STENOCAST vs CABLE HOOKUP

[April McMillan, CRR, RPR, CSR]

Please post your opinion, pro or con, on either of these Realtime hookups. I just attended a webinar hosted by Keith Vincent and a rep for Stenocast was also there.

The Stenocast RED is $400 and each blue output device (Bridge) is $100 and the red output device (LiveNote) is also $100. If you're going to get two of each device (gotta be prepared), a reporter is looking at an $800 expense/investment in a slow economy.

Is Stenocast so much easier to use that it's worth taking the financial plunge? Is what you're doing now burdensome? Do you have a system that's economical and easy to use? I'd love to hear what you have to say.

[Rebecca Callow]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. To be honest, i just know the basics when it comes to wireless stuff, but having used the product does help with understanding it. I will tell you I made many mistakes trying to get it to work at home while I had my wireless router for my home internet plugged in and I was not able to connect to the outside world. That requires advanced programming knowledge called "port-forwarding" which took me three months to figure out.

If you are going to try to connect at home and you have a router, disconnect the router and plug your internet directly into your laptop. That will get you able to connect to the outside world.

Please let me know if you need any more assistance, because although it may seem complicated now, it's really not THAT bad. Once you do it, you'll be like "Oooooh, now I get it." You will be so glad you did. We could even set people up to do practice connections just to make sure. I would be happy to try a log-in sometime.

[Rebecca Callow]

Yes, you can totally customize the client screen. Color, font, etc. The new version really looks professional and you can also use different colors for Q, A, speaker paragraphs. There is a whole list of fonts and font sizes too, so I think there is a display setting to please just about everyone.
It also has what I call set-it-and-forget-it. Set the display you like once, and you never have to fiddle with it again.

Don't forget about the TeleView section on CRNet too. They are really helpful.

[Rebecca Callow]

I second everything Lisa said in her post about Teleview. It is inexpensive, secure, and is really easy. I'm not sure which version she is using, but the newest version, to my knowledge, does hold settings and looks really great. 3.0.9 is the latest version and it functions more like the other viewers without the high price. Attorneys can take notes and save them, you can change the colors of the display, and there is a chat-back feature for CART consumers. "Hooking up" is no muss, no fuss, no cables, nothing to load on any computer except yours, and it is as easy as typing an internet address into a browser window to be transmitting to the attorneys.

Instead of buying internet for my cell phone or a wireless card for my computer, or when wireless internet is not available at the site, I use a mini travel router and I create my own secure "intranet" and have everyone log on that way. It's a Belkin Wireless G, and it cost about $50. This takes a little practice, but it will save you the monthly fees for internet, and/or the huge cost of purchasing Stenocast. So it's definitely worth it.

Not taking the financial plunge makes it easy to use too because the license is yours forever! You can purchase one to 50 views or more. I can't say enough great things about it.

If you're not on Eclipse, Stenograph has a similar product called CaseView Net. I don't know anything about it, other than it works similarly to Teleview and it is available for Catalyst users.

HTH

[April McMillan, CRR, RPR, CSR]

Thanks, Ladies!

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

Rebecca, I do have 3.0.9. Hm! Maybe I need to do more fiddling.

Also, I'm very interested in what you seem to be saying if I'm understanding right: you don't need internet access to run Teleview? That's what I thought at first, but I was never able to get it to work unless I was online.

[Rebecca Callow]

Lisa,
You can create an "INTRAnet" which is just like the "INTERnet" but without the www part. It's a personal network that you can use to run TeleView. You cannot, however, surf the net with this "INTRAnet".

I'm not a tech guru, but I have used this to hook up to TeleView and it works the same.

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

Oh, thanks, Rebecca! Here I thought you had abandoned me, lol. ;-)

I understand intra- vs. inter-. Just could never get my Cradlepoint router to work without being online. (?)

So, er, can you tell me how you do it? Or is that what you're saying a tech guru would be needed for?

[Rebecca Callow]

Sorry, for the late reply. I didn't follow the thread so I wasn't aware that you had posted back. You won't need a tech guru. I stumble around when it comes to networks. I don't really understand them beyond the basics. But this is pretty simple, I think.

How I do it is, plug in my router to my Ethernet port and boot it up. Mine will run off my computer or off AC. Then I start the RT file, set up my output file for TeleView. Then when I start Teleview, I use the IP address created by the router to give to clients. In the new TV v3.0.9 the IP address is right at the top of the window so it's easy to find. Then your clients will connect in the normal manner using IE or Firefox, et cetera.

Here is a link to a thread from the the Eclipse CRNet forum. Dorothy does a great job of explaining. Scroll down to post #15 for a step-by-step. Dorothy IS a network Guru!

http://www.eclipsecat.com/?q=node/1504

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

Thanks so much, Rebecca. I think it's the plugging into the Ethernet port that particularly helps me here. I had no idea! I just would plug my Cradlepoint into an A/C outlet and go from there. Apparently, I need to also run a cable from the Cradlepoint to the Ethernet port? I'm going to your link now. Thanks again. :-)