Citrix Online today sent out a limited number of beta invitations to their newest enhancement to their market leading online collaboration tool – GoToMeeting. Called GoToMeeting HDFaces, you are now able to broadcast up to six high-resolution video conferencing streams while sharing your screen. Attendees without webcams can still join HDFaces meetings; however, they will need a webcam to share video from their end.
Some of the advantages of the HDFaces beta:
- Experience the new Citrix Multistream HD technology.
- Share your webcam video with up to 15 attendees.
- Share up to six attendee webcams in the session.
- Present video and desktop content together for more engaging presentations.
- No specific hardware needed: any HD-capable webcam will support HDFaces.
Special Note: HDFaces beta is only available in your GoToMeeting account. GoToWebinar and GoToTraining will be coming in the future.
I have been testing video sharing with several other vendor solutions since the beginning of the year. Some observations I have made with webcams visible in meetings are:
- Many of those that I am meeting with do not have a webcam on their work computer so not everyone will be able to share their camera view.
- Not everyone with a webcam is prepared to share their webcam view. Picture bunny slippers and PJ’s.
- The presence of video does seem to cut way down on the distractions that would otherwise be in play including eMail and Twitter.
- Participants seem to listen more intently to each other when the webcams are live.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, you can now participate in a GoToMeeting with your iPad, and can now listen in to a GoToWebinar from your iPad as well. I fully expect that at some point you will be able to share and view your webcam participants if using an iPad2.
If you are a GoToMeeting/Webinar/Training customer and haven’t received an invite to the beta, send them a request using the Contact Us Menu option within GoToMeeting.
I hope you will share how you are using this new feature in your sales efforts and what the impact is on your meetings.