Conferencing News: We've been hearing lots in the telemedicine space of late. What is Vidyo's new solution and what makes it innovative?
Marty Hollander: VidyoHealth is an affordable scalable telemedicine videoconferencing suite that leverages the Internet and other general purpose IP networks, for a broad range of applications. By eliminating the need for a dedicated telehealth network infrastructure, VidyoHealth easily and effectively reduces costs while enabling doctor-patient and doctor-doctor video communication and collaboration, regardless of location. Until now, telehealth solutions from legacy providers were built on enterprise-centric models requiring expensive, dedicated QoS networks in order to deliver high-quality video and audio. This was not practical for medical practitioners who needed to connect with remotely-located patients and facilities. VidyoHealth uses the Internet and other non-QoS networks to deliver telepresence-quality, low-latency, natural communications. Prior to Vidyo, there wasn’t a solution on the market that allows healthcare providers to deploy high definition (HD) and low latency VidyoConferencing ANYWHERE an examination, operation, or consultation needs to take place, both from within medical facilities and at patient homes, clinics, other hospitals or physician home offices. Since it is a software-based solution that runs on commodity PCs, VidyoHealth eliminates the need for dedicated hardware. Vidyo is currently saving an enormous amount of time and money for a huge number of people.
CN: What are some of the differences between this new Vidyo solution and existing, competing solutions. Why should the health community take note?
MH: Because VidyoHealth uses the Internet and other non-QoS networks to deliver multi-party, telepresence-quality telehealth video and collaborative communications, it allows practitioners, hospitals and clinics to expand the reach and the types of services they can offer patients, practitioners, clinics and hospitals. This is far beyond what existing, competing products can do -- and Vidyo does it at a fraction of the cost! Other products are limited by their expensive, high-maintenance dedicated networks. They simply don’t have the reach, the accessibility and the affordability of VidyoHealth. According to Jonathan Edwards, Gartner Research Analyst, ‘Before telemedicine can reach its full potential, there is still much to be done to make it viable for widespread global use. High definition video solutions need to be affordable, secure and accessible via broadband and the Internet to expand medical reach to remote patients and facilities; telemedicine systems must interoperate with other medical equipment and applications. Solution providers that are able to successfully address these challenges will have an advantage.’ Vidyo addresses these challenges dead on. We are fulfilling the real promise of telehealth, which is to make healthcare affordable and accessible to everyone.
CN: What health groups will it be targeted to?
MH: VidyoHealth is excellently suited to any health or medical application that requires an affordable, easy-to-access and use solution. It is currently being used for telepsychiatry, home-health and eldercare, speech therapy, and specialist consultations, among other applications. It is a complete, end-to-end solution with a variety of endpoint options, including: HD Room Systems for conferences or auditorium events, desktop endpoints for doctor’s offices, single-click, easy-to-use access for patients at home (either on a desktop or an appliance), and customized endpoints for medical cart use in hospital emergency rooms, operating rooms or clinics. VidyoHealth brings to the physician an integrated view that includes video and images from variety of sources including medical cameras and imaging devices which can be easily connected to the system.
CN: How much will it cost? Is there a service component to this solution?
MH: The VidyoHealth suite includes all the features needed to deploy VidyoConferencing for telehealth providers at a cost starting at $17,000 for a complete solution that can support up to 25 users. VidyoHealth is being offered as a service by an increasing number of CSPs in the US and internationally.
In this book, you will discover:
- The fine line between free and for-fee webinars
- Three criteria to guide you in the selection of your most saleable content, what people will readily pay to learn from you
- Three types of prospective registrants, how to engage each of them effectively and at the right time
- A specialized copywriting methodology designed to drive registrations for attendee-funded webinars
- Free and low cost marketing strategies to creatively reach your prospects ...beyond your database
- Due diligence guidelines that help you choose the right webinar back-office company for your needs
- Presentation design techniques that captivate your virtual audience
What a great show Telespan put on in Las Vegas. We learned a lot. And we also learned that each morning, Elliot Gold reads Conferencing News before he reads the Wall Street Journal. Hear it for yourself along with a recap of the event. See you next year there!
Conferencing News is at TeleSpan's Future of Conferencing Workshop. It's a great conference, everybody's here, many good speakers. Already, it's been announced that it'll take place again next year. Highly recommended. We're in. ...But we're going to convince Elliot to get this event out of the dreary, depressing Palace Station Hotel & Casino. The casino here is an American hell. Glad we're staying elsehwhere!
Cisco- Rick McConnell, VP/GM, Unified Communications Business Unit, will make a keynote address on Leading Business to the Next Wave of Collaboration.
Skype- Jonathan Christensen, General Manager, Audio Video, will address Skype�s voice and video trends and growth and how it fits in with existing business conferencing. Today, over 35% of their users use video during their calls, and 30% use Skype products for business purposes.
InterCall- Bob Wise, Executive Vice President & President, Genesys SA, will present �How do CSPs get future revenues? How do they enhance their revenue sources?�
TalkShoe- Dave Nelson, Founder of TalkShoe, will address social networking: how Facebook, Ning, Twitter and LinkedIn can be used to enhance conferencing and collaboration.
TeleSpan- Elliot Gold, President of TeleSpan Publishing Corp., will present data giving an in-depth look at trends and the future of conferencing.
Keep/Track- Richard Dalton, Contributing Editor Electronic TeleSpan, will present his annual look at how conferencing and collaboration will be impacted by companies like Apple, Microsoft, and a raft of �under the radar� companies.
Keypoint Marketing- TeleSpan crew members Judy Sterling and Regina Menza will provide an update on TeleSpan�s annual survey of users.
Multiple choice! Oh what fun! We love design and branding, and when it comes to the conferencing industry, there's some real good stuff to look at. Here's the latest new logo introduction by a leading player. Can you guess who? Here are seven possibilities...
- ebi
- e6i
- pbi
- egi
- p6i
- pgi
- Wonderbread with any of the above
- None of the above.
Whichever company is, know that it's the same people, same passion, but a new look. ...Indeed. Several of them.
Our favorite Crazy Uncle of the Teleconferencing Industry is at it again with his predictions. Elliot Gold, President of TeleSpan, will hold a web conference that will cover trends in voice, video, and web conferencing and share TeleSpan's pick of companies that will fail"hit the wall" or be picked up in consolidations in the next 24-36 months. Westell's ConferencePlus will host the event on its conferencing services. Attendance to the event will be limited, but an archived version will be available after its conclusion. With a self-proclaimed 72% accuracy, you gotta join!
David Erickson is the President and CEO of Freeconferencecall.com.
Conferencing News: We just checked out your FreeConferenceCall.com site and it looks like there's a lot more than just that product there. Tell us what's new and hot in your product line.
Dave Erickson: FreeConferenceCall.com offers a suite of services which range from free to toll-free conferencing and voice messaging. Our latest offering is called SimpleBlast, which allows subscribers to distribute up to 10,000 instant voice messages with just one call. We also recently introduced a new toll free conferencing service called TollFreeConferenceCall.com, which is packed with features that our users have been asking about, including Web controls, sub-account management and the ability to support 1,000 callers.
Two other unique services from FreeConferenceCall.com that your readers may be interested in are FreeConferencing.com�a free version of the 1,000 caller, Web-featured conferencing service�and a voice messaging service called Private Number, which offers users a direct dial-in number to a voicemail line to eliminate access codes.
CN: Tell us about some specific features within FreeConferenceCall.com that differentiate it in the market.
DE: There are many free conferencing services on the market today, but FreeConferenceCall.com stands out in a few ways.
First, FreeConferenceCall.com�s services are the most user-friendly and intuitive on the market. FreeConferenceCall.com�s easy-to-use Web interface helps conference hosts to seamlessly manage calls during live conferences�from muting and disconnecting certain callers, to recording and broadcasting audio files with just a click of the mouse.
Next, FreeConferenceCall.com makes good on its commitment to offer free services with no hidden costs. For example, conference hosts receive free call detail reports, recordings, downloads and podcasts with each conference call. With both URL- and Web-based conference play back, hosts and up to 1,000 callers can enjoy their conferences in real time or at a later date�always for free.
Finally, FreeConferenceCall.com is parallel to none in customer service. We offer easy-to-follow question and answer sessions for each of our products, along with professional customer service representatives who are reachable via telephone and online.
CN: We've heard that the Obama administration has used the FreeConferenceCall.com service. Is this true? And what do they use it for?
DE: The Obama administration used FreeConferenceCall.com�s services during the presidential campaign�likely for campaigning and planning. More than 1,000 registered account numbers came from this account and callers used more than 5 million minutes.
CN: Who are some of your other notable customers that use your services and for what applications of conferencing?
DE: FreeConferenceCall.com helps organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, medium and small businesses, network marketers, political campaigns, non-profits, churches and community groups to collaborate and conduct remote meetings. From corporate earnings calls, religious broadcasts and remote sermons, to online press conferences or internal meetings, users have found that they can save money by using the services of Free Conferencing Corporation. Some of our notable users come from companies such as Mary Kay Cosmetics, National Federation of the Blind, International Coach Academy, The Salvation Army, The Kidney Cancer Association, Herbalife, Fedex, Tupperware and DSWA.
CN: You recently gave an ex-parte presentation to the FCC about the connection fee controversy. What's your position on this matter and when do you think things will settle with this issue?
DE: I think free services are great and so does the customer�and that�s settled.
CN: What's next for the Free Conference Call?
DE: We plan to introduce more innovative features and keep improving our existing services.
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