GANC 2-- A new audio conferencing solution has arrived in Second Life ahead of Linden’s built-in voice beta client. Saturday, Great America Network Conferencing (GANC) unveiled its  two-sim conference center, offering full conference packages to companies or groups that want to hold large meetings in SL. A kick-off party attracted about 24 guests for a tour and live music.

Using proprietary software, hardware and servers, GANC will offer a way for a full sim of avatars to have two-way phone conferencing, while hundreds more will be able to connect at the same time by phone-- up to thousands via Web conferencing. "No matter how much we get used to the chat environment, the reality is that the ability to communicate and get things done effectively is still over the phone," said GANC's chief executive officer Atalar Longstaff (Reno Provine in real life). "We want to give businesses the ability to conference the way they normally do, with the tools they normally use, here in SL," he said. "We will allow people to use their real phones and it will stream into SL, through our hardware."

With LL releasing voice capabilities sometime this summer, soon it will not be unusual for a conference room of avatars to voice chat. GANC is positioning their service as superior in sound, scalability, and reliability. "SL voice, along with Skype and Ventrillo that people use with SL, are fine for the consumer level, but these are really not up to the level of business," said Pierce Benelli, vice president of GANC Sales. "That is why we offer our full audio bridge. It's clearer and more reliable, independent of headsets and sound cards," he said. Saturday people were able to listen via the parcel streaming, or call in and be part of the phone conference. A parcel listener, GEOELDER Clary, said, “The sound on site is excellent.”

The company has included in its build a private orientation island, with login direct from its Web site. "We want to make sure that people attending can effectively come in and have a good experience," Benelli said. The orientation consists of many stations, each showing a series of slide shows and notecards, and will have personal greeters and helpers along the way. He estimates it will take people about one hour to one hour and a half to complete the training. After finishing orientation, participants may use lindens provided in the conference package to go to a shopping area to buy accessories customize their avatars. "What we want is the smoothest transition into SL for someone with no experience. And along the way, we will have a group there to hold their hand," Benelli said.

From the shopping area, the guests can directly teleport to their conference location. The first is a Moroccan themed build, with two conferencing facilities, a cafe, an entertainment area, a pirate ship, and caves to explore. Other themes will be added in the future. "We are selling a memorable experience, something your clients will remember and tell others about," Benelli said. Many package sizes are available, but a small conference up to ten people can cost around $2000 USD.

Audio and video conferencing is not new to SL. January's opening of the U.S. Congress is one example. Hipcast co-founder Eric Rice created a convention center in SL last summer, with live media streaming capabilities, built by Endira Udal and Rez Menoptra of Rezzust. Jeff Pulver of Pulver.com brought in a conference center last fall called Pulveria. The first presentation at Pulveria was a live talk from the joint session of VON, or Video on the Net.

Some however, aren't sold on using Second Life for mission-critical business conferences. "SL is a small conference venue and works best for groups that are regularly meeting," said another SL conference coordinator, Biscuit Carroll, founder of Conference Island. "To get a newb up to speed for conferencing takes 60 to 90 minutes. This is not a sensible proposition for a one-off meeting." Using the Holodeck designed by Carroll's parent company Inside This World, the Conference Island meeting environment can be transformed from a pool party to a board room, an office, a zen garden, jungle, tree house, or desert island. Carroll said many of his conference groups use a Web cast solution called Messagebank, or bring their own teleconferencing systems. He had a bleak view of the future of this market in SL, saying, "The reality is that most people interested in conferencing in SL buy their own sim."

The technology that sets the GANC centers apart from its competitors is in the audio bridge, which runs off numerous redundant servers at the company's Chicago headquarters, GANC sources said. The firm offers automated and operator-assisted audio conferencing options, dial out, video conferencing, Web collaboration, as well as a number of added features, such as participant polling, transcription, and call recording of audio conferences to enhance the conferencing experience. "Our goal is to have all of our products available outside of SL, available in-world," Reno said.