This is a four person collaboration setup. All four users computers are connected to a textual conferencing system running on Delphi on-line service's UNIX host system. The connections are via modems and standard phone lines to an X.25 Packet Switched Network. The four users are also connected on a standard audio conference call.
Business Situation: Expanding An Auction Companys Customer Base
A large auctioneering company has received some very exotic art pieces to be auctioned. The auction company is going to advertise the auction to all its customers but typically all the qualified bidders will not attend any one particular auction mainly because many of them have to travel a great deal to get there.
Customer Need: Cost Effective TV Broadcast
The auction firm needs a cost effective way to do a live video broadcast to the auction participants.
Solution: The Virtual Meeting Auction Edition
The Virtual Meeting allows the auction company to set up a virtual Broadcasting Network in order to hold its auctions. Photographs of all the pieces of art being auctioned are placed on a Photo CD which is sent to each prospective bidder in the auction. The Photo CD can be viewed by the prospective bidders at their leisure before the auction.
At auction time all the bidders connect their computers to the auction which is being held in an electronic conference room on the Delphi electronic network. The audio portion of the broadcast is being carried by GTE's Conference Connection.
The auctioneer can preview each item that is being auctioned by displaying the correct image on everyone's Photo CD while discussing that object's attributes. When the bidding starts the high bid is displayed in bid window. As bidders enter bids in their bid window and click on the send button their bid will be sent to the auctioneer. If their bid is higher than the current bid their bid and name would appear in everyone's bid window. .
Auctions using The Virtual Meeting maximizes scarce resources, while eliminating travel time and costs.
The Virtual Meeting Auction Edition is available for Macintosh and Windows 3.1 and consists of the following software components for each bidder:
One copy of the Auctioneers Extension is required for each conference moderator
Copyright 1996 by Seth Snyder All Rights Reserved