Review: Datmedia Datpresenter
What About Playback?
When playback is chosen, either in administration mode or the video player in the dashboard, the first thing Datpresenter does is a check of the types of players that are loaded on the local machine. For instance, I chose immediate playback after the asset is created (Launch in Administrator). The system then checked the new computer I was using. Unavailable players were grayed out, as were the icons for the corresponding player on the actual presentation page. The wizard also checks for playback speed (High Speed, Low Speed) and offers an Audio Only option.
Going back to the dashboard for playback yields the same experience, but only the first time content is played on a particular machine or after a player is added—this was confirmed by the addition of the Real player on a Windows XP machine during testing. Choosing My Player from the dashboard launches the player at the top of the page, along with a list of programs in that channel for playback.
Playback is driven by a number of JavaScripts, which turned out to be the Achilles’ heel in Datpresenter. I’m a sucker for a great user interface (UI) and really like the flow of the dashboard and the wizards. However, the number of errors I initially experienced in playback caused a variety of issues, including a few JavaScripts, even with the demo content provided as part of the demo account. I checked this issue out on numerous Mac and Windows machines and seemed to have the same issues with Internet Explorer and Firefox on both platforms, even with the most recent Java updates. So I contacted Datmedia and pointed out the errors.
What happened next was a good testament to customer service: The CTO and CEO both looked at the errors, sent out an updated set of system requirements (which differed from the online system requirements; a corrected version was posted on Oct. 13), and then added a few patches. This is one of the benefits of software as a service (SaaS) if the company is open to phasing in patches between major updates; still, it is worth checking out your typical playback machines in a demo phase before committing to the monthly fee.
As a quick update on the browser/system requirements, I’m going to mention those here, as provided by Datmedia CTO, Jay Pritchard.
Formats for playback in Internet Explorer on Windows are Windows Media Player, Real, Flash, and QuickTime, while formats for playback on Firefox on Windows are Real, Flash, QuickTime, and Windows Media Player. With Firefox, to avoid an issue with Windows Media Player that I ran into, see the details at http://port25.technet.com/pages/windows-media-player-firefox-plugin-download.aspx. You’ll be glad you did.
Formats for playback on Firefox on a Mac are the same, except for Windows Media playback: Since Microsoft ended support for Windows Media Player for Macintosh, there are limitations on such basics as stream duration.
Pritchard also said that a future update would add H.264 playback support for Flash as well as support for the Opera browser.
The Best of the Rest
On branding and sponsor management, Datpresenter really shines: Upload an ad banner with the commensurate HTML code, and you’ll have a place for your sponsor just above your presentation. Likewise, channel branding allows you to set up colors, add a logo, and do a variety of additional branding tweaks to make the interface all your own. The Datpresenter website’s Showcase provides some good examples of the variety.
Three other points bear mentioning: Like the hardware-based systems that allow a presenter to create an encapsulated version of the presentation, complete with synchronized slides, there’s an option in the Datpresenter dashboard to burn a CD containing an entire presentation. There’s also a download area and an area that has decent web stats (see the Gomez Active Streaming review for details on other types of stream measurements).