The ePresence team is very happy to announce the release of ePresence 6.0.
This release is focused on the end users’ experience as well as the UI improvements for the event producers. The list of fixes and improvements is long, but here we’ll mention just a few important ones:
The Presentation Player has been re-designed using Adobe Flex technology. In addition to the look being completely refreshed for 2010, there are also some exciting new features. Users can watch presentations in full screen, switch between different layouts, and share it with others in a variety of ways. Embedding live and on-demand presentations to any 3rd party web site or CMS has never been easier. Any presentation can be embedded in practically any size.
Screen capture in ePresence has been re-developed from the ground up. Whether the presenter is simply playing a simple PowerPoint animation, or showing a full-screen DVD, ePresence 6 will do a better job capturing dynamic content than ever before. A new feature in this version is a new “Screencast” mode, specifically designed for software demos. In this mode, the presenter’s audio is embedded into the screen video, ensuring perfect synchronization at all times, both live and on-demand.
Our Capture Station software has been completely re-designed. This software is built around the H.264 video codec, for both the camera and presenter’s screen, ensuring the highest quality media playback at the lowest possible bandwidth requirements.
ePresence Producer has been moved from the Capture Station to the Web. The administrator can now edit slide titles and chapters, move them around, trim the start- and end-times of the video, and revert to previous versions. It is no longer necessary to do all of the post-production before publication – our new online tool can be used at anytime.
Scalability was another focus in 6.0. A lot of features have been optimized for deployment on Cloud Computing infrastructures, which enables the support of many thousands of concurrent connections.
We hope you’ll enjoy the beauty, ease and reliability of ePresence 6.0.
Please join us online at www.sig.uwaterloo.ca beginning Wednesday, January 27 at 7PM EST (GMT-5), to watch the live webcast of the Waterloo Lecture on Social Innovation featuring Adam Kahane.
The team at ePresence is delighted to be working with SiG@Waterloo to deliver this highly anticipated lecture to hundreds of viewers online.
An internationally acclaimed social innovator, once praised by South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, Adam Kahane will deliver this year’s Waterloo Lecture on Social Innovation and will present new ideas on how to achieve significant, durable social change for pressing and increasingly complex social problems. In the lecture, Kahane will draw on his extensive experience working with business, government, and civil society leaders from around the world to help them address their toughest challenges. The lecture, entitled “Power & Love”, will explore the role that these seemingly opposing forces play in affecting positive social change.
What: Waterloo Lecture on Social Innovation featuring Adam Kahane
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Time: 7pm – 9pm EST
Free Live Webcast:The Waterloo Lecture on Social Innovation will be webcast live free of charge on www.sig.uwaterloo.ca beginning January 27 at 7pm EST.
For more information on the live webcast or if you are interested in attending the Waterloo Lecture on Social Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, please email siglecture@uwaterloo.ca.
One of the new features of ePresence 6.0 is Screencast mode, which is optimized for software demos and audio-only presentations. It is possible to record a local laptop screen as well as an external laptop screen using VGA output. We used this feature to record a little demo so you can get an idea of how this new feature works. Please hit Play button and enjoy the show
We have some exciting developments planned in the new year, including a redesign of our Capture Station software, a new Flash-based webcast viewing interface, and the ability to edit presentations on the web!
Major Features
ePresence 6.0 is scheduled for release in January 2010. It includes many new and exciting features, such as:
Complete redesign of our Capture Station software
Updated webcast viewing interface: 100% Flash-based with improved UI, scalability, and new ability for the webcast viewer to switch between viewing modes (video/PPT/both)
Better embedding – customizable, lightweight, just like YouTube – for live and on-demand presentations
New screencast mode for the creation of high-quality software demos
Improved commenting/sharing system for presentations
New, easy to use web-based presentation editor
Stay tuned – more information will be coming soon. Please let us know of any feedback you may have by emailing us at feedback@epresence.tv. See the screenshots below for a sneak peak!
What an incredible event… Over 1000 people joined us for the live webcast of TEDxToronto, sponsored by ING DIRECT Canada – some from their homes and workplaces, others viewing at one of the 13 webcast satellite sites across Canada (including one at our home in the Knowledge Media Design Institute). We’re just delighted we could be a part of it.
We received a lot of great feedback yesterday regarding the webcast production quality, consistency in the streaming video delivery, and the look of our soon-to-be new Flash templates. The whole team is still beaming about it here at the office!
A huge thanks to Tyler Turnbull, Paul Crowe, and the rest of the TEDxTO committee for letting us take part in this incredible, inspiring first TEDx event in Toronto. Tyler and Paul gave us an amazing production team to work with. We’re indebted to Venture Communications for ensuring our webcast needs were accommodated, and the Videoscope production crew for giving us the best sound and camera switching a webcast audience could ask for.
For those who were inquiring as to how we managed to deliver the webcast stream consistently throughout the day, stay tuned for a “behind the scenes” blog post soon!
Missed the live webcast?
Keep a look out at TEDxTO.com in the coming weeks for finalized stats and news of video archives.
We’re excited to announce that the Knowledge Media Design Institute (home of the ePresence Lab) will be hosting one of the live webcast meet-ups for TEDxToronto. Please join us at KMDI on Thursday September 10, from 12:00pm to 7:00pm, at the University of Toronto’s Bahen Centre (Room 7256) for the live webcast.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx – local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.
What is TEDxTO?
TEDxToronto (TEDxTO) was established by an enthusiastic group of volunteers based in Toronto who are passionate about TED and generating “Ideas Worth Spreading”. The theme of TEDxTO is “What’s Next?” We see it as a challenge: what are the new and as-of-yet undiscovered ideas, projects, and people that will shape the future of our city, and ultimately the world? The event includes:
13 speakers (See speaker bios on TEDxTO.com for full information)
3 TED Videos
2 networking breaks
Toronto’s 1st TEDxTO After-Party
130+ live attendees with a webcast of approx. 3500 connections.
The main event will be held at the Theatre Passe-Muraille. Because space and tickets are limited, we are hosting a live webcast of the event at KMDI.
Sneak Preview of New Templates
Watching the TEDxTO live webcast will also give everyone a sneak preview of new templates that are coming in ePresence 5.1. These new templates are developed entirely in Flash, which gives us some opportunities to do some neat things, like give the user the ability to change how they’d like to view the webcast, as well as offer:
Improved UI and customizability
Improved scalability
Better embedding — customizable, lightweight, just like YouTube.
If you’re attending the TEDxTO live webcast on September 10, feel free to let us knowwhat you think!
On July 31st, Adobe released a new version of the flash player (10,0,32,18) that addressed a critical vulnerability in previous versions of the player. This new player introduced some incompatibilities with Wowza H.264 streaming.
Wowza has issued a patch that resolves the issue, which has been applied to our hosting servers. We recommend that all ePresence sites with their own Wowza server update to the latest version of the software.
The latest patch for 1.7.0 is patch 1.7.0-patch21. If you are running Wowza 1.6.0, you will first need to apply patch 1.6.0-patch24. Please read the instructions included with the patches carefully before you begin.
If you have an ePresence support package, please contact us and we will perform the update.
We’re happy to announce that ePresence 5.0 is ready for release! As you may have already read, version 5.0 is a major release that adds two new lightweight capture solutions to the current ePresence system:
Two New Ways to Capture Content
Mobile Capture Use your Windows, Mac, or Linux laptop to present PowerPoint™ and share your desktop with a webcam and mic. Or share the desktop of another presenter with an optional VGA2USB device.
Web Capture Give a live talk via your web browser with just a webcam, mic, and PowerPoint™ presentation – no additional equipment or software installation required.
Capture Station Upgrade
As well, 5.0 will offer some significant updates to our existing Capture Station solution, including:
- High quality h.264 Flash support
- Ability to create chapters for longer presentations
- Enhanced third party support for Content Delivery Networks
For More Info…
The following ePresence Capture comparison table gives a good technical overview of the three production scenarios we will now be offering with 5.0.
To learn more about ePresence 5.0 and get pricing information, visit our store or feel free to contact us for a quote!
The private beta for ePresence 5.0 is wrapping up now, and we’re planning on shutting down the beta site this Friday (April 24th). A big thank you goes to all beta testers, and everyone else involved in testing!
We will be pushing out a Release Candidate later today, which can be used on the beta instance until the end of the week. If you signed up too late, and didn’t get an invitation to the beta, please contact sales@epresence.tv for information on how to request a trial instance to evaluate.
The ePresence team is pleased to announce that ePresence 5.0 is now ready for testing. This is a major release that adds two completely new ways to capture content — through the web or on-the-go. You can learn more about these new solutions here.
Requesting a beta invite
To request a beta invite, please use our contact form, or send an email to beta@epresence.tv. In the body of your message, please include the following details of the computer that you plan on using for capturing content:
Operating system and version (e.g. Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X 10.5.6, Linux [Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10])
Processor type (optional)
Amount of memory (optional)
Please note that we will be sending out invitations in stages. When you receive an invitation, you will be sent instructions for accessing your own ePresence 5.0 beta site, and links to download desktop capture software.
We’re happy to announce that ePresence 5.0 is ready for release! As you may have already read, version 5.0 is a major release that adds two new lightweight capture solutions to the current ePresence system:
