Webcast to clients?

[Martin P]

Huh... I went to post this in the "chat" area but it seems to be gone, used to be called out there i think... Ah well.

Anyone tried this? I am just setting up as potentially self employed, insured etc etc, with my bosses blessing, help and encouragement I might add :) - what a top rate boss, and I mean that, couldnt ask for more! - it has nothing to do with recession cuts in the office either, I would like to add ;) seems to have bypassed this part of the world so far fortunately.... ( and I am not competing with the scale of jobs in the office, so no problem) I expect a lot of my clients to be far flung (Highlands of Scotland) - I would like to be able to send them a link so they can see on screen what I am doing and maybe talk over phone about changes etc and do them live...... Just wondering about any good (and cheap and SIMPLE!) services on the web to do that you may have found, anyone doing this type of thing? Got any advice?

[sfaust]

We've used windows remote assistance before. Just go to help on XP and "invite a friend to help". It's releatively simple and seems to work...

[iankids]

Huh... I went to post this in the "chat" area but it seems to be gone, used to be called out there i think... Ah well.

Anyone tried this? I am just setting up as potentially self employed, insured etc etc, with my bosses blessing, help and encouragement I might add :) - what a top rate boss, and I mean that, couldnt ask for more! - it has nothing to do with recession cuts in the office either, I would like to add ;) seems to have bypassed this part of the world so far fortunately.... ( and I am not competing with the scale of jobs in the office, so no problem) I expect a lot of my clients to be far flung (Highlands of Scotland) - I would like to be able to send them a link so they can see on screen what I am doing and maybe talk over phone about changes etc and do them live...... Just wondering about any good (and cheap and SIMPLE!) services on the web to do that you may have found, anyone doing this type of thing? Got any advice?

Hi Martin,

Congratulations, (I think), on your upcoming employment. I am self employed and find my boss is a complete moron whon forces me to work way too many hours!!!

As an alternative to the live interactivity which will depend on good connection speeds both ends, I have been trying out the Hypercosm player for putting interactive models up on my web site. It's advantages is that it creates a fully interactive lightweight model suitable for the web - the common size for a single house is between 200kb - 1mb. The disadvantage is that you need to export the model as a dwg and import it in to sketch up before you can import it into Hypercosm. It takes me about an hour to take the model from Revit to sketchup, apply some materials (this is the bit which actually takes most of the time - about 40 minutes of the hour.), and the export it to Hypercosm.

Have a look at: http://www.hypercosm.com/showcase/architecture/index.html
for what it can do.

I initially tried Autodesk's Freewheel but found it created files of full building models which were far too large for use on the internet.

Good Luck
Cheers,

Ian

[Martin P]

Thanks for both replies, I will give both a go :)
I too had problems with freewheel, the files seemd to open zoomed really far in and I couldnt alter it :(

[Paul Monsef]

I use GoToMeeting. I first found the $50/month a little pricey but the features were sooo great and I liked it so much (and so did my clients) that I purchased the annual plan (which is only $40/month).



Features
• Intuitive User Interface: Easy-to-understand controls enable you to start and join meetings in seconds without training.
• Share Keyboard and Mouse Control: Securely collaborate on documents in real time.
• Instantly Change Presenters: Enable any participant to present to the entire group.
• Drawing Tools: Draw, highlight and point to items of interest right on the screen.
• Desktop Recording and Playback: Record meetings to review or share later.
• Specific Application Sharing: For added privacy, share only the application you choose.
• Integration: Access GoToMeeting through Microsoft® Office®, email or instant-messaging applications.
• Mac® Support: Mac users can host and join GoToMeeting sessions.
• Reporting: Get detailed reports for trend analysis and ROI validation.
• Total Audio: Choose integrated free phone conferencing, VoIP or both.

You can try it free for 30 days: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/en_US/register/register.tmpl?RandomSet=try

[gbrowne]

Wow! Best o' luck with that! Keep us all posted on how it is going for you!

[Martin P]

Wow! Best o' luck with that! Keep us all posted on how it is going for you!

Will certainly do so :) If it all falls through at least I still have my day job so to speak, am going into it in baby steps with bosses help, ie part time / self employed, am just waiting till I am in position to issue interim certificates etc before going at it seriously and dropping any office hours, hopefull around feb - want it all place for then, website etc etc fingers crossed it all goes well - kinda scay, but exciting too!

[seandburke]

I use DimDim... (www.dimdimd.com (http://www.dimdim.com)) a basic account is free, has nearly all the same features as WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting and GoTo Meeting, but (and this is huge for some) is platform independent, doesn't require a download, and is very bandwidth friendly for the attendees. The paid versions are really great if you have a large audience, or require more interactivity, like a whiteboard and document sharing.
Cheers, and good luck in your endeavors.

[Martin P]

I use DimDim... (www.dimdimd.com (http://www.dimdim.com)) a basic account is free, has nearly all the same features as WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting and GoTo Meeting, but (and this is huge for some) is platform independent, doesn't require a download, and is very bandwidth friendly for the attendees. The paid versions are really great if you have a large audience, or require more interactivity, like a whiteboard and document sharing.
Cheers, and good luck in your endeavors.

Excellent, that sounds exactly what I am after... Thank you for the pointer, will check that out tonight.

[patricks]

spammity spam spammer

Seems like the Report Post function isn't working. When I hit the send button it just sits and sits and sits and never does anything.

[Ed Jobe]

It worked. I got it. They're gone.

[patricks]

cool, any idea why it appears to be no response after hitting the Send button?

[Ed Jobe]

The website was running a little slow this morning. Seems to have picked up now. Keep an eye on your browser's status bar. Mine said "waiting for <url> to respond".

[dhurtubise]

I personally use Mikogo www.mikogo.com