[X4U] Video conferencing on a PC

[Stroller]

On Feb 24, 2005, at 7:20 am, Scott McCulloch wrote:

> Does anyone here have any recent experience doing video conferencing 
> on a PC?
> ...So, what I'm wondering is whether there's anything that is even 
> remotely comparable to iChat on the PC side...

AOL's Instant Messenger software is videochat-compatible with iChatAV - 
details at <http://www.aol.co.uk/aim/aim55.html>.

I haven't tried it, so I don't know what the video quality is like - I 
wouldn't be surprised if it was just the same - but the interface is 
nowhere near so professional as iChatAV - it's full of adverts & 
horrible little icons.

If your business can afford it, I do like the idea of loaner Apple 
laptops - assuming you can get the clients to give them back when the 
job is done, of course!!
iBooks might be a better value proposition than refurbished Powerbooks 
- if you buy new you can get 3-year AppleCare including telephone 
support for your customers, and you will be able to run Tiger on them 
later this year for multi-way conferences.

Whichever solution you use, beware that some of your customers' 
firewalls may need tweaking to allow iChats to work. Smaller companies 
who are just behind a NAT router will be able to just plug-&-go, 
however larger SMEs may have decent firewalling in place to prevent 
their employees instant-messaging their mates during working hours. It 
shouldn't take their IT departments long to accommodate your iChatAV 
requirements, however.

Stroller.