Is It Live or Is It Memorex? November 24, 2010 @ 09:45 AM | By Sarah Murphy

Remember those Memorex commercials? They promoted recording quality so good that you couldn’t tell if the person was speaking to you live or from a recording. Well we all know the fate of VHS tapes, but a conversation I had this past weekend made me think of that famous Memorex tag line.

During the cocktail hour at a wedding, a fellow guest was asking me all the common get-to-know-you questions as I was trapped in the long line for the open bar. When I mentioned the company I work for and what business we are in, he proceed to explain to me the feature he loves the most about the web conferencing his company uses....recording and archiving.

As a senior attorney who mentors a group of new attorneys, he said he will use his web conferencing account to record a message to his group. This allows him to be more efficient with his time and combats scheduling nightmares.

Just like it was a “live” meeting, he simply starts a meeting, without any participants, and shows and shares documents and web sites he references in his message. The system records and synchronizes his audio and web all together in one archive. Once the archive is completed, he simply sends out the link to his team via email asking them to view it in time for the next staff meeting, the one opportunity they can meet as a group.

If you find yourself in a time crunch and need this type of communication solution, here are some points to consider. Many web conferencing providers will offer recording and archive options, but that’s where it stops. You will find out it’s not as easy as you thought when you start to ask:

• Once I receive the archive, what do I do with it?
• What do I do with a file so large my email won’t let me send it out?
• Do I have the in-house support to host the archives on my own network?
• Do viewers need to download any special software to listen to the archive?
• How do I know if someone has watched the archive?

You want to look for a solution that provides you with quality recordings that can be easily distributed and provide simple playback, just like a “live” meeting. The best solutions allow you to record both audio and web portions of your meeting with a simple click of your mouse—no complicated instructions.

Look for a solution that provides you a choice of format the archive will be produced in: hosted on secured servers or available to download it in zip format. By having a choice, you can decide which option best meets your needs and support capabilities. And more importantly, check to make sure there are no confusing instructions or software download requirements for participants to view your archive.

Lastly, like the attorney mentioned above, you will want to know who watched and when. Make sure that type of information capture is available with your solution so when you do meet live, you know everyone is well informed and time can be spent discussing new business.

Sarah Murphy is an associate marketing manager at InterCall. With over ten years of experience in the conferencing industry, Sarah has worked with customers and products that cover all segments of conferencing, including traditional operator attended services, video and online meeting solutions.