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	Groove

PowerPoint Presentation Facilities

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Groove is capable of delivering quality online presentations by utilizing directly native PowerPoint files. The presentation tool that Groove integrates can be started from the File Sharing area by selecting on any available PowerPoint file.

While in the Interface module A "Start Presentation" button appears on the Groove interface and if clicked it launches a dedicated presentation module that integrates:

A simple to use invitation module allowing the presenter/moderator to easily select which contacts to invite to a Powerpoint presentation session.
A full presentation facility allowing access to next and previous slides and random selection of any point in the presentation
A text chat panel
A voice over IP conferencing facility
An attendees list, allowing instant messaging and invitation of other contacts into the meeting
The ability to hand out the presentation control to another selected participant

The interface of this module is consistent with the other facilities available in Groove and it is very easy to use. Before entering the presentation space you are prompted to select the contacts that you wish to invite to this online presentation (from a list you simply select through check boxes the members you want to invite.)

During the Presentation control can be handed over to other attendees who can in turn take or pass control of the selected presentation.

The text chat panel is always active, as well as audio functionalities allowing you to talk live during your presentation.

The available Presentation controls allow to move to the next or previous slide or to jump to anyone preferred slide through the main right scroll bar.

Presentation performance and reliability seem to be very good. I was impressed with the quality, speed and control I was having available during my tests.

All PowerPoint transitions and animations are kept intact during presentation and Groove does not convert the PowerPoint file into static JPG or GIF files.

Groove has viewers that will enable you to preview the presentation without needing to have PowerPoint installed. If you are the presenter though you do need to have Powerpoint on your PC.

A Groove Presentation uses Internet Explorer to display any PowerPoint file (which also requires PowerPoint). Since the PowerPoint file is distributed to each Groove participant in a shared space the presentation file actually resides on each participant computer.and it does not need to be sent. The presenter's Groove just sends the changes in the active location to the other attendees in the presentation.

The Presentation module window can be maximized and presentation area can be resized easily with the mouse to offer almost a full screen view to the meeting participants. If desired, the right set of panels can be completely minimized allowing for maximum display area available to the slides.

The audio facility in the Powerpoint presentation module of Groove allows the presenter/moderator to talk and comment the slides being presented with minimum delay and an excellent synch with what is being displayed.

The bandwidth required to run an affective presentation with Groove is within a 33.6 Kbps bandwidth including the audio over IP part. So even for dial-up connections at 56 Kbps the PowerPoint presentation facility of Groove is an interesting solution.

The image here shows a connectivity meter measuring both the download rate (DL) and the upload rate (UL) of my connection while I was attending a Groove presentation with audio over the Internet. You can see in the metering tool that the overall bandwidth required is about 54 Kbps when attending a PowerPoint presentation with audio.