FoxDen (Discontinued) vs. Watchitoo StreamingPro

FoxDen tended to work slightly better for very small video conferences. The audio was typically reliable, so it would be ok to use for audio conferencing. It is definitely not ready for prime time: it cannot handle very large conferences. It didn't seem ready to be used on mobile either. I also think it's better suited for a smaller company.

Incentivized

I think Watchitoo is a product that is great for many different use-cases for internal programming, one-on-one teaching, e-learning, live web chats, town halls, etc. The company is also very innovative in that updates are constantly being made to the platform and I've seen feedback immediately reflected in a new feature or button.

• Easy to join meetings
• Audio is fairly reliable
• Moderately easy to host meetings

Incentivized

• Simplicity of interface and basic features to get non-technical speakers to enable camera/adjust microphone and preview their feed.
• Complexity of potential programming and special settings that can yield a rather high production quality using external camera, studio switchboards, and any other fancy bells and whistles you want to integrate from other media/communication equipment.
• Customer service was always on point with their responses to technical questions and exhibited great diligence when assisting live programs. They were good about being open about other customer experiences and troubleshooting methods learned from others using the platform.

• Horrible video quality. It basically never worked, and we stopped using the video feature.
• Buggy behavior all the time. Dropped calls, loss of screen sharing, rendered unusable most of the time.
• Poor response by the vendor to issues. The answer was basically "we know it's unusable, and we're trying to figure that out. There's nothing we can do right now."

Incentivized

• The lower bandwidth environments often had trouble participating in Watchitoo StreamingPro so a custom "low bandwidh" theme was created. I feel like Watchitoo could offer more to more people if they catered to those with lower internet speeds and slower computers, or shoddy mobile service.
• The external media search functionality is great and can add a lot to a program, but it could be more user-friendly and a bit more configurable. I like to narrow my searches for specific content, colors, file types, shapes, sizes, formats, etc. Watchitoo peaked into the Internet, but I often had to search, find, download, save, upload instead of pulling directly into the program. NOTE: I am typically more particular in my media searches than others.
• Lastly, I'd say combining a ZUI (zoom user interface) would be a potentially interesting feature to add to Watchitoo. The idea in my mind is a multi-point feed show where folks are in relation to one another in the world. Somewhat how Google Earth toggles between points, but also like how Prezi presentation can have content spread out over a larger map area.

I believe they selected FoxDen because we use ReadyTalk for voice conferencing and FoxDen represented a cost savings compared to our previous Skype for Business investment. However, in the end, most of our company has abandoned ever using FoxDen and, instead, still uses all of the products listed above (Skype for Business, Google Hangouts, Slack) or just plain ReadyTalk voice conferencing.

Incentivized

Adobe Connect is a tried, true and trusted platform given the Adobe name is widely recognized everywhere. Watchitoo offers a bit more of a start-up feel and are often much more responsive in term of customer service. Account managers were open to multiple modes of communication and constantly making themselves available, even to support ad hoc programs. Larger platforms would re-assign new account liaisons and technical support staff. Knowledge Management with respect to our use of the platform and previous troubles/lessons learned was much more fluid with Watchitoo

• Increased the length of our meetings due to copious amounts of time spent trying to fix the video and screen sharing.
• Added frustration for everyone who attempted to use it.
• Ultimately resulted in a lot of money lost on video equipment that everyone stopped using in favor of voice-only conferencing due to the faulty video.

Incentivized

• Better customer service; it improved production quality and allow for a custom look-and-feel that was missing from other platforms in use.
• Enabled more participation; through the mobile features and easy connection procedure, users felt empowered using a simple program whereas other platforms were requiring special technician help.