Stephen Shapiro wrote me yesterday via email:

"I run a company called SchoolFusion.com. We presently manage classroom websites and are looking for a video/voice collaboration tool as an add-on.

Since we're dealing with schools we are looking for something written in Flash so we can not require a download and be fairly browser insensitive.

Flash-based video interface for a new Web-based service to be offered by WebVideo4U

Does your report include these type of services?

Do you have any technology solutions off the top of your head that you would like to suggest?

Thank you,

Stephen Shapiro"

Here is my answer to Stephen and everyone else looking for videoconferencing solutions based on the Flash Communication Server technology.

There is a fast growing number of Flash-based vendors out there which offer either integrated Flash-based video and audio into their own existing technologies or which provide videoconferencing services completely built around the Flash Communication Server technology.

There is a LOT of difference in quality of service, features offered, reliability, and customer support.

Remember also that in this fast rapidly growing sector you often don't get what you pay for. This means: price is often not a reliable indicator of the quality of a service. So...more expensive often doesn't equal "better quality" or "more features".

Here is my very personal selection of Web and video-conferencing solutions that do integrate Flash-based video conferencing along with a cost-effective pricing model:

• FlashMeeting
  http://www.FlashMeeting.com/
  FlashMeeting is a Web-based, hosted videoconferencing system based on the Macromedia Flash MX Server technology. FlashMeeting is extremely easy-to-use and shows all of its character through a very simple and intuitive interface. FlashMeeting integrates a full text chat facility, co-browsing, the ability to vote, raise a hand and a good set of visual emoticons (these are small icons that allow to express with much greater speed and effectiveness concepts, ideas and symbols that would otherwise require long and sophisticated word phrases).
  
  You can try FlashMeeting right now on the web. Go to:
  http://tinyurl.com/4lsj2
• InstantPresenter
  http://www.instantpresenter.com/
  InstantPresenter complements videoconferencing with an interactive whiteboard and set of live annotation tools which can be used by both the presenter and the audience to collaborate over the materials being showcased. A basic text chat facility is also integrated and made accessible to the end user at all times.
  Price starts at $ 19.99/month (audio and video) for 5 participants.
  A free fully working try-out is also accessible here:
  http://www.instantpresenter.com/register.asp
• Convoq ASAP
  http://www.convoq.com
  Convoq ASAP is a new pioneering Web conferencing and live presentation tool integrating new cutting-edge features and leveraging to its best the concepts of presence, interoperability with major instant messaging networks and modular access to full conferencing and collaboration facilities. Convoq has indeed lots to offer as it integrates VoIP, video, high quality PowerPoint-to-Flash presentation facilities, and full screen sharing. Results are not only impressive, but fast to load, capable of preserving animation and effects, and scalable to any screen size. If you make daily use of IM networks for your work, need to present, collaborate or work online this is a technology I recommend you give a try to. Price is right, customer support is good, and if version 1 is any indication, this is one the tools that are really going to make a difference.
  
  Try it out here: http://tinyurl.com/56seh
  
• WebConference.com
  http://www.webconference.com/
  WebConference.com well integrates VoIP, video, screen sharing, Web touring, live annotation, whiteboard, PowerPoint presentation facilities, file sharing, and full recording of any event. On top of this it adds polls, Outlook integration, event management facilities and custom branding. Prices start at USD $69/month for unlimited access to fully-featured a 5-person room.
• smartMeeting
  smartMeeting
  smartMeeting is a revolutionary new conferencing, collaboration and live presentation system that premiers a new type of online meeting: a 3-D, fully-immersive, voice-enabled with spatial 3D sound, avatar-driven, multi-featured virtual office space. In its latest release smartMeeting has integrated a multi-party Flash-based videoconferencing facility. When not videoconferencing, smartMeeting fully operates within 28.8 Kbps of bandwidth, an achievement rare to match even among much more expensive tools. smartMeeting not only integrates a full set of Web conferencing facilities including Powerpoint presentations, whiteboards, co-browsing, document sharing, text chat, multimedia playback, invitation management and more, but it also premiered the introduction of a number of very innovative features like persistent content, shared live XML/RSS data feeds, shared real-time manipulation of all environments objects, simultaneous participation by participants in 2D and 3D modes and quite a few more. smartMeeting virtual offices are made up of a realistically looking office space and attendees to a meeting can work in separate groups spread across the various office areas without disturbing each other. Spatial sound facilities (another smartMeeting premiere) allow only people in your proximity to be heard. smartMeeting can operate also as a normal Web conferencing tool by utilizing its 2-D modality.
  
  The price of smartMeeting starts at USD $20 per user/month. A full 30-day try-out account is available for anyone who wants to sign-up for it.
• Virtex C3 Collaborator
  http://www.virtexc3.com/collaborator.htm
  Virtex C3 is an interesting presentation, collaboration and conferencing solution that integrates text chat, slide presentation, whiteboard abilities and a serious set of moderator control abilities.
• Userplane WebChat
  http://www.userplane.com/chat/
  Too new to be reviewed. Very interesting solution for private organizations, schools, associations. Integrates video/audio, text chat, presence, instant messaging and more. A valuable feature organizations may like is the swift integration of multiple rooms/offices that can be accessed providing an effective solution to academic staff meeting office hours with students or other types of virtual work.
  
  Try out here: http://www.userplane.com/chat/
• VoiceCafe
  http://www.voicecafe.com/
• 3WVP
  http://www.3wvp.com/
• MegaMeeting
  http://www.megameeting.com
• e-BoardRoom
  http://www.e-boardroom.net/
• WebVideo4U
  http://www.webvideo4u.co.uk/

There are also other excellent tools that utilize Flash-based video conferencing technology but that are also significantly more expensive, (e.g.: Macromedia Breeze, IsoSpace, Communicast, and quite a few more).

Other vendors provide much higher quality and more feature-rich videoconferencing solutions that do not require dedicated hardware outside of your webcam, and which are still extremely cost-effective. Unlike more traditional systems that required the purchase of expensive dedicated hardware, these new systems are very affordable and can be installed on any normal office PC/Mac/Linux desktop. These solutions though are NOT based on the popular Flash video technology. Therefore access to these is certainly never as easy as for a videoconference through any technology using the Web-based Flash plugin, while the clear advantages are in other areas including:

a) performance - responsiveness - latency

b) video quality

c) security - encryption

Among these I would like to highlight:

WaveThree Session
http://www.wavethree.com/

SightSpeed
http://www.sightspeed.com/

Linktivity WebDemo (just out with the new version 4)
http://www.linktivity.com/

Viditel - Wivitel
http://www.viditel.com/
http://www.wivitel.com/

GRCLive
http://www.grclive.com/

Marratech
http://www.marratech.com/

VIA3 from Viack
http://www.viack.com/

VSee
http://www.vsee.com/

QNext
http://www.qnext.com/

Tixeo
http://www.tixeo.com

ITGlobal One - V2Conference
http://www.itglobalone.com/Products.htm

ChatStack
http://www.chatstack.com/

Live Conference Pro
http://www.liveconferencepro.com/

There are also Flashcom hosting providers through which you can either rent, lease or co-locate an actual computer server with the Flashcom software technology installed on it. uVault, MediaTemple and Influxis are among the major players in this space, though I am sure there is a fast growing number of such providers out there (if you are on of them please contribute your company short profile in the comments area at the bottom of this article). Pricing for this hosted services is very good and it allows individuals and small to medium sized organizations to fully leverage the advantages brought about by this nearly ubiquitous Flash video technology. Here are some good pricing references for hosted Flash-based videoconferencing:

MediaTemple pricing

uVault pricing

Influxis pricing

These Flashcom hosting providers can be very useful also if you need to run a major live event online and want to guarantee adequate bandwidth to all attendees (missing that they will experience significant delay between audio and video, dropouts in the audio stream, jerky video motion). It is very easy to underestimate how much bandwidth is really needed to run a live videoconferencing event with one or more presenters being shown live at the same time.

Assuming that with an optimized Flash-based setup you can have a relatively good quality audio-video stream within 80 Kbps of bandwidth, you need then to multiply this stream for the number of simultaneous attendees to your show. So if I have a presentation to 100 people with Flash-based video and audio I will need to use one or more "clustered" servers with a minimum guarantee a sustained bandwidth of 8 Mbps! If my infrastructure can't spit out continuously that much bandwidth data someone is evidently going to suffer.

Imagine when you increase the number of attendees, the number of concurrent video streams you broadcast or start thinking to show PowerPoint slides and your live desktop next to them. You are asking for trouble.

Me, Howard Rheingold and Ray Ozzie in a recent Kolabora Live event that was powered by uVault Flash-based hosting services.

As this event proved for a number of attendees, just too much bandwidth is needed, and unless you are inside the intranet of an organization, this is going to be very difficult to carry out on the public Internet.

The recommendation is therefore mandatory: don't get too carried away by the exciting results you may obtain when testing with a few colleagues. To reproduce those results when you have an audience of hundreds or even of 50 it takes a solid server infrastructure behind you, and this is what these companies are great at.

Here is my streaming Flash presentation with synched audio about best videoconferencing tools published in May 2004. It covers quite a few of the tools listed above though being not exclusive to Flash-based solutions. It also provides costs and feature references.

Finally, I should acknowledge that there are also a good number of other Web conferencing and e-learning technology providers that offer integrated videoconferencing capabilities, from Webtrain to FVC and from Raindance to WebEx. But their pricing models and limited use of videoconferencing potential (only one video channel) make them not particularly relevant for those customers seeking multi-party Flash-based video at cost-effective prices.