(A host is someone who has complete control over the meeting a presenter is selected by a host to talk or show slides.) The panels or "pods" displayed on-screen - the video windows, the attendee list, the chat box, etc. You either have to change some internal Chrome settings or use another browser (such as Firefox).Īdobe Connect's "prepare mode" lets you change how the on-screen panels appear to the other participants.Īdobe Connect users are divided into three groups - hosts, presenters and participants - each with its built-in levels of privilege. The Adobe Connect Add-In, used for screen sharing (where one participant shares an active window on her desktop with everyone in the meeting) doesn't work by default in Chrome because of that browser's heavily secured implementation of Flash. The downside to having the whole application authored in Flash is occasionally running afoul of the limits of Flash's implementations in a given browser. It's been authored entirely in Flash, so it's functionally identical on both Macs and Windows PCs (and, in theory, any other Flash-supporting platform). It runs as a separate application, but uses a Skype plugin to synchronize the recording actions so calls can be recorded automatically.įree 30-day trial plans include $45/month/host (annual), $55/month/host (monthly), or $0.32/minute/user (pay-per-use) Platforms: Any platform with Flash capabilities, iOS, AndroidĪ big selling point for Adobe Connect is consistency across platforms. Evaer, for instance, is designed to record Skype voice and video calls. Some third-party apps work in concert with a given service or program. CamStudio has its own limitations, though - the resulting files can be huge for only a few minutes of capture, and capture files over 2GB sometimes come out broken. Camtasia is one of the best-known such programs, but at $299 it might be a bit steep for some individuals.įree alternatives do exist, and I used one such program, CamStudio, to generate the video captures created for this article. Other programs can capture all activity on the desktop as a video stream, no matter what applications are running. Windows' own Sound Recorder is rather meager, but the open-source audio app Audacity has a better range of features. If you just want to record audio only, which will be a big space-saver, any number of programs can do this. If that's the case with your chosen service, you'll have to make use of a third-party app to record either just the audio or audio and video from the desktop.īear in mind that recording video from the desktop is going to generate big files. Not all conference apps or services have the built-in ability to record your meeting. While they may not be appropriate for some high-end uses, most of these services can offer solid, basic videoconferencing that can allow you to keep in touch with your remote colleagues and friends - and perhaps even get some work done. We looked at how the apps were deployed and how they were performed, and also for the presence of auxiliary features, such as the logging of discussions or tools for moderators and presenters. To try them out, I held test videoconferences, using three participants on different platforms - both Windows and OS X, whenever possible. I looked at seven major offerings, ranging from free adjuncts to popular social-networking systems to products with enterprise-level tiers some needing a local client, some not. Many companies provide trial periods or free usage tiers (albeit with some features missing). Entry-level pricing now starts at anywhere from $8 to $40 a month. Prices in these formerly expensive services have changed over the last couple of years. In all cases, there's a moderator who has control over the conference room behavior (such as who has the floor or who can show his or her desktop to the rest of the members) using a central console. Most of the systems profiled here have many essential features in common, even at their most basic level, such as text chat (as well as voice/video chat) or the ability to share documents, applications or the entire desktop among conference attendees.įeatures available in the more advanced tiers include the ability to record conferences, support for large numbers of people (that is, more than five or ten) and high-definition video. You'll find the video at the bottom of each review. In order to offer a better idea of how each of these teleconferencing applications worked, we've included a video that highlights the product's best (and worst) aspects.
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