It’s another busy week in the web conferencing world, with significant developments reported by multiple vendors. That means it’s time for one of my exclusive web conferencing news roundups!
We’ll start with news from Germany. The Online Meeting Tools Review site www.webconferencing-test.com has received a major update with both cosmetic and content enhancements. It is now easier to see comparative test results from the main page. The layout seems much more clear and accessible to me. They have added more web conferencing solutions and made some changes to the tools tested from certain vendors to make things more equivalent in the functionality and purpose of the software. There is more licensing information available when looking at pricing comparisons, and they have made a major commitment to keeping their blog updated with new content. As I have mentioned in the past, I initially viewed this site with great skepticism, but now view it as a tremendously helpful resource for comparing web conferencing solutions geared towards participatory online collaboration meetings (as opposed to large enterprise-oriented one-to-many webinars and webcasts).
Turning to California, we have another site update to report at WebinarHero. You can now edit an existing web event listed in their database. Previously you had to duplicate it and create a new version of the listing to make your changes. They have also made easier access to their event promotion services, with a convenient clickthrough to take advantage of their social media and search engine marketing packages.
ReadyTalk just announced availability of “Platinum Web Event,” which is designed as a bundled package, offering companies all the technology and services necessary to run a large scale webinar or webcast. It merges web conferencing and audio conferencing software, a bridge to deliver streaming audio over the computer, pre- and post-event services, and live event support during the session. The package is offered at a fixed price rather than as an incremental “time and services” model.
InXpo has also made a new release announcement. XpoCast Plus is a technology platform for delivering interactive webcasts to hundreds of viewers. It can run inside InXpo’s virtual event environment or as a standalone webcasting tool. I had a rather lengthy demo session using the new tool and I was extremely impressed with its screen sharing performance. It also handled live video of presenters and participants, playback of recorded video clips, co-browsing to live web sites, and sortable question management to better handle Q&A sessions with the audience.
Stream57 seems to be pursuing a similar path to InXpo by partnering with a virtual events company to deliver live video webcasting as part of a virtual event environment. They announced a partnership with Computer Generated Solutions to merge capabilities.
Citrix GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar got updates as well. Users can now take advantage of integrated toll-free audio conferencing offered from Citrix to keep all conferencing costs associated with a single vendor and to better manage audio options in an event.
Even though the news is not fresh this week, I should also mention that iLinc launched a new release of their software right around Halloween. Referred to as “the iLinc 10 Fall Release,” it includes the ability to set up automatic recordings of sessions, new online editing and distribution of recording archives, recorded video playback in session for all attendees (controlled by the host), and integrations with external systems such as Twitter, Facebook, and Salesforce.
And finally, I just have to call attention to the announcement by Nose Knows Consulting of the world’s first scented webinar. No, you don’t get a scratch ‘n sniff card… Paid registrants get a special USB device that apparently demonstrates odors on command. The webinar is geared towards introducing the concept of scent marketing and costs around $50 Canadian to attend. It will be held in January, and the sheer novelty factor alone may make it worth the cost!
As always, you can find current press releases and articles about these stories and other web conferencing announcements on the Webinar Success Industry News page.
