• Beautiful HD Experiences
• Engaging Global Audiences
• Priced for Everyone

The features I outlined yesterday focused on providing Beautiful HD Experiences provide unparalleled quality and control for event producers.  HD quality video and audio, dynamic smart-streaming, global reach, and control over how video and event content are displayed will enable our customers to achieve new levels of creativity and polish in getting their message across to webcast audiences.  But Podium 2 also includes a series of exciting new features focused on providing a best-of-breed experience for event viewers.  Early on in our development cycle, we challenged ourselves come up with ways to provide webcast audiences with interactive tools for events of any size.

The common belief is that as event sizes grow, interactivity decreases. We're aiming to change that.

One of the challenges that Michael, our CEO put in front of us is visualized in the graph above.  Typically customers have had to make trade-offs.  If they wanted interactivity, they had to use a product that only scaled to a limited audience size.  Once they reached those maximums, features started to display performance issues or become less useful, because their design was meant to facilitate not just a web event use case, but also team collaboration and eLearning use cases as well.  A perfect example of this is note taking.  Sure many products out on the market provide note taking capabilities from within the event.  But because note taking was imagined as a feature used in a collaborative team meeting, where you’d want all attendees to share the same notes.  Yet if you think about a webinar or webcast scenario, where audience members do not know each other and who have differing interests and objectives, having the ability to take shared notes for the entire audience simply does not make sense.  So what do event producers end up doing?   Disabling the notes feature for everyone, and taking a potentially powerful capability out of the hands of viewers (keep reading to see how we’ve tackled this challenge in Podium 2).

At the other end of the spectrum, where customers wanted to reach large audiences of 2,500 or more, they had to use a different set of products that provided limited interactivity, and which provided a noticeably more passive viewing experience.  Viewers are left to simply “sit back and take it” and this lack of interactivity and engagement gives audiences ample opportunities to click away to a website, email, or simply leave the event all together.

A typical event experience touted by one of our competitors in their showcase site.

Note: You can experience the typical event experience yourself and I actually encourage you to do it and see how long you watch for: http://event.on24.com/view/presentation/flash/EventConsole.html?titlecolor=000000&eventid=133495&sessionid=1&key=B2499CB2DC56E195668833FD952CE9C7&contenttype=A&eventuserid=305999&playerwidth=1000&playerheight=650&caller=previewLobby&text_language_id=en&format=fhaudio#

Our team truly believes that webcasts do not need to be a passive viewing experience and the new engagement features in Podium 2 prove that.

Engaging Global Audiences

Podium 2 includes many new features that provide engagement tools to webcast audiences regardless of the size of the audience.  In the release we’ve added some of the features you’d expect in any web event platform such as Chat or Q&A.  But our past experiences in the web collaboration space (both the CEO and I were former Product Managers for the Adobe Connect product) provided us with the years of customer feedback to add these features to the product in a way that they would still be useful in large events.

Take Q&A for example.  In Podium 2, audience members can ask questions and review answered questions as you’d expect, but if a user’s submitted question is answered, we provide a special visual treatment drawing that users attention to the fact that this has occurred.

If a user's specific question is answered, it receives a different visual treatment to grab that user's attention.

Another example of this is in the Chat feature.  We have personally experienced too many events to count where Chat became unruly and impossible to follow simply because the chat messages were flying off the screen.  To account for this, we’ve added in an Auto-Scroll option so that users can scroll through chat messages at their own paste should they choose this option.

Scratchpad is also a new feature in Podium 2, that revolutionizes how event audiences take and share notes within a webcast.  This feature enables viewers to take individualized notes within Podium, save them as a PDF or distribute them via email.  Instead of having to tab away from the webcast to take notes in a separate application or on paper, viewers remain focused on the event and message.  Notes are time-stamped, so viewers can easily return to noteworthy parts of presentations.  Think about this for a second.  Not only are you drastically reducing the number of opportunities a user has to get distracted, but also providing an seamless way for a user to review the points they found interesting in the event and best of all, share your message with others.

The Scratchpad provides audience members with the ability to take personalized notes within the webcast window. Viewers can also save the notes and share them with colleagues.

The Viewer Video Responses feature is another example of how we are bringing a fresh approach to the webcasting space.  Event producers have never been able to put a face to a name and event viewers have never been able to provide any sort of visual feedback or respond to event content with video, that is until now.  In Podium 2, Participants can record feedback about an event to convey thoughts and ideas.  Video Responses provide rich, multimedia feedback about the event content, while promoting a sense of community among event audiences.  Responses can be reviewed by event producers and made available for download or later viewing by other attendees.  Imagine being able to post customer video testimonials about a new release recorded by event attendees, or better yet, playing back a gushing response by a viewer about how valuable the content was to your boss as part of a justification for expanding your webcast programming.

Viewer Responses allow attendees to record video segments to provide feedback or give their opinion on event content.

Bringing viewers into the event through video and other multimedia in a controlled, moderated is an area we think is a key component to the next-generation of webcasting, and the Video Responses feature is just the tip the iceberg.  Look out of some mind-blowing features in this area in the months to come!

We are also introducing the Podium Events Guide in this release.  The Events Guide is a video portal that provides organizations with the ability to provide a destination site where viewers can learn about upcoming events, launch into in progress events, and watch event recordings.  With the Events Guide, customers can combine the power of interactive live events with a web-based Events Portal to view live and on-demand broadcasts. Upcoming or in-progress events can be organized into Channels to encourage repeat viewership and target content to relevant audiences.  Think of this as a private-labeled YouTube that you own and manage where viewers can engage with a library of events.

The Podium Events Guide gives event viewers a destination site where they can engage with a library of upcoming and recorded events.

Last, but not least, is the Vanity URL feature.  While some products have provided users with the ability to attach a natural-language URL to their web conferences, to date, no providers in the webcasting space has provided this functionality.  Recall the example event URL I provided earlier.  Good luck trying to recite the URL to a colleague over the phone that you think might be interested in the subject matter.  With Podium 2, customers now have the ability to assign a custom, easy to remember, easy to recite URL to their events.  This capability will not only provide event viewers with the convenience of being able to easily enter your events, but this can go a long way towards helping your events go viral.

The engagement features in Podium 2 go a long way towards solving “The Interactivity Challenge” I introduced earlier in this post and it for this reason that we believe Podium 2 is redefining webcasting.  Come back tomorrow to see how the new pricing model we’re releasing with Podium 2 will change how you buy and ultimately use webcasting in your organization. And don’t forget to attend one of our upcoming webcasts and experience a Podium event first hand.

• Beautiful HD Experiences
• Engaging Global Audiences
• Priced for Everyone

Recent Podium Event Streaming in HD

Over the course of the next week, I’ll be walking you through some of the key features of Podium.  Today we’ll start with the features that a targeted towards providing event producers with tools to provide a best-in-class, engaging experience on the event stage that we like to categorize into a grouping called “beautiful HD experiences.”

Beautiful HD Experiences

In an earlier blog post, I made the declaration that “You Are Not a Talking Head“.  This is a philosophy that we are passionate about here at ConnectSolutions.  Maybe the idea of having a static video player in the upper left hand corner with  small, pixelated video and static slides on the right was revolutionary in 2003, but today’s users expect much more.  In an age where the online video landscape is rapidly changing, HD quality is becoming the norm rather than the exception and with Podium we’ve always supported HD Quality Video and Audio Broadcasts.  But streaming HD comes with its challenges, chief among them is bandwidth.  Not every user is going to have a connection fast enough to support consuming a full HD stream, so to account for that, we’ve built in unique smart-streaming technology that allows you to broadcast multiple streams of various quality.  For example, in a Podium event you may broadcast a 720p HD Stream, another second medium quality stream, and a third low quality stream for viewers on older computers or slower connections.  The Podium viewer then automatically detects which stream to playback for a user to ensure a smooth playback experience devoid of constant “buffering” messages.

Instead of imposing a single, archaic layout for you to share content, Podium provides you ultimate flexibility over how content on the event “stage” is presented.  For example, at one moment, you may want to focus full screen video on the speaker, while at other times, you may want to bring slide content to the forefront.  The point here is that not every event is the same, so the content needs to adjust and we’ve given you the power to control this.

Producers have full control over how video and content are displayed on the event "stage".

Also core to Podium is support for truly global audiences.  If you follow our blog, you have probably seen some recent posts we’ve done that show we’ve been able to reach audiences around the world with our customer’s content.  In an era where geographical boundaries are becoming less defined and knowledge workers are having to collaborate with others halfway around the world, the ability for webcasts to achieve global reach is now a requirement instead of a nice-to-have.  Our global infrastructure provides the backbone necessary for successful global events.

Finally, in this area, we have added a new tool for event producers called Announcements.  With this feature, event producers can curate broadcast-quality, targeted messaging to an audience, helping engage them in the presentation.  Event producers can reinforce the presenter’s message, show graphics, charts, and provide links and document downloads in the flow of the presentation.  And they can do this fully in context without taking up valuable screen real estate.

Event Producers can send popup Annoucements to viewers that include links, images, and contextual information or statistics.

We believe that the combination of all of these features provide a rich, unique capabilities that will allow event producers to create compelling events that will leave audiences wowed.  And the experts are agreeing.  After a recent meeting with Steve Vonder Haar, Research Director at Interactive Media Strategies, wrote “Creative people will see the benefits right away, Podium 2 breaks out of the pre-set template of Webcasting, enabling presenters to create a different look and feel for their viewers. In the process, it brings a fresh option for producers seeking to create an engaging business communications experience.”

Stay tuned to our blog and learn more about some of the other new features in Podium 2.  Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Podium and experiencing an event first hand, register to attend a free webcast.

Streaming live, HD video usage has come through private, secure broadcasts from our enterprise clients, as well as large-scale public events.  Our largest public event was the US State Department’s Town Hall with Chinese Youth, that was streamed live from Shanghai last November.

Additionally, ConnectSolutions events with Asia-Pac vary in audience size.  Secure web casting is frequently used for small team meetings, medium sized seminars, and large broadcasts. The ConnectSolutions Podium experience includes interactive features, on a secure, reliable network, that reaches audiences into the thousands.  The Presidential Town Hall event, for instance, had over 9000 viewers.

In the last three years, the largest users in Asia-Pac, were China, India, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, New Zealand, Pakistan and Taiwan.

In addition to our Global Top 20, ConnectSolutions also has an excellent track record in live streaming to South Korea, and all of South East Asia.

Additionally, city statistics continue to show active use in Asia. Of our Top 20 international cities, 16 are in Asia-Pac. Only London, Paris, Sterling and Ottawa were able to crack the top 20, with London the highest at 7th.

For more information about secure, reliable, live streaming video around the globe, please visit this link.

O’Reilly Media is best known as the publisher of technical manuals, but also conducts online learning, and conferences.  Their brand is most recognizable because they always feature a distinctive woodcut pictures of an animal on their book covers.  Since the team at O’Reilly specializes in education, we will also get some great ideas about producing a successful webcast.

Below is the Q&A session I had with Kathryn Barrett, a Webcast Producer at O’Reilly:

Q: What does a Webcast Producer do?

I don’t know what other webcast producers do, but I handle most of the aspects of running our webcast program: I line up presenters and work with them, set up the webcasts in Adobe Connect, manage all the communications around the webcasts, provide technical support to our users, and run and moderate the live events. There’s a lot of work involved and it’s very hands-on.  Beyond making sure that everything comes together well for each event, my goal is to make sure that our attendees find the experience trouble-free and rewarding.

Q: What is O’Reilly Media’s business all about today?

O’Reilly’s business is about spreading the knowledge of innovators. We do that in a lot of different ways–through our books, websites, videos, conferences, and many other ways, including webcasts and online events. These days, people are fairly particular about how they want to receive information. Some like to read regular printed books, others want to read on their computers, cell phones, e-readers, or iPads, while other people prefer to watch videos or attend in-person training. We try to make our content available in whatever format our customers want to receive it.

Q: How is O’Reilly Media using Adobe Connect?
We’re using Adobe Connect as the platform for our online events: webcasts, online conferences, and online tutorials. We’ve found it to be a very flexible platform so we’re always trying out new ideas. Lately we’ve been using it with ConnectSolutions’ Podium HD Pod to stream high-resolution video of live events. That’s been exciting. We also use Adobe Connect internally for meetings and presentations, and our IS department uses it for tech support, especially with employees who work remotely.

Q: What factor/s made Adobe Connect the choice for your webcasts?

Every organization has its specific needs. We needed a platform robust enough to support groups of 1,000 or even more without any deterioration of the user experience. We also needed it to be accessible by Windows, Mac, and Linux users. And I wanted joining the meeting to be trouble-free (no user downloads or other hassles). Those were the primary limiting factors. I’ve looked at a lot of online meeting solutions that say they can support up to 1,000 in a meeting but in practice fall quite short of that–the audio feed falls apart, people are dropped from the meeting and can’t connect again, or the entire experience just slows to a crawl. I’ve become skeptical of claims like that; in my experience there are only three solutions these days that can handle groups of 1,000 with no deterioration. Adobe Connect met all of my criteria plus it had a lot of other features that were very attractive.

Q: Did you consider other solutions?
Yes, I consider it part of my job to be familiar with all the solutions available so I’m constantly looking at them. We’ve used two other platforms in the past. We outgrew the first one quickly. The last one we used was very good except that users complained about having to download the client in order to join the webcasts and we found that their support for Mac users left something to be desired.  We also had plans to use both streaming and embedded video more, and it didn’t offer the support we needed for that.

Q: How many webcasts do you hold using Adobe Connect? and what is the format?
My goal is to offer four webcasts a week, one each morning, Tuesday through Friday, but our overall plans are more ambitious.  We’ve had a few online conferences and are working on other offerings now such as online workshops with smaller audiences where attendees will get a lot of personalized attention. We’ve also started streaming tutorial sessions live from our conferences, which is a nice option for people who want the training but don’t have the liberty of traveling to the conference.

Q: What was your biggest concern when you first started using Adobe Connect?
Just getting up to speed quickly so we wouldn’t have an interruption in our webcast program. That includes meeting all of our users’ needs and anticipating the questions and problems they might have with Adobe Connect. We had great support from you guys at ConnectSolutions that made the transition very easy.

Q: How have your speakers and authors responded to using Adobe Connect? and are they tech savvy people?
Most of my presenters are remote and I don’t have a lot of time to introduce them to the platform and make sure that whatever they want to do is actually doable. Some of them are very tech savvy (which you’d expect from our authors and conference speakers) but others aren’t. Overall, I find that they take to Adobe Connect easily. Often the first thing they’ll tell me when we finish a webcast is, “That was fun. Let’s do another one!”

Q: What makes your webcasts successful or how do you determine success?
The attendees are the ones who let us know whether a webcast is a success or fell short. I solicit their feedback and read all of it. In general though, if there are no serious technical glitches, if the presenter is well prepared and the audience is involved and seems to get a lot out of it, I consider it a success. We run into problems when speakers haven’t prepared or rehearsed, or there’s an act of God like the network going down or the phones cutting out, or when we haven’t properly described what the webcast is about and attendees are disappointed by the content or targeted experience level. Those are the biggest problems that can plague us.

Q: How have attendees responded to your webcasts?
Enthusiastically!  I think we offer some great speakers and content, but beyond that, we try to have an open, casual atmosphere where attendees are encouraged to chat, comment, and ask questions. We don’t moderate our chat room–we want people to see all of the conversation and chime in. I like to keep the attendee list visible so people can see who else is in the meeting. Otherwise it can be such a sterile experience. I also insist that the webcast cannot be a sales pitch. Our attendees need to feel that they’re spending their time doing something worthwhile.

Q: Were there any surprises when you started using Adobe Connect?
Not about Adobe Connect–it was pretty much what I had seen and expected. My biggest surprise was the amazing support we got from ConnectSolutions. I hadn’t anticipated that level of support at all or the professionalism. That made me feel completely confident that we could achieve what we set out to do.

Q: What Adobe Connect feature do you use the most/least and why?
I use the basic features the most: the chat pod, share pods, note pod. I also use the fileshare pod to make files available for download during a webcast. I like to use polls occasionally but don’t find them to be the interactive ice-breakers that a lot of people think they are. Too often I think they’re just part of the drill that people are told they should include in a webcast: use a poll to get the audience involved. It’s contrived. I personally don’t think we should make our audiences jump through hoops. If the content and format are compelling, they’ll get involved. And I never use the moderated Q&A. I want everyone to see what other people are asking.  A lot of times our attendees will have great answers to share, too.

Q: How has your team at O’Reilly responded to Adobe Connect?
I think they like it a lot. They definitely see the potential there.

Q: Where can people who read this get more information on upcoming O’Reilly webcasts?
That’s easy. Just go to http://oreilly.com/webcasts. We list all of our upcoming webcasts and keep the archive of past webcasts.

Thanks Kathryn!  I hope all of you have gained some insights here. I encourage everyone to checkout the webcasts offered by O’Reilly Media and be like me and transition from the printed books and guides and take advantage of the ebooks offered by O’Reilly.

Michael and Andrew discuss the history of ConnectSolutions,  from the acquisition of venture capitol money, the signing the company’s first client, the track to profitability, and the continuing growth of the company.

In the interview, Michael talks about ConnectSolutions commitment to “insane, passionate customer service” for our customers in enterprise and government.  He also talks about the time commitment and sacrifice required of entrepreneurs, “every 3am phone call — we know about it.”

Many of our enterprise and government customers use ConnectSolutions for internal collaboration with globally distributed team members.  Many also conduct live web training events to their international and domestic staff.

These secure broadcasts enable interaction at a fraction of time and cost of in-person collaboration.  Additionally, with the wide distribution and reliability of our server network, we are able to make public events available to even wider audiences.  This wide, public distribution strategy is seen most regularly with the US State Department’s Co.Nx program, which engages in virtual diplomacy via facebook.

Co.Nx is currently live-streaming the Association of Binational Centers of Latin America Conference, and next week will broadcast The Presidents Forum with Young African Leaders.  The broadcast of the Young African Leaders forum includes a Town Hall with President Obama on Tuesday afternoon, a webchat with State Department Undersecretary Maria Otero, and a chat with a group of Namibian Delegates to the forum.

The US State Department is just one of many ConnectSolutions clients, in both the government and enterprise spheres, who broadcast internationally.  Here are some stats about our top international visitors in the first 7 months of 2010:

Top 10 Countries (by Number of visits)

1. United States
2. China
3. Canada
4. United Kingdom
5. India
6. France
7. Germany
8. Australia
9. Turkey
10. Japan

Top 10 Countries (by average time on site)

1. Uganda
2. Mauritania
3. Congo
4. Tunisia
5. Cambodia
6. Estonia
7. Costa Rica
8. Uruguay
9. Slovakia
10. Syria

As the year progresses, and more of our clients engage in international collaboration, we look forward to seeing how these numbers shift.

This heartwarming tail will explain the history, and inspiration for this important labor of love.

For more information about our muralist, or to charter your own Corporate Unicorn, please visit the website of Micho P. Wong.  She has demonstrated great patience, and an ability to empower those with little painting experience or ability, to create breathtaking works of art like the Unicorn mural.  Her website also features her more serious artistic work.

If this looks like the type of place you would like to work, please visit the ConnectSolutions Careers page.

Don’t forget to follow ConnectSolutions on Twitter @CSPodium, or become a Facebook fan of ConnectSolutions.

Some have argued that this endeavor, dubbed “Project Unicorn”, was in retaliation to Michael (allegedly) hiring an Austin Powers impersonator to provide a singing telegram to our CTO, and fellow co-founder, on his birthday. No one has gone on the record either confirming or denying this motive.

The aformentioned Austin Powers impersonator

Local San Francisco muralist Micho was commissioned to design the unicorn mural, while other staff organized the procurement of important hardware, like the pink “Inbox”, the Jonas Brothers Pillow, and the Twilight poster.  Additionally, staff from our office around the country were kind enough to ship props to headquarters, to be incorporated into this artistic display.

Micho puts Operation Unicorn into action

Aside from the leadership, skill, and tolerance of Micho, this was effort by the entire ConnectSolutions team.  All the creative work on the windows, and the non-unicorn walls poured out of the hearts and minds of staff at ConnectSolutions.  When you see those walls (coming in a follow-up post), I think you’ll agree that this was truly a labor of love.

Michael's Arrival...broadcast to our remote employees in HD using ConnectSolutions Podium

Keep an eye out for a documentary on this important project.  I know you will find it both enlightening, and inspiring.

The two discuss the future of streaming video and web collaboration, and what sets ConnectSolutions apart from other competitors. Here are some highlights:

• A premium, full-screen capable HD webcasting product, that works on PCs, Macs, and iPhones
• Web collaboration in a secure environment
• A discussion of how our customers have used social media like Twitter and Facebook to increase audience size
• How ConnectSolutions’ focus on customer service helps ensure customer success by focusing on providing real-world customer solutions

The Backchannel by Cliff Atkinson. “The premise of this book is how people who give public presentations can leverage backchannel conversations happening on Twitter to monitor audience response and respond in real time to questions, concerns, or comments that may come up.”

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. “It’s a book set during World War II in Germany and written from death’s perspective.  It’s an “I can’t put it down” type of book, I’m loving it!”

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. “I don’t read much, but this thing is addicting!  If you read just one book this year about a disgraced Swedish journalist and a crazy rich industrialist … make it this book!”

Slide-ology by Nancy Duarte. “A great book about making more engaging presentations.”

The Culture of Collaboration by Evan Rosen. “Our business is not just technology.”

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. “I think I’m the only person in the world that didn’t read this in high school—so I’m finally getting around to it.  Teenagers are obviously angry and/or depressed, but that kid is BITTER!”

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss [Don't worry, this book was suggested by a team member with young children]

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

Comment on this blog, and let us know what books you are reading this summer!