Content provided in partnership with

Business Services Industry

Close Encounters Of The Virtual Kind

Entrepreneur, Dec, 2000 by Liane Gouthro

Get it together with virtual conferencing software.

Gone are the days when your whole company worked under one roof. Today, your employees may be everywhere from New York to Hawaii. E-mail and instant messaging are one way to stay in touch, but when it's time for an important meeting, you want a way to get everyone together--virtually.

Encounter 1000, the latest software-based real-time collaboration product from ezenia! (www.ezenia.com), allows you to use the network and hardware your company already has in place (though you'll need a Web cam and a headset or microphone) to conduct real-time virtual meetings. The application resides on a Windows NT server and can facilitate meetings with up to eight different simultaneous locations. To run the software on your desktop, all you need is Microsoft NetMeeting.

Most Popular Articles in Business: Research and Markets : Tesco Plc - SWOT Framework Analysis; Do Us a Flavor - Ben & Jerry's Issues a Call for Euphoric New Flavors; eBay made easy: ready to start an eBay business? These 5 simple steps will ...; Katrina's lawsuit surge: a legal battle to force insurers to pay for flood ...; Wal-Mart's newest distribution center opened last month near the southwest ...; More »

The software isn't exactly cheap, with a list price of $3,995 per server, which breaks down to $500 per seat. While it's certainly cheaper than flying people in from around the country, with its hefty price tag, Encounter 1000 ought to offer a significant improvement over the free or low-cost alternatives offered through Web sites. If you've ever used those services, you know they shouldn't be too hard to improve upon. The video--if they even offer video--often moves in slow motion. And the audio is often of the "walkie-talkie" variety, where people can only speak in turns.

Encounter 1000 offers a marked improvement in audio quality. All eight participants can speak and hear one another in real time. But the video leaves something to be desired. In a test run, the delay between the audio and video was distinctly noticeable at times, as the speaker's mouth lagged a few beats behind the words.

The video does allow you to view up to four of the other participants simultaneously. (NetMeeting's video screen is capable of dividing into four windows at one time.) It won't allow you to see all eight participants, for the windows would be too small to view anything worthwhile. As it was, the four windows were on the verge of being too small with only one participant in each window.

Although it only shows four participants at a time, Encounter 1000 does shift from person to person. When someone in one of the locations not currently on the screen starts speaking, the software automatically displays that location, replacing one of the windows where the participants are quiet.

Encounter 1000 also offers some nifty collaboration features, such as document sharing and the ability for remote locations to alter the same document at the same time.

And, as long as you can live with less-than-stellar video, the audio quality alone could be well worth the price.

Liane Gouthro, a former technology reporter at PCWorld.com, freelances from her home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Business Services Industry

Close Encounters Of The Virtual Kind

Entrepreneur, Dec, 2000 by Liane Gouthro

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: News

Most Popular Articles in Business

Most Popular Publications in Business