VoIP fanatics will dig a new service called MeBeam, not Jim Beam, which offers Multi-User Video for Skype- as of June 1. Big deal? Yes. Skype doesn’t handle multi-video conference calling- with MeBeam it can.

The service is in beta, and may not be 100% stable, but, you can now get up to 16 person video calls available from skype.

No need to download anything, you can start a video conference with your skype friends, directly from the Skype user interface, with minimal effort. Up to sixteen users!

Assuming you have already added the contact MeBeam to your skype list, and your ready to start a multi person video call - click on user MeBeam in your contact list, and then click on the ’send contacts’ menu item, as shown in this screen shot.

Will this kill podcasts? I don’t know. Your mileage may vary, but this has real potential.

MeBeam How To at the: MeBeam Blog.

Just add MeBeam to your users list.

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Privacy Features

A new feature has been added to MeBeam, which might come in handy during a multi-person video conference- you want to discuss something in private.

When you move your mouse over someones video you will see a new option appear in the bottom right hand corner which says ‘Private’, clicking on this will cause the word ‘Private’ to appear on your video on their screen notifying them of you wanting to break away from the conference and discuss something

You can accept a private invitation by also clicking on the ‘Private’ button.

MeBeam Demo by Chris Pirillo on CNN. Click here for MeBeam Video from Chris. Video Click Here. (New Window)

Not Just Skype- Jabber Clients Too!

MeBeam does Pidgin Video, WengoPhone Video, iChat Video, and Trillian Video. Sweet!

A few months ago Andreas Monitzer wrote a plugin for the Adium instant Messenger,
this gaave Adium users the ability to make multi-person video calls to not only to other Adium users, but anyone else using a Jabber based instant messenger. Other Jabber based instant messengers have also developed plugins, such as Coccinella, Miranda, Google Talk etc.

It also sports an Operator service, which will allow anyone using a Jabber instant messenger to make a multi person video call to anyone.

So if your using Pidgin, WengoPhone, iChat, Trillian or any other Jabber instant messenger, simply add operator@mebeam.com to your contact list, type the word call followed by the jabber id of the person you wish to call and the operator service will take care of the rest.

For example to establish a video call from your Pidgin instant messenger to your friend john_smith who is on Google Talk, simply type in the following into the operator chat window.

call john_smith@gmail.com
 

See Reference: Various Jabber Clients

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