Breakthrough Applications for IP-Based Teleconferencing
阿诺德•施瓦辛格(Arnold Schwarzenegger)在台式媒体播放器上滔滔不绝的视频图像,与《百家乐软件app最新版下载》(Fortune) 500强公司的营销经理为新产品发布而给员工发的视频图像大不相同——不仅在于他们的火力有多大. 施瓦辛格和营销经理各自代表着流媒体行业的不同领域——娱乐vs. B2B——经历着完全不同的生命周期.
而娱乐内容行业的巨大期望却因突如其来的逆转而破灭, 随着硬件设备的日益先进,电话会议已经稳步进入公司董事会和办公室, software and services.
将远程会议世界与更广泛的流媒体世界区分开来的特征之一是它们各自使用的网络协议类型和传递路径. 而“流媒体”通常指的是通过公共互联网提供富媒体, 传统上,电话会议流是通过交换ISDN线路进行的. However, 随着许多电话会议公司推出围绕IP网络构建的新产品和服务,这种区别似乎正在消失.
"The public Internet, from a quality of service standpoint, (视频会议)还没有准备好……企业将开始在集群中使用IP协议……在一栋大楼内, 在那里他们可能有一个可以支持更高质量服务的网络. (但)未来显然是知识产权的,原因有很多——经济效益要好得多, and the quality of service issues [will be] figured out," said Andrew Nilssen, senior analyst at Wainhouse Research.
A Focus on Audio
虽然许多供应商致力于优化健壮的视频会议应用程序, 至少有一家新公司致力于使电话会议体验更简单、更方便. Brainshark (www.brainshark.com)是一个应用程序服务提供商(ASP),它允许低技术水平的作者在Web上自行发布流媒体演示. Greg Flynn, vice president of business development at Brainshark, explains, "You start with PowerPoint and upload it to our servers. Then, using the telephone, you dial in, enter an access code, and using the touch-tone commands on the telephone keypad, add audio to each slide. 你可以回去听,然后如果你愿意,可以在幻灯片上重新录制. As soon as you hang up the phone, 我们会自动转换音频剪辑,你已经记录在电话到RealAudio和Windows媒体格式. 演示文稿的观看者只需要一个浏览器和一个Real或Windows Media播放器就可以体验幻灯片, 目录[根据PowerPoint幻灯片的标题自动生成], and streaming audio."
Working in conjunction with VideoShare (www.videoshare.com), Brainshark还允许作者附加视频文件(尽管与演示文稿不同步).
Flynn points out that, given the proper authorization, 企业中的作者可以混合和匹配来自不同表示的元素. "I might take three slides from my CTO, three slides from my CEO, put new header and footer slides on that, and send it off to a client," he said. “因为我们在数据库中把所有东西都作为不同的对象来维护, I can repurpose them in any way that I want."
And because Brainshark hosts the media, 作者可以在不重新分发内容的情况下进行更改. Flynn notes, "When the viewer comes back to that URL, 他总是能(体验到)我最新最好的演讲版本.“Brainshark是一项每月订阅的服务,根据指定用户的数量或观看次数收费. 指定用户有权根据需要编写和查看任意数量的演示文稿, 而公共视图从每次查看25美分开始(任何超过一分钟的内容都被视为“视图”).").
Interactive Teleconferencing
Brainshark推广的是相对简单的流媒体演示文稿的自发布,而MSHOW (www.mshow.com), an e-communications service provider based in Denver, offers a fully managed, live, interactive Web experience. Steven Cappellucci, vice president of marketing at MSHOW, explains, "A lot of people who have done videoconferencing will say, ‘How do I take that to the next level of interactivity?'" Founded in 1996, MSHOW是这个竞争对手迅速增多的细分市场的先驱.
MSHOW服务在制作的所有阶段都与“领导者”(负责运行演示的公司代表)合作, from initial concept to the live presentation itself. MSHOW helps prepare e-mail invitations to participants, sets up registration pages, and offers training and support to the show leader. In addition to supporting audio, video, Flash and PowerPoint, MSHOW可以实时演示桌面应用程序,而无需在观众的计算机上安装应用程序. The leader can draw or type while highlighting text, 并能在演示过程中向观众提出现场问题. MSHOW汇总答案并实时显示结果. 观众成员还可以向任何其他参与者或整个组发送私人消息. In addition, MSHOW offers a live-operator help desk, archived on-demand playback of presentations, and post-show reports on usage and polling. MSHOW每天在其网站上运行两个现场演示,因此您可以轻松查看.
MSHOW is most frequently used for product launches, sales meetings, Web marketing seminars, investor relations briefings, and internal corporate communications. 随着公司越来越意识到使用这种交互式多媒体演示可以节省差旅和其他成本, 随着互动企业网络直播领域的竞争对手越来越多, 像MSHOW这样的公司无疑会开发出更多更好的服务. 这可能会让世界各地的营销经理们的日子好过一些.