GVO Conference - Review
Website:GVOConference.com
GVO (Global Virtual Opportunities) has launched it's long awaited GVO Conference Software.
GVOConference has been priced well below that of any other commerical Online Conferencing Software currently available.
Price: $8.97 USD per month (It has the same features as the higher priced alternatives)
GVO also provide a range of other products and services. Some of these include their Webhosting Packages along with EasyVideoProducer with one of its key features being the ability to allow you to record, directly from your Webcam and insert the resulting video onto any webpage.
At A Glance
- Flash Based So it runs in any Web Browser on Any Platform, so your audience isn't limited by the operating system they are using. This is a big factor in the other programs out there.
- PC
- MAC
- Linux
- Requires no Software Download (as it's flash based)
- You can have upto 50 People in the Room at any One Time
- Moderators Can
- Share their Desktop
- Display Power Point Presentations
- Run and Show Videos
- View the Person Speaking if they have their Webcam active
- Easy to customize - and there are lots of features you can alter to suit your needs.
- Very Affordable
- Extensive online documentation and Video Examples covering everything you'll need to know on how to get the most out of your Video Conferencing
- GVO's excellent Support - using their Ticket System or their Live Conference Support Room
Features
Audio
Th audio works well on Dialup, although it is adviseable to disable the Streaming Video to reduce the bandwidth.
Video
Apart from being able to View the Speaker (if they have their webcam enabled) a moderator can show videos to everyone in the room.
Desktop Sharing
Desktop Sharing allows people in the room to see what you are doing on your desktop. This is a great feature to have if you are doing any online teaching, or brainstorming etc where you want to do things live before your audience
It's a bit like creating your very own Video on how to do something, except that it's live.
Recording
You can record your conference. One of the options allows you to record your "Desktop Video And Audio". That is a very useful feature. This is currently only available under Windows (updates for the other operating systems are under development). You can also just record your voice, it depends upon the nature of your conference.
Admin Controls
You also get the full set of Admin Controls... While in the room you can Kick out someone, or Ban them if they are really being a nusiance.
You can set a password and change it when it suits you. Just make sure you tell everyone you want to be in there with you.
You can set the disable a number of features in the room when a Moderator is not present.
On Screen Drawing
The OnScreen Drawing feature is very well done. You can edit the objects on the screen and there is provision for extra Windows like Slides allowing multiple diagrams. It remembers what was on each "Slide" so you can go back to any of the previous drawings. So unlike a blackboard it's more like a huge clipboard where you can change the Sheets and redisplay the old ones.
Poll your Audience
Want to know how many people in the audience haven't been to a conference before... Then you can Poll them, in fact you create the Poll so you can ask anything you like. If you are a teacher you could ask.."No, I haven't done my assignment on Wombats!"
ScreenShots
The Moderators Screen
This is the Main Window as viewed by the Moderator, displaying the Moderator Controls that are available! For instance, In "Chat mode" you can conduct a Poll...
Create a New Poll
Probably not the best worded question, but you can see that you can get a bit of information from your audience. You might even have these Poll questions saved somewhere in a text file so you can copy and past them in.
One suggestion might be to have a "I don't know" or some answer that let's everyone answer... That gets them in the mood in case you want to hold a Poll later on in your conference.
Watching the Responses
After Clicking on the "Create Poll" Button, you get to see the POLL responses LIVE as each participant picks the appropriate response.
Clicking on the "Stop the Poll" Button returns you back to the main screen.
Conclusion
The Final Feature set is actually a little more than I was expecting with a few of the features proving very useful, as you would hope they would!
So it's no Toy, It's a very serious tool... Even though the price of $8.97 USD / Month is rather Low when compared to the offerings from their competitors.
The reason for such a low price? Well, GVO wants to take a big share of the market and because they own and maintain the software, plus they own and run their own Data Center out in Texas, they have pretty low overheads.
And they still manage to offer an Affiliate Program with this...So if you promote it to others you'll get a little slice of the action. What better way to saturate the market than to "pay" a sales force ( the users ) to promote it. And yes I'll also get a little slice of the action if you register through this website.
So if you are on a low budget and want to get a conferencing program that isn't limited by your intended audiences operating system, then this would be the answer.
Where do you get it? By Visiting the website and remember it's only $8.97USD per month.