This first concert festival to really popularize the live streaming of full live sets was the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Ca. This annual April concert event features dozens of bands and while the live streaming started with just a few smaller bands being featured the festival has recently started to webcast full sets by headliners like Morrissey, The Killers and The Cure. Because the economy has caused many people to skip the $200-plus festival, the webcasting is a great way for fans to see their favorite bands without spending any of their much needed cash.

One of the coolest festivals to recently embrace the trend of live event video streaming is the Chicago based Pitchfork Festival. This recent 2009 festival introduced full live coverage through their new Pitchfork.tv feature. Unlike in previous years, the video was clean and crisp and didn't suffer from any loading problems before or during the streaming. The Flaming Lips, The National and more were not only featured live during the performance but is archived for viewing after festival.

The Bonnaroo Festival, which takes place on a typically rainy weekend in June on a piece of Tennessee farmland, features a large list of a-list artists. Typically leaning towards "jam-bands" as well as the newest alternative talent, Bonnaroo was one of the first festivals to fully embrace live event video streaming. While big bands were at first fairly gun-shy about allowing festivals to broadcast their sets free over the web, this year's web stream featured such huge artists as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band as well as a reunited Phish webcasting their performances. Furthermore, Bonnaroo was the first festival to sign a contract to broadcast a few select performances to music television station FUSE for a broadcast later in the month.

Lollapalooza, the grand daddy of summer touring festivals and now a yearly occurrence in Chicago, featured brand new live streaming technology during this year's festival which led to some of the clearest, fasting streaming ever for an event of its type. The festival also pulled out the big guns showcasing several of their headlining on their webcast.

It will be interesting to see where this ever improving technology will go for future live festivals. With more festivals embracing live webcasting (festivals are doing record business even with the free webcasting) fans are now getting opportunities to see their favorite bands from the comfort of their own computer anywhere in the world.



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Video conferencing services have changed the way businesses are done. They have supported offshore outsourcing in a big way. Easy and cost effective communication through such services has facilitated distance meetings. Meetings within company employees across different geographical boundaries as well as client meetings have been made easy and convenient. Global companies have also been using this service in training fresh employees. By using this service, resourceful trainers from the other part of the world are can train trainees living miles away.

A Video conference can be done either by using desktop PC, through a dedicated video conference suite or even through mobile phones. However doing it by using the web has become increasingly popular.

The primary advantage of this service is that it is very cost effective. Also, the web is connecting the world and everyone has access to internet. It is likely that those you want to communicate to also have access to internet. This is especially advantageous in dealing with a client through web video conference.

Video conferencing using internet is different from web conferencing. In web conferencing, all the sources for communication including hearing aids, video devices are accesses from the internet. No external device is used in conducting a conference. But in internet video conferencing, the web is used as a connection mode. We can compare this to a telephone conversation. Just as we use a telephone connection but use a telephone device to converse, in video conference through internet, external aids are used for conversation and internet is only an aid to connect.



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Globalization has permanently changed the way business is done.Outsourcing business projects to overseas destinations and providing service for foreign clients is now a common practice among global businesses. The chief concern in conducting such business practices is maintenance of effective communication among offshore staff and overseas clients.

Web conferencing services have been instrumental in long distance business communication. Web conferencing is used to conduct meetings and presentations through the medium of internet. Here are some of the features of web conferencing services that have facilitate effective offshore business communication.

* Text chat: This is a popular form of maintaining distance communication. Text messages can be exchanged among people who are online without having to disrupt the ongoing work.
* Slide show presentations: by using the web, markup tools and remote mouse pointers, slide show presentations can be used to engage the audience. This is especially effective in pitching foreign clients and in training fresh staff in an organization.
* Live or Streaming video: by using this feature, multimedia files can be pushed to the audience. Viewers need not wait till the entire document is downloaded. It can be read as and when it is downloaded.
* Whiteboards: This feature can be effectively used in long distance training. It allows presenters or attendees of a session to highlight certain parts of a slide presentation.
* Web tours: This type of feature works well while demonstrating websites where users themselves can be participants. URLs, data from forms, scripts and session data can be exchanged by using this feature.
* Polls and surveys: This feature enables participants to vote and opine in a systematic way. It comes handy in making decisions and can even be incorporated into training sessions.
* Meeting recording: a presentation or discussion in a meeting can be recorded and saved for future viewing.



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Desktop video conferencing is a video enabled conference call service that is popularly used in business circuits of late. This service can be availed using a desktop computer with videoconferencing software. The computer screen of one participant can serve as the computer screen of another user. In this type of service, the computer screens of different users can be shared among participants. This is a contrast to contrast with room videoconferencing where participants assemble in front of a camera to watch the screen together.

The use of desktop visual conference is increasing in the carrying out business processes. This is especially true in case of offshore business outsourcing. Consider a typical office situation where a team fresh employee seeks help of the senior in using spreadsheet or editing a document. A face to face interaction and guidance by using the desktop is the best way to help. However this is not when the two parties are located in different parts of the world. But, video enabled desktop conferencing has made such sort of communication possible in the virtual world. The time spent and the confusion created in using audio conference call to get the explanation done is effectively resolved.

Video enabled desktop conference calls help sort out several such typical business problems when employees from offshore destinations are involved.

To enhance the user experience, technology such as VOIP can be used in along with desktop videoconferencing. This makes virtual face to face business meetings further cost effective without leaving the desk. The technology is also used for telecommuting, in which employees work from home. Desktop video conferencing has thus supported distance business operations in many ways.



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Today, many businesses and schools benefit from video conferencing technology. In the past, people will think you are nuts if you say that few years down the road, people can talk to each other online and view images of each other at the same time. Video conferencing definitely make this possible. Many businesses are using this technology to conduct meeting, eliminating the need for face-to-face meetings. If you are thinking of getting a video conference equipment so that you can benefit from this technology, here are a few pointers to help you get the right equipment:

1. What do you need the equipment for? Do you need to make a PowerPoint presentation during a conference? If yes, the current video conferencing services allow you to host a conference and present your slides to the audience of the conference. With video conference, you can also show other document formats to your attendees too.

2. Do all of your attendees use the same type of computer? This is a very important question to ask yourself before you get a video conferencing equipment. If your attendees are going to use a wide variety of computers such as Mac and PC, then you need to get a video conferencing system that can work on any platform.

3. Are you going to conduct an online survey during your presentation? If yes, then you need to get a system that has the latest polling capabilities. Some higher end systems have polling and survey capabilities that allow you to quiz and test your attendees. The data that you collect from the survey will be very valuable for your future research and conferences.

4. Do you want to conduct a brainstorming session during your virtual conference? If yes, then you need to get the most advanced video conferencing system that has the group notepad capability. With the group notepad, you can conduct a brainstorming session with your attendees to bounce off ideas. After the session, all the ideas will be stored in the system and you can refer to them once the conference is over.

So before you buy a video conferencing system, consider all these benefits. Ask yourself which of these benefits you desire the most? After which, conduct a thorough research and look for a few vendors that offer conferencing solutions. Speak to them and compare their prices. Before you purchase any system, remember to check whether the vendor offers technical support and warranty.



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What is Go To Meeting?

Go To Meeting is one of the newest tools available for online meetings. There has been an increase in the usage of such tools for both large and small business interests. Many companies are changing the way they approach teleconferencing and the traditional business meeting. Many now prefer a web conference where they can see each other as well. Go To Meeting is a product that allows one to set up and hold meetings, conduct business training and provide presentations with various media over the internet. It presents a practical, and fairly inexpensive, medium to communicate for business purposes.

What exactly can Go To Meeting do for a business?

Go To Meeting is beneficial for a businesses because it is an impressive new technology and saves on business travel expenses for individuals as well as for group travel. The program can help out a business as far as task completion time for vendors or customers and it can also shorten the actual sales cycle. This also eliminates the need for a customer or salesperson to travel a far distance and still get a more personal feel to the meeting. People can meet with multiple business partners at different locations all at once at the same meeting center.

What are some benefits of Go To Meeting over competing products?

The Citrix Go To Meeting system is lower in price compared to its top competitors. Go To Meeting costs $49 per month, whereas systems from competitors such as Microsoft, Macromedia and Webex cost $375 per month. Any of these systems can save a great deal of money and time for a business because they will cut back on travel time and expenses.



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If you are looking for interactive web conferencing, you have a lot of choices to choose from! The more money you are willing to pay, the more features you are going to get. For example, you can have a web conference with up to 5 people on the free Skype.

If, however, you want the ability to easily show presentations, by making your desktop visible to others, you're going to have to pay around $50 per month, which will pay for an unlimited number of meetings for up to 15-20 people. Gotomeeting and Webex are some of the most popular examples of this type of service. If you are looking for something even more advanced, you can opt for a program such as Microsoft Office Live Meeting, in which you pay $5 for each member participant per month.

When looking for an interactive web conference you want to decide what features you need. Sometimes all you want is the ability to see and speak to each other with a small amount of people. Skype is perfect for this purpose. If, however, you want it to be more interactive, with a common white board and sharing of documents, you're going to have to drop some money.



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