eVideo – an interview with Tony Gasson, Vice President of Sales, 1414c in the UK.
Q: Tony, 1414c is a service company providing a solution to communicate in e.g. a corporate environment using the Internet platform. It supports the major streaming formats as well text based 'icq' like features and multiple choice question - all to support real-time communication. Can you give us some examples on how e-video works?
A: Felix, 1414c is both a product and services company focused on the Internet platform delivering solutions that enable people to work, meet, educate and learn together, however they want, whenever they want and from wherever they want. These solutions enable knowledge development and distribution with resultant knowledge based decision making for the modern organization wishing to work at Internet economy speeds and timescales.
One of our portfolios of products and services is the eVideo Applications Server (eVAS), which supports briefings, presentations, tutorials and workshops through streaming video. It takes any leading video streaming format and adds synchronized slides, text based questions from the web and audience surveys. Integrated into a single web browser application and user interface for ease of use and deployment, the application can deliver a live event across both the internal customers intranet and the Internet reaching both office based and road warrior personnel from a single live event, reaching thousands with a single unified message. The eVideo application server can then store this event for future re-broadcast or for individual video on demand access. The eVideo application server offers password security and security group functions protecting the confidentiality of knowledge generated or distributed in an event. From a network perspective the eVideo application server operates in multicast for bandwidth friendly intranet applications and unicast for Internet reach. Users log into the product either as a presenter, a viewer (audience), a moderator or an administrator. The only function that requires any technical knowledge is the administrator, who sets upevents from a network perspective.
Q: One of your clients is Ixos. Can you describe the way they use your solution?
A: The memory specialist Ixos recently installed a PictureTel video conference solution at the company which is aimed to open up a new form of communication for the 900 employees around the globe. The idea of connecting all employees to an IP-based conference solution took on concrete form last year and - as is always the case - this idea was to be put into practice as quickly as possible. The first "live" links were made at the end of January this year. PictureTel had provided a Beta version, which was put to extensive tests.
Those responsible at Ixos are quick to point out the added value of a conference solution: "When users work with the system for the first time they soon realize that it does more than just send a lecture or talk. When the speaker talks and shows his charts on the network and a constructive discussion follows, the advantages of the system speak for themselves", is the satisfied comment on employee acceptance.
Q: Who are your main customers?
A: Corporate customers, business customers, the education sector and government. Our routes to market are 2: A product resale model with a network integrator channel and a revenue share model with service providers, so customers can buy this product either as a turnkey product solution or as a service.
Q: Can you talk about the market needs and what do you see as future demands?
A: Specifically related to video streaming applications the customer need today is to get a unified message to a large audience while allowing a level of interactivity for message clarification via questions and polling, all using the ubiquitous reach of the world wide web by maximizing their investment in their own intranets and Internet access. The needs of an organization operating in the e-business age are to generate and distribute knowledge efficiently to help their organizations react to markets and competitors who are changing at a rapidity never witnessed before.
The most common applications the Market is requesting eVAS for are
- Company briefings and strategic updates
- Press briefings
- Company announcements
- Competitor and market analysis briefings
- Financial Analyst briefings
- Shareholder meetings
- Educational Tutorials
- Government policy updates
We see a large demand for today's functionality, but also see the need for multiple slide windows, whiteboarding as well as slides, simultaneous presenter translation and even voice over IP as a return channel for asking questions verbally as well as text format.