Background: The SIG IVC Playground at ISTE 2010 featured six videoconferencing islands. Participants tried out two HD units and four desktop videoconferencing solutions. We used a pirate theme to make the learning and exploration fun. At each island, attendees had to talk to people in mystery locations to figure out where they were and which content provider they were.
In this blog post, I share what we learned at the Elluminate Live station.
Elluminate Live Setup and Connections
In this picture, you can see that James Yasko, of The Hermitage, Home of President Andrew Jackson. This station did not feature H323 videoconferencing. Instead we were featuring web conferencing. The Hermitage is one of several content providers who are exploring offering their programs to schools in the web conference format so as to reach a wider audience. We stayed connected with The Hermitage for the whole playground time.
This island was set up with a headset and a Logitech QuickCam Orbit. The laptop, headset and webcam were provided by Whirlidurb.
In this picture, you can see that one of the participants was talking with James, while the others are making notes about this island on their “letter of marque“.
At times the Elluminate island was jam packed and crowded!
What I Learned
- The content is the main feature of webconferencing; video is “on the side”. This format works well for PowerPoint-like presentations.
- Elluminate has another product – Elluminate VCS – which connects to H323 systems. I would like to know more about Elluminate VCS. Maybe next year!
What about you?
Did you make it to the ISTE IVC Playground? Or have you played with Elluminate Live or VCS before? What features did I miss?