The new WorkSpace3D video conferencing / web conferencing solution by Tixeo, allows users a utilize a “Virtual tour” option, to load panoramic images (360° images) or directly from a Quicktime VR file (QTVR) as an online meeting space. Effective for real estate agencies, property developers or architects, this feature now allows them to guide even their most geographic disparate customers inside real estate properties.

The Gartner group recently published a study stating that “by the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a ’second life,’ but not necessarily in Second Life,” Tixeo has now been awarded for its innovation in the field of web conferencing three times at Intraverse this year in France.

Tixeo’s multiple awards have been won in partnership with the CIT BNP Paribas and BNP Paribas immobilier. The BNP Paribas immobilier currently deploys to its users Tixeo’s technology, to enhance their web conferencing services and online collaboration and have their customer’s benefit of virtual tours of real estate goods.

As organizations throughout the world are becoming increasingly dispersed, their reliance on solutions that promote online collaboration and web conferencing continues to grow, helping to drive demand within these industries.

According to a study on Asia Pacific online collaboration services released by Wainhouse Research, the use of video conferencing and web conferencing services is growing at a rapid pace in the Asia Pacific market.

Key findings of this study include the growth of audio and video conferencing, which grew to 50 percent in 2007 and is expected to continue at over 20 percent year-over-year for the next four years; Web conferencing is poised to grow, but has not yet found wide-spread adoption; India has seen substantial growth in awareness of video conferencing technologies, while China still has only started to enter the market; and green initiatives and travel costs do not factor into usage in Asia as much as it recently has in Europe and North America, yet geographic disparity and the need for personal productivity are the strongest drivers.

This study includes the review and forecast of six local markets, including Australia/New Zealand, Japan, China Country Group, South East Asia Country Group, India and Korea. In the study, each market is sized and forecast by service type and a review of 50 different online collaboration service providers operating in the market is offered.

Web Meetings Today Inc., a Florida based web conferencing company announced the release of its Live Communicator Suite of online meeting applications. The On-Demand Hosted ASP.Net based IP Communication system with online collaboration has customer presence which allows you to set up a corporate directory of contacts. The system allows you to broadcast an invitation or an alert message directly to your staff or customers at their desktop.

Other features included in the Suite are:

• Allow up to 16 people to communicate live simultaneous with a webcam with audio and video in sync. No phone lines needed.
• Allow up to 30 individuals on an audio basis.
• You can browse the internet as a group in an online meeting.
• You can play an audio or a video movie as a group while in an online meeting.
• You can share documents, annotate them, print and save them while in an online meeting.
• You can share ideas on a online whiteboard.
• You can PC remote into each others computer and manipulate any program while at the same time have the other attendees watch or participate.
• You have the ability to communicate audibly and privately within subgroups in the online conference.

Web Meetings Today, Inc. is pursuing its vision of becoming a leading industry provider of interactive voice and video conferencing communication applications and services to corporations, governments, and individuals worldwide.

Until recently, web conferencing and online meetings have been prohibitively expensive for most users. However technology and times are changing - BeamYourScreen announces that Mikogo, its free online meeting tool, has recorded rapid growth of fifty percent in its user base in less than two months demonstrating today’s increasing demand for free, easy-to-use quality web conferencing.

This April, Mikogo reached the 20,000 user milestone. Now less than eight weeks later the free screen sharing tool is being employed by over 30,000 users. With such a significant increase and Mikogo’s 100% free no hidden catches approach, business owners worldwide are quickly catching on to the potential benefits.

Antares Italia CEO Enrico Barberi:

Looking for a technical support solution, we tested several desktop sharing programs, and found that Mikogo was the easiest to use and supplied the fastest performance available. With such great support results we then employed Mikogo for demonstrating our software online to new and potential customers.

Mikogo has since revolutionized Antares Italia’s approach to customer service and technical support: “The benefits are incredible. Technical support problems are solved in minutes and customers can interact in product demonstrations by asking real-time questions and even take remote keyboard and mouse control of the CAD/CAM software. However, considering we have over 1000 customers, the greatest benefit is that we no longer need to travel for hours and provide support via on-site visits,” explains Mr. Barberi.

In the past web conferencing giants provided online collaboration solutions for large corporations, underestimating the smaller business and private user base. This disparity has contributed to directly to Mikogo’s popularity, as it is Antares Italia and such users that are embracing the benefits of free software.

As more companies enlist technology to help co-workers and outsiders collaborate around the world, webinars, videoconferencing, instant messaging and online meetings can make business communication easier - and cut travel costs as fuel prices soar. But, there can be some unintended and often embarrassing consequences.

Only a few keystrokes separate one’s private life from the virtual world. The wrong computer settings, an awkward web-camera angle, and even something as harmless as the “hold” button on the telephone can create lasting career memories. Unlike face-to-face blunders, virtual gaffes can be captured for posterity on web sites and ridiculed by viewers time and time again.

Webinar Success President, Ken Molay:

One solution, is for corporations to create guidelines for employees so that they can properly represent the company. Workers from staff assistants to the suits in the corner office need to be more tech-savvy, he says, from learning how to use equipment to presenting themselves professionally through different forms of technology. Otherwise, they might find themselves part of an office punchline.

There are some precautions you can take to prevent your embarrassing moments from appearing on youtube.com or other media sites. The first rule is to become as familiar as possible with the online meeting technology before using it live. When creating a webcast, in which a company broadcasts video and audio feed to an audience via the Internet, the presenter should be aware of the sound quality and camera angles.

Hold a practice session ahead of time and then analyze the way you sound as well as your posture and mannerisms. If you plan on incorporating technology tools regularly, it may be wise to invest in a training session with a consultant.

Finally, disable any potentially distracting applications, such as instant messaging, email notifications and telephone on-hold music, before engaging in a web conference. Companies often record and archive these online meetings to use as reference material.

Premiere Global Services, a global provider of on demand, communication technologies today announced an agreement with Brainshark, the leader in on demand online presentations, to integrate and resell Brainshark’s online meeting solutions as PGi Presentations On Demand Powered by BrainsharkTM. The collaboration between companies will allow Premiere Global customers to enhance marketing and online collaboration capabilities with online presentations that combine online PowerPoint slides, document sharing and other content with high-quality audio, video conferencing and web conferencing. PGi Presentations On Demand enables customers to engage audiences with powerful interactive online presentations and to improve results with built-in functionality that tracks and measures audience engagement.

Brainshark CEO, Joe Gustafson:

We are excited about our agreement with Premiere Global Services as it provides many synergies with their eMarketing and Web Conferencing & Online Collaboration customers. PGi Presentations On Demand enables customers to transform business materials and marketing messages into dynamic content that improves reach, impact and response. It allows organizations to engage with prospects, customers, employees and partners in more convenient, compelling and measurable ways.

PGi Presentations On Demand is a unique addition to Premiere Global’s other online collaboration applications. Presentations on Demand improves productivity, sharpens corporate messaging and can enhance selling efforts. Businesses that require online collaboration and improved intra-company communication can quickly setup the service and begin realizing the financial benefits and convenience of the technology.

IVCi, a leading provider of online collaboration solutions including high definition video conferencing, telepresence, audio visual integration, and web conferencing services, announced today it has expanded its IntelliNet managed web conferencing services to include four new services: IntelliNet Professional, IntelliNet Telepresence, IntelliNet CallCenter, and IntelliNet Custom. These new services were developed to meet the increasing demand for IVCi’s managed services, and to meet the unique requirements of its customers.

Vice President of Intellient Chris Bottger:

Our clients need their video conference and telepresence calls to run smoothly every single time, but many lack the required in-house resources and expertise to accomplish this. That is why we have expanded our traditional managed video services; to offer a true one stop shop for a full range of video products and services, and to provide total accountability throughout the entire process.”

Companies are responding to changes in the global economy and are choosing video conferencing and online meetings to help them become more efficient, save on travel, and be environmentally responsible. IVCi’s expanded managed web conferencing services helps clients get the most out of their video conferencing investment by guaranteeing video conferences are successful every time.

New features in the IntelliNet update include:

• IntelliNet Professional uses a single process to manage, schedule, and coordinate video calls for online meetings that are planned or on demand. This includes a live video conferencing operator for missed calls, and a powerful engine for placing ad-hoc calls.
• IntelliNet Telepresence is a concierge, 24/7 VNOC service created specifically for telepresence customers. This service provides total management of telepresence solutions, including those manufactured by Cisco®, Tandberg®, and Polycom®.
• IntelliNet CallCenter is designed for call centers and kiosk applications. Many large organizations use video conferencing to reach more customers and reduce the cost per sale, while increasing customer satisfaction. This service can enhance an audio only call center with managed video calls.
• IntelliNet Custom is available for those customers whose needs fall outside of the other offerings. IntelliNet Custom utilizes IVCi’s experience and expertise to provide a customized managed service, depending on the customers’ unique requirements.

iLinc, a leading provider of Web conferencing software and online collaboration solutions today announced that Technology Marketing Corporation’s, Communications Solutions has named the iLinc 9.0 Web conferencing suite a recipient of the Product of the Year Award. The award is given to the most innovative products and services brought to market in 2007. As one of the top independent providers of Web conferencing, webcasting and online collaboration solutions, iLinc provides easy to use online collaboration tools in its suite of applications to small and large businesses.

TMC President, Rich Tehrani:

iLinc has been recognized with a 2007 Product of the Year Award for their excellence in the advancement of voice, data and/or video communications, iLinc has proven they are committed to quality and excellence in solutions that benefit the customer experience as well as ROI for the companies that use them.”

With its four-product suite, iLinc provides solutions for virtual classrooms, webinars, web conferencing and online collaboration sessions. These solutions enable organizations with real-time web collaboration tools designed with specific modules for sales, marketing, training, and IT and customer service support functions. The iLinc suite of web conferencing software provides meeting leaders and attendees an online experience equal to, and in some cases superior to, in-person interaction.

Today, Adobe launched its beta version of Acrobat.com. Like rivals Google Apps and Microsoft Office Live, Acrobat.com is a free online collaboration tool that allows users to collaborate online, conduct online meetings, and share documents and media without installing and using traditional office software.

Highlights of the Acrobat.com suite of online applications include Adobe Buzzword, a Web-based word processor that allows users to create and edit documents online and collaborate with others users. Adobe ConnectNow is a Web conferencing service allowing users to video conference, share media and even supports desktop screen sharing. Acrobat.com also allows users the ability to share documents with each other and convert them (up to 5 free) to Adobe’s native .pdf format. All features are based on Adobe AIR technology, which the company developed especially for Web 2.0 apps.

Adobe Vice President of Business Productivity Solutions, Rob Tarkoff:

With rich Internet applications enabled by Adobe, we can combine desktop and cloud computing to create innovative productivity applications that will change the way we create, store and share documents together.”

Adobe compares the shift to sharing documents with Acrobat.com to the same type of shift initiated over a decade ago when users began sharing documents as e-mail attachments instead of on paper.

Ekiga (formerly known as GnomeMeeting) is a free and open source VoIP and video conferencing and web conferencing application for Linux and Windows systems. Ekiga supports both the SIP and H.323 protocols but also supports many other high-quality audio and video codecs. Ekiga is interoperable with other SIP compliant online meeting software including Microsoft  netmeeting.

Features Include:

• Integration with Novell Evolution 2.00
• LDAP Support
• Rendez-Vous Support
• Advanced Personal Settings Management
• In call Instant-Apply Support for Settings
• Web Conference Call Monitoring
• Auto Answer and Do Not Disturb Mode in online meetings
• Configurable Full-Screen Video Conferencing
• OSS and ALSA Compatible Soundcards Support
• Video4Linux, Video4Linux 2 and Firewire Cameras Support
• Video Conferencing Devices Auto-Detection
• Status Notion
• Configurable Sound Events
• HIG Compliant GUI
• KDE and GNOME Compatibility
• Translation for multiple languages

Download Ekiga video conferencing for your distribution and get a free SIP-Address at ekiga.net.