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Raindance Meeting Edition, a Web conferencing tool from Raindance Communications, Inc., offers an effective combination of video, audio, and data feed. As an entirely integrated solution from a single provider, it gives users access to a single support team, help desk, and billing point. The company claims to be able to handle over four million contact minutes per day, functioning at carrier-grade level and providing customers with a running account of its uptime. Installation is easy, taking under five minutes. Microsoft Outlook is available as an optional integrated scheduling tool. During Web-based conferences, video as well as PowerPoint slides will concurrently display. These are qualities Microsoft Live Meeting and WebEx lack, but Raindance allows sharing and editing of documents and desktop in real time. A statistics window allows users to work with various network statistics including bandwidth adjustments. The follow talker option switches displayed video to whomever is speaking, although there is a five-second delay when switching speakers. Participants sharing video can be manually viewed. Raindance also facilitates the process of billing back for conference time with built-in billing codes. Although Raindance has no voice-over IP capability, its video following speakers, multiple point video, and integration with Outlook make this service significantly more economical than inbound conference calls.
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