it has released a VOIP voice engine for the Apple iPhone, using the company’s GIPS Voice Engine. iPhone application developers can now create and integrate quality, real-time VoIP applications into games and stand alone VOIP programs. The “killer” VOIP app that most consumers would love to see, would be a VOIP application that would allow users to make local and long distance calls using VOIP services and bypassing the necessity to have the iPhone connected to any phone service other than the high-speed 3G access. These services could also be used by iPod Touch users when in a wi-fi hotspot.

Global Exchange CEO, Emerick Woods:

The popularity of the iPhone, along with the new integrated 3G chip that has increased internet speeds by 3-5x, makes it an ideal platform for developing applications that incorporate quality real-time VoIP, giving consumers real-world communication experiences like in-game, multi-person chat.

Global Exchange is recognized for its media processing expertise for web conferencing and IP communications and continues to innovate by enabling iPhone application developers to accelerate their time-to-market with applications that
include the best voice experience possible.

High-speed mobile phones is proving to be a very lucrative market.A recent Strategy Analytics forecast reports that 297 million mobile phones were shipped worldwide in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 15% over last year. According to Apple, and other consumer companies, the demand for the 3G iPhone has been larger than expected. Three million 3G iPhones have now sold worldwide.

Global Exchange Voice engines have been downloaded more than any other voice engine worldwide, enabling developers to create high-quality IP-based communications, even when network conditions are less than ideal.

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Readyshow Video from The Conference Group

August 9, 2008 – 3:01 am

The Conference Group,a Deleware-based video communication firm has introduced it’s latest video conferencing application: Readyshow Video. The browser-based video conferencing software has already been turning heads in the video communications industry. Readyshow requires no downloading, installing or software configuration. All one needs to participate is an internet browser, a broadband internet connection and a web camera.

Readyshow is a full multi-platform application, allowing anyone to join a video conference, regardless of the operating system their computer uses, whether it be PC, Mac, or even Linux. Another notable feature of Readyshow is that up to 16 individuals can be seen simultaneously when using multipoint online video conferencing.

As fuel prices rise and the world economy continues to slow, many organizations are now opting to do more video web conferences in place of conventional business travel. Sales, marketing, business development and corporate training presentations can all easily and much less expensively now be presented over the web.

The Conference Group is one of the premiere names in the audio conferencing industry. Video solution options are just one category that the teleconferencing company is now beginning to offer. Regardless of your individual or company’s video conferencing requirements, The Conference Group provides a full range of audio, web and video services to ensure your teleconference and collaboration expectations are fully met.

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Video Phone Technology to Embrace: Usee, Isee

August 9, 2008 – 2:57 am

While the first video phone was introduced at the 1964 World’s Fair, more than four decades ago, and has captured imaginations, world-wide, video phone technology still has not seen widescale usage or implementation. But a Dallas based video conference company is looking to change the field with its new Useeisee videophone.

The Useeisee PictureFone sells for $249 and requires a monthly subscription of $39.95 which allows for unlimited video conference calling in the U.S. and Canada. While the technology is similar to other videophones that have come and gone, Useeisee owner Fedele says the difference with his product will be marketing. A 30-year veteran of the advertising industry, Usee’s president says videophones have never had enough “jazz” about them, and this failure in positioning has held them back.

People have treated it is a high-tech product, and not as a friendly, simple, isn’t-this-fun kind of product

Using hardware from Boston-based GrandStream and with XCast Labs in Los Angeles as its carrier, Useeisee was designed with ease of use in mind. Installation requires no downloading, just a simple DSL or cable modem connection, all accomplished in less than a minute.

This is a self-funded company. We don’t have the money to do everybody, so we have to be real cautious about how we get there,” he said. “We could easily divert ourselves by getting into the college market too quickly. I’ve got to make an impact with the Baby Boomers before we start trickling down to do everybody else.

But is marketing really the issue holding videophone technology back? Typically, the major roadblock has been social issues such as not wanting to have to look good just for a phone call. Many people multitask while on a conference call such as checking their email or eating lunch when they’re not speaking. Fedele said that he plans on not focusing his marketing attention on businesses, but rather to grandparents with children that live out of state or abroad, or for parents who want to keep up with their kids away at college.

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Web Conferencing Defined

March 12, 2008 – 7:18 am

Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings or presentations over the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet. This can be either a downloaded application on each of the attendees computers or a web-based application where the attendees will simply enter a URL (website address) to enter the conference.

Other typical features of a web conference include:

• Slide presentations (often created through PowerPoint)
• Live video (via webcam or digital video camera)
• VoIP (Real time audio communication through the computer via use of headphones and speakers)
• Web tours - where URL’s, form data, cookies, scripts and session data can be pushed to other participants enabling them to be be pushed though web based logons, clicks, etc. This type of feature works well when demonstrating websites where users themselves can also participate.
• Recording (for viewing at a later time by anyone using a unique web address)
• Whiteboard with annotation (allowing the presenter and/or attendees to highlight or mark items on the slide presentation. Or, simply make notes on a blank whiteboard.)
• Text chat (for live question and answer sessions)
• Polls and surveys (allows the presenter to conduct questions with multiple choice answers directed to the audience)
• Screen sharing/desktop sharing/application sharing (where participants can view anything the presenter currently has shown on their screen. Some screen sharing applications allow for remote desktop control, allowing participants to manipulate the presenters screen, although this is not widely used.)

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Web Conferencing vs. Webcasting

February 23, 2008 – 7:13 am

While the term “Webcast” is often used to mean “Web conference,” it is actually a different approach to holding a meeting via the Internet. A Webcast is analogous to a TV broadcast, in which a live or prerecorded program is sent from a central location out to viewers – in this case, streamed over the Internet. The Webcast is typically viewed using Microsoft© Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. More recently however, Flash has taken a big jump forward in popularity and is constantly used to conduct webcasts.  Web conferencing, in contrast, is more similar to a face-face meeting or seminar, with multiple degrees of presentation, interaction, and collaboration among many computer users.

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