ON24 unveils live streaming for webcasts, Virtual Show solutions
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jun 30, 2008 at 5:07pm
ON24, a provider of live webcasts, is unveiling two new business applications that will allow Mac users to access most live webcasts with a new TV news-like interface. The company is also bringing all the bells and whistles of virtual shows to the Mac.
ON24 has announced the availability of live streaming for webcasts utilizing Adobe Flash technology. Companies can now deliver webcasts to viewers regardless of their browser or operating system, such as Mac, Linux and PC. The new ON24 console with Adobe Flash technology provides greater multi-platform and browser support, and provides an enhanced user experience for webcast participants, ON24 CEO Sharat Sharan told Macsimum News.
Organizations are seeking new ways to reach, engage and interact with their employees, customers, and partners anywhere at anytime. Designed to be open and completely extensible, the new ON24 console with Adobe Flash technology enables webcasts to be developed with dynamic images, audio, video and animation to capture viewers’ attention and increase their participation in the webcast, Sharan says. ON24 went with Adobe Flash Player since it’s installed on over 98 percent of Internet connected computers and works consistently across multiple browsers and operating systems.
With Adobe’s family of Flash products, companies have increased flexibility regarding the webcast design and level of interactivity, Sharan says. You can view an example of the ON24 audience console utilizing Adobe Flash here.
With Adobe Flash software, webcast interfaces can be more creatively designed, incorporating custom navigation schemes, dynamic Flash widgets, real-time retrieval of related content, peer-to-peer and presenter text chat, and more. There’s also the ability to incorporate Web 2.0 features such as comments, ratings, and the ability to share with third-party sites, such as Digg, Delicious and Facebook, Sharan
“This isn’t your father’s webinar,” he adds. “With our new streaming features with Adobe Flash, we envision that webinars will no longer be a single event in time. Rather, it’ll be a rich Internet application with targeted user information, animation, video, photos and more. The simple webinar now becomes a central component of organization’s online event and marketing initiatives.”
ON24 has also announced its Virtual Show solution, which provides organizations a virtual venue for trade shows, job fairs, conferences and training summits. With reporting analytics and professional networking capabilities, ON24 Virtual Show is designed to make virtual events a more engaging and interactive experience while nurturing key relationships amongst exhibitors, sponsors and attendees., Sharan says. ON24 Virtual Show integrates ON24’s flagship webcasting solution within its environment. Sharan says that Virtual Show features include:
° A customizable user interface: Virtual Show enables organizations and show producers to customize the look and feel of the show environment. This includes complete customization of the plaza, exhibit hall, communications center, and individual booths.
° Integrated webcasting and show reporting: Virtual Show provides real-time information on attendee activity throughout the show, including document downloads, presentations viewed, average viewing times, participation in discussions, and responses to polls and surveys.
° Professional and social networking: Attendees can create profiles, set privacy preferences, and connect with other show attendees for online chats and professional networking opportunities. Within the communications center, attendees can participate in scheduled or ad hoc group discussions, as well as post and reply to forum discussions on the message board.
° “Smart” booths: With ON24’s patent-pending “smart booth” technology, exhibitors can recommend personalized content based on an attendee’s profile, such as business strategy for business professionals while providing technical specifications to IT attendees.
° “Moving” exhibit floor: The booths, building, and exterior landscape each move at different speeds, creating a 3D-like feeling of “walking” through the exhibit hall.
° Multi-lingual dupport: ON24 Virtual Show supports double-byte and European languages, such as Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish.
Sharan says that, with ON24 Virtual Show, organizations can reduce costs and lower their impact on the environment, while achieving significant business benefits. This includes decreasing time to plan and hold an event, lowering cost-per-lead, and extending brand awareness to customers, partners and employees. ON24 Virtual Show also expands the revenue opportunities by enabling organizations to extend the physical trade show by offering a virtual show component, Sharan says.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
