Screen sharing is one of the way through which experienced speakers engage their audience. Unfortunately, this precious tool is not available on every web conferencing product. Let’s discover some of the video conferencing solutions that have implemented this important function.
My first webinar was really challenging, as I had to fight against an irresistible need to avert my eyes from the screen. My problem was not paying attention to the speaker, but what cognitive psychologists and doctors define as fatigue from screen. Staying watching your desktop without any interaction is much more stressing than working at it. Crafty speakers know this problem, and this is the reason why they try to engage their audience in several ways that range from asking questions to sharing screens. The result is that not only participants get more involved, but they also remind easier the contents they listened to.
So, it is important to have a web conferencing tool at hand that offers a wide set of functionalities purposely designed to engage your audience. But what to choose among the plethora of products on the market? In my opinion, three solutions are really unbeatable. Here they are:
R-HUB`s TurboMeeting servers (http://www.rhubcom.com) .This solution is the golden mean between top quality – but expensive – products like Cisco’s and popular apps as Skype. It offers all the reliability and safety of on-premise server based solutions without its typical flaws. So, no needs of devoted IT team, as R-HUB`s machine are self-installing and self-updating, and server cabinets (R-HUB`s servers are so small and silent that can be placed on your desk or on the shelf of a bookcase). The number of functionalities that its GUI offers is quite big and it is included polling, raise-hand, file sharing, and, naturally, screen sharing. No question, you will be certainly able to have highly interactive virtual meetings though this product.
Price is affordable, as you can bring home your TurboMeeting server with $995 only.
Cisco WebEx: Many years of the experience of this giant of the IT sector are embodied in it. Web Ex is available in every form you wish, as Cisco can give you its solution as an ordinary desktop application. This makes WebEx highly flexible and able to serve indifferently both multinationals and small businesses. Its features are quite rich, and users are supplied with every necessary functionality to engage their audience.
In comparison with TurboMeeting, WebEx looks more flexible, as you can opt for a version without hardware. However, it is more expensive and its app version is less powerful: TurboMeeting allows you to give virtual meetings up to 3000 participants, WebEx up to 2000 only.
TeamViewer: it is another popular top-quality product that is considered by many experts the direct competitor of WebEx. It offers some unique features like the possibility of running multiple sessions at once and the ability to leave quick notes for your clients. Less expensive than Cisco thanks to its policy of pay-only-one-time license, however its power limits to 300 participants per conference. An important detail is that TeamViewer does not include teleconference, a feature that is present in TurboMeeting.
In conclusion, it is difficult to say what the best among these three products is. R-HUB`s servers are inexpensive and powerful, but you have to bring home some hardware; WebEx and TeamViewer allow you to avoid hardware, but they are more expensive and less powerful than TurboMeeting. Therefore, you’d better focus on your real needs before taking a decision.