Brother International has introduced OmniJoin, a new HD Video conferencing application that allows users to hold video conferences from their Web browsers. Although the company is most identified with hardware such as printers, Brother is branching out into cloud-based communications applications.
"At Brother we understand the need to collaborate and conduct business meetings in the most efficient way," said Bill Henderson, vice president of Brother International Corporation. "Our OmniJoin video and Web conferencing service, now with Intelligent Video, helps us ensure that we are providing the ideal meeting solution and experience for users."
OmniJoin’s “Intelligent Resolution” feature can deliver the optimum video resolution for every user.
The “Intelligent Layout” feature also adjusts to the different aspect ratios that devices have easily. Anyone who’s ever tried to watch a 4:3 video on a 16:9 screen can certainly appreciate this. OmjiJoin will also automatically adjust the aspect ratio as people leave or join a conference.
The announcement shows the growth of technologies like WebRTC. WebRTC is a new standard for communication that allows Web users to hold audio and video conferences without the need for any additional software. It works through Javascript libraries. The latest versions of both Firefox and Chrome support WebRTC. The technology allows users of the two browsers to communicate with each other.
The newest version of Google Chrome also brings WebRTC capabilities to Android users. The move brings mobile users into the growing WebRTC world.
The biggest advantage for WebRTC is that as long as the browser supports it is that users will not have to download any additional software. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, however, appears to ignore the technology, despite implementing other technologies such as WebGL. This may be because it was developed by rival company Google before it was open sourced and released to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Since WebRTC runs within an application nearly everybody is using, a Web browsers, it’s easier for businesses to cut travel costs by hosting virtual meetings using technology like OmniJoin.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
