macromedia flash flashcom: I'm thinking of building an application which would be essentially a video chat
based classroom with:

1 teacher located in US or Australia
3 students located in Japan
1 admin in japan or US silently monitoring the session

The question is: Will the quality be okay? What if a couple of students try
to answer a question at the same time? Will the audio get choppy and cut-off?
I'm not expecting pristine DVD quality audio/video, but I just want to make
sure it's usable -- especially the audio since these will be language classes.

Any FlashCom gurus care to share their experiences?

Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth.....df-sean it all depends on how much
bandwidth you have available. However I can tell you from experience it is
possible and the quality is not that bad, if you have the bandwidth. I
currently use Macromedia's product called Breeze Meeting (aka Breeze Live) for
my companies distance learning initiative.

Regarding your class, let me offer a few tips:
1.) If you are going to use VoIP, use head sets that have noise canceling
capability. More for your students than your instructor. However I usually have
only the instructor Voice enabled and the students are limited to text based
communication. This can be helpful if teaching ESL students. But, if your class
is a language class then I understand that this may not be applicable

2.) use video only when necessary, like during the introduction, then switch
to a still picture or a small pic....this will save your bandwidth and help to
ensure audio quality. Unless it is necessary for the class.

3.) Recording Studio quality area for your instructor. The quieter the better.

4.) Not to push a product, but I would at least give Breeze Meeting a try to
see if it meets your needs. Judging by your post, it sounds like it would be
just the thing. Besides it uses FCS and customizable for different
environments....modem, DSL, LAN, etc...

Well that is my 2 cents, hope it was worth something to you.

Good Luck.

HR