* Voice/video over IP services
Interwise leads field of 11 vendors in global test of voice/video over IP services
By Christine Perey and Network World Lab Alliance
Web conferencing vendors are adding two key features to their baseline data collaboration platforms: voice and video over IP. The advantages of being able to establish a single session for voice, video and data are increased productivity, reduced costs and the ability to produce integrated meeting archives. We tested 11 Web conferencing services from test sites in Switzerland, the U.K., Austria and the U.S. over the course of three weeks to get an “In the Wild” look at the latest services.
There are dozens of Web conferencing services to choose from. We focused on hosted services that are accessible from anywhere on the Internet, and that offer users with a telephone and PC-equipped headset and Web camera a multi-party, integrated voice and/or video-over-IP conference with several presentation, screen/file viewing and data collaboration features. Out of 20 companies invited, we tested 11: Centra, Convoq, Elluminate, Face-to-Face Meeting, Genesys, Interwise, Linktivity, Macromedia, Raindance, VidiTel and WebEx Communications.
Interwise’s hosted Enterprise Connection Platform (ECP), iMeeting Version 5.2, wins the Clear Choice Award for its rich feature set, yet easy-to-use Web conferencing service. It delivered a flawless performance every time we initiated a rich media meeting with people who had (and who hadn’t) previously downloaded the software and offered optimal levels of management and security for enterprise IT managers. Interwise also was the only service tested in which participants on the same conference could choose to use either the built-in, high-quality VoIP system or a traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) connection to an Interwise-managed bridge. Using Interwise’s softswitch (software bridge), the PSTN and VoIP participant voice qualities are indistinguishable and seamlessly mixed for any size meeting. Regardless how you choose to transmit voice, ECP Connect offers responsive desktop-, application- and file-sharing (or showing) for people on networks with different bandwidths, well-integrated whiteboard tools, co-browsing and simple polling. While the video over IP needs some work, it was another flexible feature in ECP-based meetings.
We were very impressed by the quality of several other services. Linktivity, Raindance and WebEx were excellent and are expected to implement improvements in the months to come.
All services we tested offer a live and responsive “shared space,” where small group collaboration can occur (as opposed to a one-to-many event), and all services support at least one real-time video window. Eight of the 11 tested currently offer VoIP as an integral part of the conference (Raindance, Genesys and WebEx did not offer VoIP as an option at the time of testing. Seven of the 11 also offer meeting recording (Face-to-Face Meeting, Convoq, Raindance and VidiTel do not currently archive meetings).
For the detailed test results, please go to:
http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2005/050205-test-web-conferencing.html?nlr
