Website www.fsmeeting.net
Trial
download is a 9.2mb zip file from their website. I was told there was an iPad
app for the program then told by the same person that it’s not available for download
so testing will be done between desktop and laptop.
Ease of
Use
Upon
first open of the software, it took me through the process of determining my
audio and video capability to make sure everything was working as I wanted it
to be. My first thought upon seeing the UI was “there’s a lot of stuff going on
here”.
Video
does not automatically just turn on. You have to click on a participant name to
activate it.
Quality
of Product
The
software could not recognize the integrated camera on my laptop initially. No
other program has had this issue but running though the integrated AV test
wizard, I was able to get it working. Attempts to modify bit rate and
resolution would lead to the camera failing. Failing to the point of needing to
reboot my laptop to get the camera to turn off (yes, the camera was on but no
longer working after changing settings in the software). The video quality was
not good when it did work. The image was very pixelated and there were long
delays of video freezing up. Honestly, I got a little frustrated by the
inability to make the video work so I gave up.
Screen
sharing had about a 15 second lag between host and attendee computers (with no
video turned on). A couple of seconds I can understand but if it gets any
slower than that the usability just isn’t there. Try going over a presentation
with a client in person and waiting 15 seconds after you turn a page to start
talking about it.
Pricing
Per
their website, the FastMeeting client is $19/mo or $228/yr for up to 8 users
with guests being able to join meetings for free. I was provided with 8 user
names and password, but could not figure a way to join a meeting without
logging in. The opening UI has a checkbox to log in by room number, but I could
not find my room number to try this.
Bryan
Hellard Design