I have to show a demo of a Windows 3D app to a potential customer on the West Coast, but I'm in the UK and trying to run the app here are live-share my screen up an ADSL connection across the world is... not ideal.

I've looked at desktop virtualization but they all seem to want to sign me up for multiple desktops for a year. All I need, ironically, is a regular Windows PC geographically located in this part of the world with a decent web connection - able to upstream HD video basically - for a couple of hours.

So with no idea where or how to find such a "rent a workstation" I thought I'd see if anyone here can suggest a solution, or even help me directly. Paying a few bucks is no issue if it helps.

What I'd want to do is login via RDP/VNC, then share my screen (say using join.me) to the customer.

Bit of a longshot but I can't really find the solution I need (maybe I am searching the wrong things).

Can you explain how this will solve your slow connection issue?

You're best off livestreaming flash video to something like justin.tv or twitch.tv (using a local proxy found here). Use something like Open Broadcaster Software or XSplit and to stream your desktop to the site. With that software you can adjust the stream quality to lower the bitrate requirements. Even then, you'll want at least 500-1000Kbps upload speed to get anything watchable on the viewers end (360p-480p). If you're more adventuresome try something like FFMPEG / LibAV (very powerful a/v transcoding utilities) to really get the best bang for your bandwidth.

I'm assuming it would be better in the US because then the latency issues would be felt by him, and less by the customer.

Can you explain how this will solve your slow connection issue?

1)It will not be several thousand miles from the viewer

2)It will have a better upstream limit than my 1Mbps

1)It will not be several thousand miles from the viewer
2)It will have a better upstream limit than my 1Mbps

But *you* will still be. And you'll still be constrained by the uploading speed of the computer you're ultimately livestreaming from (i.e. in the UK). Unless I misunderstood.

1)It will not be several thousand miles from the viewer
2)It will have a better upstream limit than my 1Mbps

This is why you stream to your local RTMP proxy (there are two ingest points in London alone). The livestreaming service takes the load from there. All you have to worry about is feeding the local livestream network ingest node and with 1Mbps upload, you'll be fine.

1)It will not be several thousand miles from the viewer
2)It will have a better upstream limit than my 1Mbps

But *you* will still be. And you'll still be constrained by the uploading speed of the computer you're ultimately livestreaming from (i.e. in the UK). Unless I misunderstood.

You misunderstood :) I would be running the app on the remote machine... I would then see the crappy visuals whereas the client would (should) benefit from me live-streaming from a PC with 10Mbps upstreaming, very close to their geographical location.

You're best off livestreaming flash video to something like justin.tv or twitch.tv (using a local proxy found here). Use something like Open Broadcaster Software or XSplit and to stream your desktop to the site. With that software you can adjust the stream quality to lower the bitrate requirements. Even then, you'll want at least 500-1000Kbps upload speed to get anything watchable on the viewers end (360p-480p). If you're more adventuresome try something like FFMPEG / LibAV (very powerful a/v transcoding utilities) to really get the best bang for your bandwidth.

1)It will not be several thousand miles from the viewer
2)It will have a better upstream limit than my 1Mbps

This is why you stream to your local RTMP proxy (there are two ingest points in London alone). The livestreaming service takes the load from there. All you have to worry about is feeding the local livestream network ingest node and with 1Mbps upload, you'll be fine.

Ah I see - so you think the weak link in the chain is not my ability to upstream over regular ADSL, but trying to get that across the interwebs?

Ah I see - so you think the weak link in the chain is not my ability to upstream over regular ADSL, but trying to get that across the interwebs?

Yep. with alot of the multi-core CPUs and livestreaming capable codecs out there (h264 + aac), streaming has become very capable for the everyman. If you're fine with presenting your screen in 360p (i think twtich/justin downconverts non-sponsored broadcasters to 360p), then this should be something to look into. Best of all, it costs you nothing and its very simple to set-up.