ScreenHaven is one-to-many desktop screen sharing application. It is designed to be a partner to a telephone conference (i.e. TeleKit) to reduce the need for travel. It takes periodic images (whole screen shots, sections or areas surrounding the mouse) and stores them on the server for use within a remote meeting. These screen shots, along with comments can be saved as a record of a meeting.
ScreenHaven does not store audio and is not video-conferencing software. Telephone conferences can be boring and your mind can wander since you have no visual clues to the meeting progress. Video conferences are usually very expensive, low resolution, limited to a 1:1 and inconvenient to receive a copy of the meeting. Products such as iChat and Skype are excellent, but are prone to dropouts, limited to 5 audio or 3 video links on a fast broadband line. While one person is talking others are unable to comment without interrupting. If a manager wants a meeting with 15-20 remote people it is just not possible - until ScreenHaven.
ScreenHaven stores high-resolution screen images (tested to 1900x1200 pixels) at defined intervals and allows the convenient retrieval of this data (a text file for the comments and either a movie or folder of JPEGs for the screens). While there is normally one Publisher and multiple Subscribers, you can subscribe to multiple screens at once or be both a Publisher and Subscriber at once. While one person is talking others can contribute via the Comments window. If Comments aren’t needed the Subscriber can view the Publisher screen in fullscreen mode. ScreenHaven is cross platform so any Subscribing Macintosh, Windows or Linux computer can view screens from any Publishing Macintosh, Windows or Linux computer.
ScreenHaven is aimed at organisations who regularly have group telephone conferences, but want to make them more effective. Not only saving lost time, but money for petrol and airfares worldwide. The visual cues means that everyone can keep up with the meeting providing a more effective experience. If someone misses the conference, they can download the screens and comments after the meeting as long as the Publisher has not cleared them.
Open ScreenHaven by choosing the ScreenHaven popup from under the Window menu and choosing either Publish or Subscribe.
HMS Release
History
Available
Now OfficeHaven 4.2 — 6 January
2010
ScreenHaven
- [New] You can now set the image to only be updated on the server if the image has changed since the last image sent. This is useful for security webcams, presentations or portions of the screen that often remain unchanged for a long time, so don’t need another identical image to be sent.
- [New] You can now adjust the resolution of the image sent to the server. This may result in a more blurry image but should reduce the image sizes sent to the server when you want the whole screen but fine detail is not important.
- [New] You can now adjust the border of pixels that will be displayed when you have chosen the option to follow the mouse. A preview shows you what the others will see.
- [New] The Subscriber’s names appear in the pop-up list in the Subscribe window, not just their numbers.
- [New] The column headers in the Subscribe window can be resized.
- [New] Support for the iPhone and iPod touch viewing the screens has been added so that users on the road can listen to the telephone conference and view any text comments and an iPhone resolution version of the image. You will need a private server for this operation. Contact HMS for more details.
- [New] A WhiteBoard option has been added to the Publish window. This lets you do rudimentary sketches to be shared.
- [New] A Camera option has been added to the Publish window. This lets you share the image from your built-in Macintosh iSight camera or QuickTime webcam. A preview shows you what the others will see. The settings button lets you adjust the camera’s options.
- [Fix] When Subscribing to multiple Publishers, you now only get your user’s screens when scrubbing (before you viewed them all).
- [Fix] The Subscribe window should begin downloading the cashed screens immediately rather than waiting 15 seconds.
- [Fix] ScreenHaven has removed the pop-out in the menus and the Command-P for Publish. Instead the more common Subscribe appears as normal but there is a button to transfer to Publish. Publish also has a button to transfer back to Subscribe. Type Command-S to both Publish and Subscribe.
- [Fix] Changing the Group in the Publish window now refreshes the list properly. Previously you had to uncheck then check the Group.
- [Fix] Both Publish and Subscribing in ScreenHaven are now threaded. Despite this there will be delays when Publishing a large full screen. You may want to reduce the resolution if the delays are too pronounced or pause and send the screens manually.
ScreenHaven 4.0 — 9 July 2009
- ScreenHaven
- [New] Released as a companion to the other OfficeHaven products using the same login and services.