Webcams and Video conferencing

[oldskooladdict]

We want to kick off some basic video conferencing now that we are a multi-site firm, I know smeg all about webcams or the conferencing providers.

We have and use GoToMeeting, but a quick look on their site suggests they don't offer video support, so perhaps that's not the best idea. Is there anything wrong with Google Chat/Talk? - It's for internal use only!

So, what should I be aware of when choosing a webcam?

What providers have you used and been happy with for this kind of service?

I kinda liked the look of this webcam
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134757

[circuitmonkey]

Have used webex in a professional capacity. It's a nice solution when it works, but tbh we used skype as a fall back, which always worked flawlessly. Webex was tripped over occasionally when using various onsite networks (obviously didn't have access to the necessary ports)

I'm a fan of logitech hardware in general, haven't had a piece fail on me yet (knock on wood)
We've used those cams in our uni labs as I've been told their good for hacking into the drivers (not done this personally mind, not my area), they are very good cameras. I have an E3500 which I picked up cheap from PCWorld, does the job very nicely though.

[oldskooladdict]

Yeah, we looked at WebEx prior to GoToMeeting, but GTM was the preferred solution. As it's only internal I'm not necessarily looking for a corporate solution - just something fairly decent quality - it's about 4 people in one location and about 10 in another, that's the max atm.

Nice one on the cams! - Excuse my ignorance, why would one want to hack into the drivers?

[circuitmonkey]

Yeah, we looked at WebEx prior to GoToMeeting, but GTM was the preferred solution. As it's only internal I'm not necessarily looking for a corporate solution - just something fairly decent quality - it's about 4 people in one location and about 10 in another, that's the max atm.

Nice one on the cams! - Excuse my ignorance, why would one want to hack into the drivers?

We needed low level access to control the hardware and image stream for one of our image processing algorithms

[cookie365]

Haven't used GoToMeeting but I've used WebEx a lot and found it pretty robust and easy to use. The basic version costs hardly anything - about £24 a month I think.

[circuitmonkey]

Hmm, just spotted this offer advertised on gizmodo
14 day free trial of webex

Maybe worth a try?

[kmac]

At work we use Logitech cameras and Avistar software. It works well.


I believe the latter is expensive and we will be migrating to a Microsoft product called OCS (Office communicator something?)

[oldskooladdict]

Hmm, just spotted this offer advertised on gizmodo
14 day free trial of webex

Maybe worth a try?

Thanks for the heads up - we've tried WebEx a number of times, GoToMeeting won for some reason though! - tbh I think I'll give Windows Live Messenger or Google Chat a go first - see how they pan out, and see how much the webcam is actually used first!

[danavmitchell]

Check out RHUB's web conference appliance. You buy the appliance and then can host your own meetings without paying fees to WebEx or GoToMeeting. We've been happy with it so far and I'm amazed at how well everyone can connect without firewall issues. Good luck! Their site is rhubcom dot com.