COLLABORATIVE COMPUTING Videoconference System: Intel ProShare Conferencing Video System 200 V ideoconferencing solutions run the gamut from inexpensive Internet and plain old telephone system (POTS) packages that let you wave hello to Grandma to the megabucks room systems demanded by corporate brass. In the middle are systems like Intel Corp.'s ProShare Conferencing Video System 200. But there's nothing middle of the road about this Well-Connected winner. ProShare is a LAN- and ISDN-based videoconferencing and collaboration package that's a great solution for busy professionals who rely on electronic conferencing to get work done. Intel's ProShare, like similar systems from PictureTel Corp. and other vi deoconferencing vendors, offers the option of standards-based videoconferencing (H.320) via ISDN Basic Rate Interface (operating at 128 Kbps) to other desktops or room systems, circumventing possible WAN/intranet/ Internet bottlenecks and leveraging the growing reach of the public circuit-switched ISDN network. ProShare's I SDN option offers reliable video bundled with desktop collaboration tools. Although the video can't quite match the quality of the extremely expensive PictureTel Concorde 4500 desktop, ProShare's T.120-compliant data-conferencing tools--including file transfer, whiteboard notebook and applications sharing capabilities--are unbeatable. Intel's ProShare solution is so functional and easy-to-use--at a fairly reasonable price to boot--that the product qualifies as the best in its workhorse desktop-ISDN/LAN class. Intel ProShare Conferencing Video System 200 , $1,499, Intel Corp., (800) 538-3373, www.intel.com Honorable Mentions: Concorde 4500 , starts at $38,500, PictureTel Corp., (800) 716-6000, www.picturetel.com Enhanced CU-SeeMe , $99, White Pine Software, (800) 241-PINE, www.cu-seeme.com Awards Table of Contents

Updated April 24, 1997