Vodium Webcast Products Overview

Company Profile
Vodium provides Internet-based and CD-ROM delivery of interactive rich media presentations to audiences of 10 or 10,000. These presentations can be delivered both live and on-demand. Our mission is to use our innovative Internet technology platform to enrich communications in business, government and education. Key applications include online training, knowledge management, virtual conferences, and corporate communications.

Vodium's software and services enable customers to create dynamic presentations that incorporate synchronized video, slides, graphics, documents, animations, web pages, text, polls, and chat within a single player interface. These multimedia presentations are then archived into a customized online library, available anytime, anywhere over the Internet. The powerful combination of Vodium's media player and online library enables viewers to navigate through streamed audio or video by performing simple key word searches on every spoken word in a single presentation or a group of presentations.

Vodium Media Publishing Suite (VMPS)
VMPS is a robust software suite to manage the workflow of a live or on-demand webcast. The suite, which includes Producer, Reviewer and Chat Manager, manages the creation, editing, publishing and moderation of webcasts.

The presentation workflow starts with Producer. With this tool, events are created and associated content is uploaded to a web server.

Once an event has been published, moderators can manage slide changes and chat with viewers during a live webcast.

Vodium has incorporated the most sophisticated Chat Manager available today into the VMPS platform. The Chat Manager can handle thousands of viewers and support up to 9 managers, including a moderator, 2 tech support representatives and 6 additional individuals fielding and responding to audience questions.

After a live webcast is over, with just one click of a button in Producer, an on-demand, searchable archive is created. The content of all on-demand presentations can subsequently be edited and repurposed within Reviewer.

MediaPod™ Player
Presentations played within Vodium's MediaPod™ Player do not require any type of plug-in to be viewed by the audience. All that is required on the client side is an Internet connection, a java-capable browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape, and a streaming media player such as Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. For those viewers without internet connectivity, the MediaPod™ Player can be published directly to CD-ROM.

The MediaPod™ Player contains a number of windows or panes that offer the user a wide array of content and interactivity. The look and feel of the MediaPod™ Player, as well as the sizes and locations of any of the windows on the screen, can be customized on a per event basis.

The video window plays streaming audio or video in Windows Media or RealPlayer formats. The amount of time it takes for the presentation to begin and the quality of the stream is a function of the speed of the viewer's Internet connection.

The slide show window displays a variety of materials that are synchronized with the streaming media, including PowerPoint® slides, Adobe Acrobat™ files (PDF), images (GIF, JPEG), Microsoft Office™ documents, Flash® presentations, real-time polls, and web pages (HTML).

Viewers can navigate through the slides by using the First Slide, Next, Previous or Last Slide buttons. They can fast forward or rewind the entire presentation with the Presentation Slider, which serves as a flexible timeline of the event. Viewers can also save the entire PowerPoint® Slide deck or print any slide in the presentation.

The third window encompasses a synchronized transcript, Table of Contents and bookmarks. The transcript and customizable Table of Contents scroll along with the streaming media. The current line or entry of the presentation is indicated by a yellow highlight bar. Double-clicking on any line in the transcript or on any entry in the Table of Contents fast forwards or rewinds the streaming media and slide show to that point in the presentation.

The transcript also provides key word search functionality which enables viewers to precisely pinpoint relevant areas of the presentation. When executing a search, the transcript navigates directly to the first "hit" which is highlighted in green. Double-clicking the line in the transcript plays the video and slides from any search point.

Hyperlinks are another component of the transcript window. Hyperlinks serve as a way to provide additional depth to the presentation. Hyperlinks can be added for any web page; for example, presenter biographies, white papers, online pdf documents, websites, etc.

A final feature of the transcript window is the ability to print and save the transcript. Additional interactivity is provided with bookmarks which allow viewers to customize, highlight and save key sections of the webcast. Bookmarks may be emailed to other interested parties, giving a level of personalization to a presentation.

When the viewer closes the MediaPod™ Player, a feedback page automatically pops up in a separate browser window. Answers to feedback questions, as well as general comments, are stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database and displayed in a Feedback report accessed through Vodium's Reporting Portal. The feedback page can be turned off upon customer request.

MediaMosaic™ Library
Vodium's MediaMosaic™ Library is a sophisticated content management system that organizes rich media presentations and provides advanced key word search functionality. With Vodium's powerful video search engine, every spoken word across multiple presentations within the online library becomes searchable. The online library enables viewers to rapidly access and distribute the content that is most relevant to them.

Registration and Reports
Vodium can provide a customized registration page for any live or on-demand webcast. Pages can be customized in terms of the fields to be filled in by viewers, as well as the rules for registration (e.g., prompt viewers for registration everytime they access the webcast or only the first time). Data submitted on the registration page is captured in a Microsoft SQL Server database and displayed in a Registration report accessed through Vodium's Reporting Portal.

Traffic, registration and feedback data can be accessed through Vodium's web-based Reporting Portal. Individual accounts will be set up for customers to access their reports.

Visit Our Webcast Services Page

Specific Use of Webcast Management Software: Leveraging Your Digital Library to Build Relationships
By J. Sebastian Traeger