December 6, 2007

Operator11 is Dead to Me: Is There Anything Out There Similar to It?

John Biggs

48 comments »

Way back last summer I wrote about and started using a service called Operator11 — don’t bother visiting because it’s down. It was a video chat system that let you run live shows in a Flash window. The “moderator” or director can show pre-recorded video and images. The real value was the live aspect, allowing you to invite friends to the show and click on their cameras to show them live. We used it here to talk about Android.

I know about some of the other services out there — Stickam and the like — but I need something that will let me invite a few people into a video chat room and allow them to talk one at a time. Did Operator11 corner this market or is there something similar out there? Incidentally, I emailed the CEO of Op11 twice before giving up on the service. It was down all last week and literally just failed as I was trying to line up a really cool interview. Feh.

Sphere It

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Chris R.

December 6th, 2007 at 8:46 am

“I know about some of the other services out there — Stickam and the like — but I need something that will let me invite a few people into a video chat room and allow them to talk one at a time”

Didn’t the kiko people build one?

http://www.justin.tv

??
Leon Atkinson

December 6th, 2007 at 8:51 am

Didn’t you guys cover the Meebo/TokBox news? That is, you can have a six-way video chat in Meebo using the TokBox technology. It sounds like that’s what you’re after.
Chris R.

December 6th, 2007 at 8:59 am

http://www.ustream.tv

There are a lot of them. Probably thousands of these sites that use Red5 or flash media server. The thing is why ask in a blog post? You could just google this.
Erick Schonfeld

December 6th, 2007 at 8:59 am

Try Paltalk.
Chris R.

December 6th, 2007 at 9:02 am

“Try Paltalk.”

This is like the 2 thousandth site I’ve seen that give people their own chatroom with Flash media server. I had never seen this one before. There are so many of them. We get it.
Marc

December 6th, 2007 at 9:07 am

I think best solution for that is http://www.mogulus.com - by far best performance and handling
AssHat

December 6th, 2007 at 9:09 am

Uh oh…looks like someone at BeerCoSoftware didn’t take his meds this morning!
Bryan

December 6th, 2007 at 9:10 am

Seems to be working fine for me.
Larry Velez

December 6th, 2007 at 9:13 am

Just loaded up fine for me.
Lee

December 6th, 2007 at 9:17 am

Ever look at Mogulus? It has the ability to play different prerecorded videos off Youtube and uploaded to their servers, while having a fairly robust live video setup.
Rob

December 6th, 2007 at 9:19 am

Works fine for me.
Ed

December 6th, 2007 at 9:22 am

Mogulus is pretty good They certainly give you more options to make a more professional looking production than Op11
John Biggs

December 6th, 2007 at 9:27 am

Mogulus is cool but didn’t do what Op11 could. I’ll try paltalk. As I said, Op11 has failed me too many times recently to consider it a stable site.
Anon

December 6th, 2007 at 9:31 am

Ha. They probably host on MediaTemple.
davidjs_uk

December 6th, 2007 at 9:36 am

http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/ is cool. You can even playback the meeting afterwards and others can contribute.
John Biggs

December 6th, 2007 at 9:37 am

@Chris - I am looking for very specific functionality that none of the other sites anyone has mentioned offer. Google isn’t very good for that but I figured there must be two kids in high school in Scranton who started InterviewPeopleInFlashAndPostTheResults.com and might read TC.
drew olanoff

December 6th, 2007 at 9:38 am

I noticed that operator11 was down for like 3 days a week or so ago with no error message, no blog posting, no nothing. That’s a really good way to scare away a community. Too bad, a lot of people seemed to like it.
John Biggs

December 6th, 2007 at 9:39 am

@drew - my sentiments exactly.
Ed

December 6th, 2007 at 9:44 am

John - Check out http://coveritlive.com
yah

December 6th, 2007 at 9:55 am

Try Adultfriendfinder …

You find what you want there… lol
Chris R.

December 6th, 2007 at 9:56 am

“Google isn’t very good for that but I figured there must be two kids in high school in Scranton who started InterviewPeopleInFlashAndPostTheResults.com and might read TC.”

I bet those other 2000 other flash media server websites are going to read what you wrote, and simply add the functionality putting those 2 kids out of the garage and back into the living room.
Prashant

December 6th, 2007 at 10:02 am

http://www.seetoo.com
April Sanders

December 6th, 2007 at 10:18 am

ugh…

Everyone is forgetting the most popular live site:

Ustream.TV

Just watched Mitt Romney’s speech with 5,000 people at the same time..

Incredible service
Thunk Different.

December 6th, 2007 at 10:37 am

Hey April,

iThink many of us know about ustream, but 5,000 isn’t too many. iGet that many people visiting my blog every few days. iThink Marred with Children re-runs get at least 100x that, so the web has some way to go.

LinkedIn, ohhh not sure, it could clutter up the site, but at the same time it shoudl move b/c facebook is somewhat vulnerable this week (for a time) it will be be interesting to see what happens.

http://www.ThunkDifferent.com
April Sanders

December 6th, 2007 at 11:00 am

5,000 was the highest point of simultaneous people (not sure what the total views are for the live feed)

Also, they recorded it, so I’m sure they will get 100x that over the next few weeks..

I assure you, that at any one moment, you don’t have 5,000 people on your blog.

That IS alot…
sean percival

December 6th, 2007 at 11:01 am

Works fine here, and i’ve used it a few time without problems. User error?
Max Haot

December 6th, 2007 at 11:15 am

John - this is Max Haot CEO at Mogulus. I would love to talk about your requirements for your coverage to see if since our launch we have the features you need. You can easily invite contributors to login the mogulus studio and mix their cameras live with video clips and broadcast graphics. Drop me a line at info@mogulus.com or at my direct email if you can see it and I will be in touch.
David

December 6th, 2007 at 11:26 am

I’d love to hear your feedback if you give Vawkr a try (http://vawkr.com). You can create ad-hoc rooms and invite all your friends to them. Vawkr doesn’t even require anyone to signup — just show up and start talking.
bizbuzz

December 6th, 2007 at 11:38 am

try http://www.oovoo.com/
Tony

December 6th, 2007 at 11:51 am

http://www.mogulus.com
smojo

December 6th, 2007 at 12:22 pm

There are many sites now that let you have multiple people using their cameras in the same room. I would suggest BlogTV and Mogulus.
My favorite site for live video is Justin.tv but this is not something it can do yet. Same thing with ustream. You need additional software to do it on those 2 sites.

I would check out mogulus.com though. It is a resource hog but the broadcasting studio they have is wonderful for what you are looking for.
Brian Phillips

December 6th, 2007 at 12:29 pm

Hi,

Brian from TokBox here. We just made available basic video chat with up six people at http://www.tokbox.com. It all happens in your browser; no download required.

For existing TokBox users, login and click on the “Conference” tab to start a call. You can then invite up to five friends to join….and they don’t have to be TokBox users.

For example, here’s a call I just started: http://www.tokbox.com/g/ihxmvl87100a

Let us know what you think! We’re listening.

Thanks! -Brian
David

December 6th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

SeeToo.com does a great job for the pre-recorded videos.
Adam Teece

December 6th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

Not sure if this is the same thing, but this looks promising.

http://www.dimdim.com/
hombrelobo

December 6th, 2007 at 1:43 pm

Try http://nowlive.com.

They present themselves as a radio with video. The main focus is on audio, but you can have several webcams conected together at the same time (at least 4 for what I know).

The site is not pretty, but the funtionality is exceptional
John Davis

December 6th, 2007 at 2:28 pm

Well, the one that looks like Op11 the most is Mogulus, but ….. I’m looking at MIT if they can teach me how to use it, it’s impossible to understand, too many screens, too many questions, I just want to *USE* the site.

Max Haot said:
> You can easily invite…

Now, now, *easily?* Who? Other than you and the designers/developers behind mogulus…. who else thinks mogulus is easy to use? Yeah, You give a lot of functionality that Op11 doesn’t, and productions look much more professional. It’s nice for companies who can afford to train someone, but it’s NOT for the average Joe. And that’s the niche Operator11 fills in nicely.

Blog.tv only lets you have at the most 2 people on camera, and only one of them gets recorded, so it’s a no-no when you want to record the entire conversation.

And does tokbox record conversations? Last time I checked it didn’t…

Ustream… come on, it doesn’t come close to Op11. I mean yeah, it has more traffic and a better alexa ranking. But it doesn’t do multicasting, so again, doesn’t work if that’s what you’re looking for.

Anyway, Op11 is unstable, but works more often than not. And now it’s working, so stop complaining and go netcast
WinAndFun

December 6th, 2007 at 2:39 pm

The site looks ok…

Perhaps a server problem?
Seth J

December 6th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

Try http://www.camfrog.com. It is not flash.
Tim

December 6th, 2007 at 4:43 pm

I am using blogTV.com, it is very reliable and has the co-host option which no other site has.
Bill Richardson, Jr.

December 6th, 2007 at 7:24 pm

operator who? I’ve never heard of this site - I just checked it out and it’s all smoke and mirrors…sorry guys, but your site stinks

i’ve been reading up on this space recently and there are only 3 sites worthy of mentioning: Ustream, Mogulis, and Heycosmos.com

Honestly,…if I had to pick one….it’d be Ustream…just being honest
Ed

December 6th, 2007 at 9:04 pm

@#40 - It’s not really all smoke and mirrors. It’s merely become a community centered around it’s most active users, much like a lot of websites out there.
Don

December 6th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

Try http://www.blogTV.com. It had co host feature that enables you to invite someone to stream with you and you can record both streams and the chat. They have frank Gruber, Jeff Pulver, Jonny Goldstein and more using it now
Steven

December 7th, 2007 at 10:16 am

Hi John,

I work at Stickam. I’m sure we can help ya out. We are a product for the people and what the people want…the people get. Email me so we can find out more specifics of what you would like.

Thanks,
Steven
kara-Hannah

December 8th, 2007 at 11:30 pm

Hey John,

Definitely come to blogTV.com, it sounds like a perfect match for you. The site is easy to navigate, not to mention the community is unique and inviting so you will have plenty of people to co-host your show and chat to!

Come on over and if you have any questions, you can write to me at community@blogtv.com

Thanks,
Kara-Hannah
Community Manager
blogTV.com
Kara-Hannah

December 9th, 2007 at 4:04 am

Definitely come to http://www.blogTV.com

blogTv is the best of all of these sites by far and the easiest to navigate!
vampirestrom

December 12th, 2007 at 4:30 am

well quess what operator11 is back up.its such a shame.you internet journalists just cant keep up.aww poor baby lol.you should probly try to stay ahead of things.i can tell you must not have been a contributing member to op11 if you didnt know it was coming back in a week they had to change servers so yeah good luck with the website reviews haha cuz u suck at it
jonny goldstein

December 13th, 2007 at 11:43 am

Hey John,

I feel your pain. I was a regular user of Operator11 for my weekly talk show, and was very happy with their functionality and interface, until they crashed, didn’t keep their community updated during their multi-day crash, and then had problems getting confirmation emails from them when I tried to open new accounts (so guests could log in with them). Seems like the case of a great concept without enough staffing behind it. Too bad.

The last couple of shows, I have used blogtv.com. It now archives both you and whoever you invite to be on with you.

I don’t find the interface quite as intuitive to use, and switching between “guests” can take a little while compared to 011. Also, at present you can’t play canned video clips from blogTV like you can in 011.

But the blogTV team is quite responsive, the split screen thing is kind of cool, and they are adding more and more functionality every day. Who knows? I would give it a try. They seem to have the resources they need to keep improving, and for now it sounds like they have what you need.

All these services have bugs and are quite dependent on your bandwidth (and your guests if you have people on via webcams from wherever they are).

I am intrigued by the quality of the live 2 way chat that woome.com uses. Very little lag. Unfortunately, they have a very specific framework (speed dating and speed introductions) that won’t work for you, but if other services could copy their technology, we’d have way better multi person video conferencing.
Azazel

December 31st, 2007 at 7:13 pm

Well It seems o11 is down again but for some people only. they have so much shit that is wrong. The site is up but you cant direct shows, you cant make a new account to direct shows, no one returns your e-mail to say hey wear sorry about are site being so fucked up. They are keeping people in the dark. so Im just not going to waste my time with a dead site.