itracks Launches 'Realtime' with Hidden Virtual Backroom

Canadian qual software provider itracks has launched a solution called 'Realtime', featuring a virtual backroom where observers can chat with one another and with the moderator through both text and video, without interrupting research.

The firm's new itracks Realtime provides single-stream audio and high-resolution video recordings of each individual participant throughout the entire duration of the group (not just while they are speaking). This allows researchers to isolate certain participants to view reactions, or 'eliminate' those participants with distracting audio during the reporting phase. It also allows them to use the outputs afterwards for marketing material or other uses that require higher quality imagery.

The solutions' virtual backroom can be used by observers to see and discuss participant responses, poll results, whiteboard data, mark-up activities and everything else going on in the group. Meanwhile, researchers are able to control how and when they are able to hear the backroom, allowing them to maintain a focus on the participants when they need to, without halting the observers' conversations.

CEO Dan Weber (pictured) comments: 'The backroom, that hidden room behind the one-way glass where stakeholders and clients can watch the research as it happens, is an essential part of the research process. It's how executives can develop empathy by hearing their customers' stories first-hand; it's how researchers adapt to unexpected results with new questions and observations as the research happens without disrupting or distracting the participants. Researchers need software that's able to provide that realistic backroom experience, and it's something the industry has really struggled to do until now.'

Web site: www.itracks.com .