Here are some frequently asked questions and answers. If you don’t find an answer you want on this page, feel free to send your question to us through our Contact Us page.
Q. Do I need to download any software to join a meeting?
A. Meeting attendees can join a meeting using a web browser and without downloading any software, provided that they already have Flash Player 9 installed.
Q. Do moderators or presenters need to install any software?
A. Moderators can start a meeting using a web browser. Some meeting functions, such as screen sharing, require a presenter client. Windows users can choose to install a small program or use a Java client that does not require installation. Mac and Linux users can use the Java client.
Q. Can I host a meeting from a Mac or Linux computer?
A. Yes, you can host a meeting, including sharing your screen, from a PC, Mac, Linux or Unix computer.
Q. How many people can I invite to a meeting?
A. Depending on the account type, you can have up to 100 people in a meeting. The trial account allows you to invite one other person to a meeting.
Q. Do you provide audio conferencing?
A. Yes. Persony includes 'free'* audio conferencing for up to 100 people. You can request a personal audio conference number and access code anytime. *Long distance charges may apply by your carrier depending on your calling plans.
Q. Do you support video and voice over IP?
A. Yes. You can have up to 12 webcam windows open with full-duplex voice over IP. The moderator can choose any 12 people from the attendees to show their webcam. The video window size and bandwidth are adjustable by a site administrator and can support high-def videos.
Q. Do I need to worry about firewalls or network settings?
A. Persony Web conferencing only uses standard HTTP connections and should work with any firewall, proxy, or network settings. The optional video conferencing component requires opening a non-HTTP connection and may not work with some firewalls or proxy servers.
Q. Can I stream videos or MP3 files?
A. You can upload a video (in FLV format) or MP3 file to the Persony Web conferencing site. The video or MP3 files will be streamed from the sever to all attendees at the highest quality.
Q. Can I pass the presenter control to an attendee?
A. Yes. The moderator can promote one or more attendees to be a presenter. The presenter can share desktop, PowerPoint slides, video, etc.
Q. Can I control an attendee's desktop or allow an attendee to control my desktop?
A. Yes. You can both control an attendee's desktop and granting control of your desktop to an attendee. The person whose desktop is being controlled needs to download and install a desktop sharing program, which currently only runs on Windows PC. The person does not need 'admin' permission on a PC to install the program.
Q. Can I show animations in my PowerPoint files?
A. Yes. Persony supports Flash slides, which preserve PowerPoint animations and effects. You can use a third party product, such as iSpring Pro or autherPOINT Lite, to export PowerPoint to individual Flash slides (one slide per SWF file) and then import them to Persony. Check out the instructions for details.
Q. Can I record a meeting and play it back?
A. Yes, recording is an add-on option and you will be able to record an audio conference call with the meeting and play back the recording as a Flash movie. See this press release for more details.
Q. How much does your product cost?
A. Persony sells perpetual software licenses which allow you to host meetings on your own Web server. The pricing starts at an one-time license fee of $995, plus a setup fee, for a private label site with 5 moderator licenses (each can have unlimited 10-person meetings.) Resellers and volume discounts are available.
If you are looking for a monthly service, Persony resellers typically offer a hosted service ranging from $19 to $199 month.
Q. Does Persony offer hosted or monthly services?
A. Persony is not a service provider and we do not offer hosted services. Many of Persony's resellers do offer a monthly subscription service at very competitive rates. Please see our Partners page for details.
Q. How many users does Persony have?
A. Persony mostly sell its products through resellers, who offer private label Web conferencing services to their users. Each reseller may have from hundreds to tens of thousands of users.
Q. Can I offer Persony as a hosted service to my customers?
A. Yes. Persony allows service providers to offer private label hosted services at whatever pricing and pay Persony for software licenses on a 'named-host' or 'concurrent-port' basis. See 'Pricing Comparison' for details or contact us.
Q. What kind of servers do I need to offer Persony services?
A. For Web conferencing, all you need is a standard HTTP server, such as Apache or IIS, and PHP 4.3 or above. If you want to offer video conferencing, you need to run Adobe Flash Media Server (FMS) or Red5 (free open-source FMS server.) See System Requirements for details.
Persony has built-in support for Amazon Web Services (AWS). You can launch fully configured AWS virtual servers in minutes to host your Persony web and video conferencing services and pay AWS directly based on usage.
Q. How much bandwidth do I need to offer Persony services?
A. The bandwidth usage depends on your service configurations, the number of concurrent participants, and meeting activities. For a typical web conference, the average bandwidth usage is around 50-100kbps per participant although the peak bandwidth may be higher during screen sharing or media streaming. For video conferencing, you can configure each video to stream from 80kbps-1Mbps.
Q. How long does it take to set up a private label site on my server?
A. If you already have a web server and PHP set up, it will only take you minutes to create a site on your server. The process involves coping an installer script to a folder on your web server and then run the installer.
Q. Can I host meetings on a secure server?
A. Yes, Persony supports the https protocol and you can host the meeting site on a SSL server.
Q. Who do you recommend to provide Persony hosting service?
A. While Persony software is compatible with most Web hosting services, we recommend you check out the hosting partners in our Partners page.