Video Conference Between Mac and PC with VideoLink Pro

Smith Micro, usually associated with the FAXstf line of fax modem software, has been moving into areas other than faxing as of late. We had a chance to site down with Robert E. Elliott, General Manager of the Mac Division at Smith Micro Software, and learn a bit about their VideoLink Pro product, a new offering announced at MACWORLD.

VideoLink Pro is an H.323 video conferencing system for the Mac. Although there are other programs which will let you perform video conferencing, such as Microsoft NetMeeting and Intel Proshare Video, they are only available for the PC platform. As you can imagine, this opens up a whole world of cross-platform possibilities. Smith Micro has performed interoperability testing with Microsoft, Intel and White Pine solutions, so you can see and talk to your PC friends, if you really want to.

VideoLink Pro reportedly interoperates with their audio-only conferencing solution, conexs. conexs was released at MACWORLD San Francisco 2000, but has since had a name change and is now called AudioLink, to help identify the interoperabilty possibilities with VideoLink Pro. Another piece of good news is that both VideoLink Pro and AudioLink have been "carbonized" meaning that they should work just fine with Mac OS X, once it is released.

VideoLink Pro will be shipped some time in Q3 2000 at a suggested retail price of US$59.95. A PC version will be available some time in Q4 2000.