2014年2月27日星期四

VCSU to host videoconference with university in Philippines Feb. 26

Four faculty members from Valley City State University will make presentations as part of an international cloud video conferencing with the University of the East (UE), Manila, Philippines, to be held Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. in Rhoades Science Center on the VCSU campus.

VCSU faculty Shou-Ching Chao, Daisy Figueroa, Jodi Shorma and Rob Walsh are panelists for the free video conferencing online titled “Preparing English Language Activities for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Classroom.”

The web video conferencing will electronically connect VCSU presenters with their counterparts in the Philippines—UE professors Mark Fabella, Paolo Danduan, Menandro Mortel and Arnold Santos. The international collaboration features presentations by each VCSU professor, followed by a brief response to each by the UE professors.

In addition, the event will include the culmination of an intercultural assignment in which students of VCSU’s Jodi Shorma were paired with students of UE’s Arnold Santos.

Once the largest university in Asia with more than 60,000 students, UE is a leader in technology, dubbed “most wired university” by Computer World Magazine and Enterprise Magazine in 2006.

The event is open to the public free of charge.

Article Source: VCSU to host videoconference with university in Philippines Feb. 26

2014年2月25日星期二

New video conferencing network launched to cater to HD

Media Network Services (MNS) launched of a new global video conferencing network enabling any business with video conference equipment to experience high-quality to Telepresence and Internet video conferencing without the need of traditional dedicated networks.
The increase of businesses choosing to use online video conferencing to communicate and interact with employees, customers and partners led to a high demand for enhanced video presentation software quality.
While companies traditionally have invested in expensive dedicated networks to experience high-quality to telepresence and web presentation software, MNS now offers affordable guaranteed-capacity network to meet any demand for maximized video conferencing experience. And there is no need for businesses to invest in new video conferencing equipment when taking advantage of MNS’ global network.
“We are very excited about our new global webinar software network. Media Network Services can  enable any business to experience a maximized online training software experience while leveraging their existing online video teaching software equipment”, says Haakon Bryhni CEO, at MNS.

2014年2月19日星期三

Telstra to offer Blue Jeans video conferencing service

Telstra will start selling cloud-based video conferencing and collaboration service developed by Blue Jeans network.
The web-based product, that works with most video systems and devices, allows businesses to use the internet to connect face-to-face while sharing content and presentations with staff, customers and suppliers.
“With full compatibility with other industry leading web based video conferencing providers and an ability to dial in from a phone line if no video options are available, Blue Jeans makes it possible for billions of devices which were previously incompatible to now join together in an easy video call,” Blue Jeans chief operating officer Stu Aaron said in a statement.
The multipoint video conferencing market is rapidly picking up steam with even the likes of Google getting ready to take on heavyweights like Cisco and Polycom.
While it has been around for twenty years, for organisations making the most of the technology has historically gone hand in hand with prohibitive costs
Typical deployments are usually limited to only a handful of rooms in large office locations. But with the mean capital cost of a telepresence deployment hovering between $250,000 and $300,000 there has always been a built in barrier to right of use.
However, the proliferation of mobile devices has added a new dimension to unified communication (UC) deployment, with a recognition that important conversations just don’t need to happen in purpose-build screens and rooms.
With rank and file appetite for conferencing services on the rise businesses are now acutely aware of investing in viable services.
Telstra Business group managing director, Will Irving, says that combining Blue Jeans technology with the reach and reliability of Telstra’s networks provides a compelling service to local businesses.
“With this new solution employees at work, at home, or on the road can connect face-to-face with their colleagues, partners, and customers whether they are in a boardroom, an office, a living room, or a coffee shop,” Irving said in a statement.
Launched in 2011, Silicon Valley-based Blue Jeans is keen to take the fight  up to the legacy giants, with the only interoperable video conferencing server service on the market right now.  
Australia is currently the sixth largest market for the company following the US, UK, Canada, Germany and India

2014年2月17日星期一

Enjoy 50% off of CUMeeting 12 months license for 25 users

Trying to explain something on your computer to someone else is impossible unless they can see what you’re doing. Crowding people around your screen is one possibility, but impractical if your team is distributed in different offices. The perfect solution lies in today’s discount software promotion, CUMeeting!
CUMeeting is a powerful web conferencing solution that lets you share your screen and files with people around the world. With it, you can view up to 16 simultaneous streams. If there are more than 16 people in a web conference, each video can be broadcasted by turns. Besides, you can conduct your video conference with up to 1,000 people.
Best of all, with CUMeeting, you’re not just limited to desktop or laptop computers, since the program also supports iPads, iPhones, and Android devices, all in glorious 720p/1080p resolution! Everything you need to do and share is right here in CUMeeting, including the ability to view applications and files, send files from presenter to participants, and play a variety of audio and video file formats.
Beyond just screen and application sharing, CUMeeting also includes a powerful Whiteboard feature that lets you add annotations to the screen and highlight specific content, boosting the ability to collaborate with others, explain ideas, and come up with innovative solutions as a team. You can even use CUMeeting to capture an entire meeting as a WMV or ASF file so that anyone can view it, anywhere, at any time!

2014年2月10日星期一

Google Inc launches Chromebox for videoconferencing at $999 – Financial Express

Google took aim at office meeting rooms with the release of a Chromebox for web based video conferencing.
“These days, we often connect with each other from far-flung locations, coordinating time zones and dialing into conference calls from our phones,” product management vice president Caesar Sengupta yesterday said in a blog post.
“Meetings need to catch up with the way we work they need to be face-to-face, easier to join, and available from anywhere and any device.”
Chromebox-for-meetings is available in the US at a starting price of USD 999 and is to be released later this year in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, New
Zealand, and Spain.
The first model box comes with a high-definition camera and a speaker with a microphone. A monitor must be provided.
There is an annual management fee of USD 250 for the cloud-based video conferencing setup.
As many as 15 people can take part in a Chromebox multipoijnt video conferencing using smartphones, tablets, laptops or other Internet linked computers.
Google has been working to expand its business beyond online search and into businesses with a productivity and collaboration software offered as services in the Internet cloud.
The California technology titan also continues to promote Chrome-powered boxes and laptops that push computing power to servers in Google data centers.
Google introduced the first Chromebook in mid-2010 in a challenge to Windows operating software at the heart of Microsoft’s empire.
The array of Chromebook makers has grown to include Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung and Hewlett-Packard, with many models offered at bargain prices when compared to high-end laptops.
Shifting operating software to banks of servers online means that Google updates programs and fends off hackers and malicious software.

2014年2月8日星期六

Google takes on Cisco In video conferencing market

Google has entered the cloud-based video conferencing market with the release of the Chromebox for Meetings, billed as a low-cost, easy-to-use device for holding business meetings in any room.
The wireless device, introduced Thursday, comes with everything but a display for holding meetings of up to 15 people on laptops, smartphones or tablets.
People who prefer phones can dial into a meeting through UberConference, while those with traditional web based video conferencing systems need to have a separate tool sold by Vidyo.
Chromebox, which will compete with products from Cisco Systems and Polycom, costs $999 and comes with a high-definition camera, a microphone and speaker unit and a remote control with a full QWERTY keyboard. The device itself has four USB ports and is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor.
After the first year, buyers pay $250 annually for use of the service, which utilizes Google+ Hangouts and Google apps, such as Calendar for scheduling meetings and Gmail for people who join without a Chromebox. Dell, Hewlett-Packard and ASUSTek will sell Chromebox. It will also be available through resellers CDW and SYNNEX.
The device will be sold first in the U.S. and in Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.K. later this year. "We are excited to be working closely with Google on such an innovative solution that gives professionals the opportunity to connect, collaborate and meet face-to-face no matter where they are," Neil Hand, vice president and general manager for the Dell Tablet Group, said in a statement.
Companies that tested Chromebox before the launch included Eventbrite, Gilt, oDesk and Woolworths Limited. Google's interest in online meeting software started with its development of Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC), a technology the company open sourced in 2011.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) are standardizing WebRTC. The technology is considered a disruptor in the web conferencing software market because it enables inexpensive browser-to-browser applications for voice calling, video chat and peer-to-peer file sharing without plugins.
Advance implementations of the technology are in the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers. Video conferencing server is a key component of corporate strategies for Web-based collaboration. However, the market has stalled as companies decide whether to take advantage of inexpensive software options or cloud services, according to market researcher IDC.
"We are definitely starting to see the impact of lower-cost video systems and more software-centric products and offerings on the enterprise video equipment market," Rich Costello, analyst for IDC, said in a statement. Overall mutlipoint video conferencing equipment revenue fell almost 10 percent year to year in the third quarter of 2013 to $576 million, IDC reported.

2014年2月6日星期四

Vidyo, Google to let Hangout users hang out with other video callers

As Google unveiled its first multipoint video conferencing hardware on Thursday, it also introduced software with partner Vidyo that can bring together employees in video meeting rooms and users of Google+ Hangouts.
The software, called VidyoH2O for Google+ Hangouts, is the first product to come out of a long-term partnership between Google and Vidyo aimed at improving the quality of Web browser-based video meetings. It will be available March 31, priced at US$99 per month for on-premises use or $149 per month as a cloud-based video conferencing.
VidyoH2O acts as a bridge between Google+ Hangouts and legacy collaboration platforms, including video conferencing server room systems from Cisco Systems, Polycom, Avaya, Logitech Lifesize and Vidyo as well as voice PBX (private branch exchange) systems. The result is that enterprise employees can use Hangouts to join meetings with colleagues or outside partners who are on room systems or office phones.
There are more tools than ever for doing video chats on the Web and mobile devices, but the big, expensive, dedicated systems that once were the only options are still installed in many enterprises. Vidyo and Google, like some other vendors, want to bring together as many platforms as possible so more potential contributors can get in on meetings. Last month, Logitech announced the ConferenceCam CC3000e, a hardware system that can be used with popular collaboration software from vendors including Microsoft, Cisco and Vidyo.
Google+ Hangouts, the group video chatting feature of Google’s social network, runs on WebRTC, an emerging platform designed to make video and audio conferences possible in a browser without plug-ins. VidyoH2O acts as a bridge between Google’s offering and traditional collaboration systems that use standard H.323, H.264 and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) technologies.
The Chromebox video meeting system Google introduced on Thursday consists of a Chromebox compact PC, an 1080p camera module, a combination speaker/microphone and a radio-frequency remote, and is intended for web conferencing software small “huddle rooms” in an office. It has a Hangouts-style interface and is designed to work with Google software such as Google Calendar, Hangouts and Gmail. The product, priced at $999, is one of the meeting systems that could be linked together through VidyoH2O, said Ofer Shapiro, co-founder and CEO of Vidyo.