TVM The Virtual Meeting

Visual Communications Software for Macintosh and Windows Computers

Distributed vs Conferencing

Distributed Conferencing

In distributed conferences files are distributed to each participant before the conference.

Advantages Of Distributed Conferencing

The time required to access any file is minimized because all the files are local during the conference.

Disadvantages of Distributed Conferencing

Presentation and multimedia files must be distributed in advance.

On Demand Conferencing

On Demand conferences employ a Web Browser like Netscape Navigator to download the multimedia and document files from a file or web server as they are needed. The time required to access any file is dependent on the file size and network bandwidth. This style works best if the multimedia files are small or if Web pages are used to view the material.

Advantages Of On Demand Conferencing

Getting the files in advance is not required.
You can use any content that's out there already.

Disadvantages of On Demand Conferencing

Variable download times, if users are using different speed of connections and download is large it might take a while to download to some users while others will take a little. You should wait until you are relatively sure everyone has got the downloaded file.
This may not matter so much if you just use the web browser to download the presentation and then use a TVM helper application like the QuickTime Movie and Slide Player to deliver the presentation. Once the presentation is downloaded you in essence have a distributed conference.