A new breakthrough technology that will allow PC, Mac and Linux users to videoconference is presently in beta testing and has impressed me for its wide set of possible applications and for the enormous demand it would find awaiting.

The videochat conferencing technology developed by an African company allows groups of 500, 2000, or more users to connect to each other easily and to start video conversations with maximum ease and good video and audio quality. The large capacity is not really meant to support such large number of concurrent users, but rather to allow the creation of videochat communities (corporate, associations, learning classes, etc.) where all those people could easily get in touch with each other via a two-way audio video connection augmented by a text chat facility.

The technology utilized is based on popular new technology by Macromedia and it does prove to be well performing, flexible and adaptable to many different connection bandwidths. It also appears to be extremely cost-effective.

Brandable solutions can be easily created, and the Macromedia technology offers a good development environment to refine these tools to a high degree of sophistication. VoiceCafe video solutions are working examples of such good implementations and can be easily tested and evaluated online.

The potential built-in into this application/service is truly amazing. Not only would this technology provide an immediate solution to the few solutions available today to do cross-platform videoconferencing.

It would also be the first technology to offer extended cross-platform abilities, including within its accepted clients anything that could run a simple Flash player (PC, Mac, Linux, Pocket PC, OS/2, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, SGI IRIX)

Not only. It provides also for a very good degree of browser independence and for including in the online live collaboration equation also people on dial-up or moderately high speed lines.

I have tested and tried this technology for over two hours this morning with some impressive results. While I was on a T1, my two co-testers were in Africa and with less then 32Kbps available to each. Nonetheless we had quite an effective meeting and discussion, and nonetheless some slow-downs and breakups, the tool these guys have in their hands looked like "white gold" to me!

This technology could well be used also to provide seamless direct access to videoconferencing services for entire companies, institutions and international organizations. Talking and videoconferencing with one or more people would be as easy as looking up your list of buddies in your instant messenger and clicking on the ones you want to talk to. Just simpler.

If you were looking for the easiest way to live videoconference across platforms (PC, Mac, Linux) with maximum ease of use, your search may soon be over. The technology is there and there are some good minds working at it right now. Give it a few months and here you will have a new breed of killer videconferencing tools that will start to deeply revolutionize the way you look at your monitor and the number of times you reach out for your phone.

Stay tuned.