Over the past couple of years, organizations worldwide have started to invest
considerably in video conferencing. One of the large video conferencing
providers claims that it has been approximately adding over 800 new customers
every quarter globally while experiencing a 45 percent increase in the first
half of '09 as compared to that of '08. Main reasons behind this phenomenal
growth still remain the same i.e. cost cutting, going green, etc. Apart from
growth, another good thing happening with video conferencing is that vendors are
constantly innovating. Almost every vendor wants to provide the total solution
to meet demands of enterprises -be it desktop video conferencing, web
conferencing, collaboration or even industry specific solutions such as for
healthcare. This in turn creates a confusion for enterprises to decide as to
which solution to buy. Read on to find out what all you need to consider before
buying a video conferencing solution.
Things to consider
Choosing the right video conferencing solution can be difficult. So, before
you even start speaking to a vendor, you need to clearly define your needs and
goals. This would help you determine whether you require a total solution or a
desktop video conferencing solution or even a web conferencing system. You need
to be clear on whether you have ample bandwidth available or you would need to
invest on it. Also you need to determine, the maximum number of sites you would
require to connect to a conference, whether you would be communicating with your
clients, partners etc. outside your firewall. If yes, then you need to figure
out the sensitivity of information going out and also the kind of encryption you
would need. Equally important is finding out how much of content sharing would
be required over VC -whether you will be sharing spreadsheets, files, etc, over
video conferencing. Last, not the least, will you train your employees to make
best use of the solution? Do you need to record video conferences for later use?
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There are various strategies for deploying a video conferencing solution. A
common one is to deploy a mix of solutions, such as TelePresence, for top
management who need to take business critical decisions quickly. For middle
management, you can go for a Web-based video conferencing, where a small lag
won't cause much of an issue. Recently we have seen an implementation wherein an
enterprise has decided to go for desktop video conferencing for the entire
management, top and middle, so that everyone can make calls as and when needed,
doing away with the trouble to see if the room is available for a particular day
and time. Since that was a geographically dispersed company, with its employees
regularly needing to collaborate with those at the other location, the solution
worked very well .
When deciding upon a video conferencing solution, it's important to see how
well it integrates with your existing solutions. Before you zero down on a
single solution, try some for a while. This would give you a chance to see the
features as well as other aspects in action right in your environment. Support
is another crucial part to heed to. If your company is new to video
conferencing, than ask the vendor if they provide any sort of trainings and if
you would need to shell out extra for that.
Video Conferencing via USB
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High-def video conferencing
When going for a high definition video conferencing, you would need to look
at things like display/monitor size, type of display -plasma, LCD or a rear
projection. You would also need to consider the resolution of the display. Here
again the size of the display will depend upon the size of the conference room
and maximum number of people who can be present for a video conferencing. In
case of high definition video conferencing, you also need to figure out how many
displays would be required by your business. Most of the vendors support up to
two displays. This gives users advantage of showing full screen video or data on
both the displays.