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Fuze Meeting Review: Online Meeting |
Rating: |
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| A great choice for multimedia collaboration; has iPhone support; robust file storage | |
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Call Wave's Fuze Meeting sets itself apart from the rest of the pack by specializing in "high definition" content sharing. And it does so at a reasonable price; at $29.00 a month, it's cheaper than its big name competitors. There's also a money-saving annual subscription plan, as well as a pay-as-you-go option. Fuze sells itself on its HD content sharing, something it accomplishes by allowing you to upload your content in advance of your meeting. While many online meeting services offer this, Fuze makes it a central part of its offering, giving you 2 Gigabytes of online storage for this purpose. Fuze accepts all kinds of content including MS Word docs, PowerPoint presentations, Excel Sheets, JPEGs, MOVs, WMVs, MP3s, and more. We shared a powerpoint meeting, which worked fairly well except for some hiccups that sent some participants back to the beginning of the presentation. But Fuze is meant for multimedia, so we uploaded a 480p high definition animated film. The movie played very well, and we were able to stop the video, mark it up using the annotation tools, then skip through to the frames we marked up. You can upload as much as 2 gigabytes worth of content (or more with an upgrade), besting the file sharing capabilities of the other services we tried. For those collaborating on multi-media, Fuze is the best option. Not only can you view media and make annotations, you can zoom into a pretty amazing level of detail without losing resolution. Fuze has recently incorporated a number of improvements to its contact management system, and has built-in support for putting meeting or webinar invites on Facebook or Twitter. Also improved is the meeting archiving, which allows you to send links to password-controlled meeting recaps. While meetings aren't recorded, all the materials, including any mark-ups are available for viewing. Shared videos can also be downloaded (although the mark-ups are only available through the online meeting interface). Fuze runs on any computer that runs Flash, and only requires a software download if you want to utilize screen sharing. Fuze also offers a novel iPhone app that allows you to connect to a Fuze teleconference, see your meeting schedule, and even watch the host's screen share. It's a neat idea, and the execution is not bad either. You cannot view all of the uploaded media, but we could see the desktop of the host computer and were able to zoom in on an Excel sheet on the host's desktop. It's not seamless, and the refresh of the iPhone screen can be a little choppy. It's also worth noting that we were on Wi-Fi, not AT&T's 3G network. However, it's better than nothing if you're stuck somewhere without a computer. Fuze also has a great calling function that it calls "fetch." Just click on a participant's name and Fuze will call that person, patching it in to your teleconference when the participant picks up. Ostensibly it allows you to have the meeting on Fuze's dime, so to speak, since participants don't have to call the toll-charge number. Those who regularly schedule meetings with people who 'forget' to call in will realize it serves a more useful function: pestering the perpetually late. So, what does Fuze lack? There's no support for webcam or VoIP, so you'll be using the provided teleconference numbers. And, while you can mark-up any uploaded docs, there's no remote collaborative features, so participants can't make actual edits to documents being screen-shared. Fuze is not going to be the solution for everyone, but for some individuals it will be perfect. Anyone who collaborates on multimedia projects such as video, graphic design, or advertising will find it invaluable. |
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| Price: | $29.00/mo; or $278.00/yr; $.19/mn pay-as-you-go |
| Number of Participants: | 25 |
| Free Trial: | 14-day free trial |
| Presentation Tools: | Document sharing, HD video sharing, whiteboard, annotations |
| Communication Options: | Instant messaging, teleconference |
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