omNovia Web Conference Review

With omNovia you can host ad-hoc and planned online meetings. The solution is best suited for displaying single applications on the host's desktop, presenting previously imported files or using the whiteboard. While presenting documents, the moderator and the attendees can use annotation tools to highlight elements in the presentation. These marking tools are no longer available when the host switches from presenting documents to displaying apps on his computer.

In addition participants can now communicate visually with each other via webcam. Per default the webcam videos are displayed right below the participants' names in the participant list. As soon as more than three people activate their webcams not all of them can be displayed. In this scenario the host can adjust the size of the single webcams and arrange them individually on the display.

To schedule a web conference and invite people, the moderator can use the Event Manager. This feature allows the moderator to set up invitation and reminder emails, and to define an event-specific registration process. The Event Manager is particularly suitable for formal web conferences - but a little too complicated for less formal meetings (e.g. with a virtual team). In this case, the moderator may want to install an Outlook plug-in to ease and speed up the scheduling process.

Bottom line: omNovia is suitable for structured and well-planned web conferences which focus on one-to-many communication. The software lacks features for effective interactive teamwork and cannot score with user friendliness.

Pricing

Different pricing models depending on the maximum number of participants:

"Start" edition with basic features: starting at USD 49.00 per month for meetings with up to 25 participants (annual subscription: USD 441 per year);

"Pro" edition with full scope of features: starting at USD 12.00 per month and seat (annual subscription: USD 108 per year and seat)

License options

Single user license (monthly or annual subscription)

Voice over IP and phone costs

Integrated phone conference and VoIP