Next Generation Cam Forums
Fast forward, almost 10 years later. It's rarely called interactive video now, but web cam chat. Will still be the same thing, it simply includes a different name and has become quite a hype.
Most cam chat rooms utilize Adobes Flash for the chat front end with the Flash Application server as tailgate end. The technology is good, but expensive, because the flash application server doesn't run inexpensive and requires quite a bit of server power to do its job. There are many large cam chats dealing with that technology already, providing decent resolution real-time video.
However, not long ago a new player entered the ring: Red5. Red5 is definitely an free flash application server much faster and much more accessible than the monster developed by Adobe. It's in beta state, but already is so stable that several sites have been launching self-made video chat rooms.
When a technology becomes available to the open source community, commercial products often have to step back. Red5 proves this on one site in particular: Vagipe. Vagipe is a totally free web cam chat site allowing users to see up to five high res video streams at the same time, something unthinkable before. No cost for the application, really low resource use, and one lonely hobbyist can give away free of charge what needed a great deal of money and manpower before.