In the past, gathering for meetings was always a hassle. In the beginning, many people had to travel from different offices or locations to convene in one central area to hold the meeting — which drastically increased the cost for the company.
As technology became available, meetings started to become a little easier and traditional “conference calls” became the norm. A conference-call-culture meant people didn’t need to travel as much, but those that were together may have to huddle around a speakerphone instead, or call-in on separate devices. Although this saved money on travel expenses, the effectiveness of traditional conferencing may have only been as good as the quality of the audio.
Fast forward to the today’s technology — audio and video conferencing. Nowadays, people don’t even need to necessarily leave their office to have a quality, personal meeting. A modern setup may employ a software conferencing codec (like GoToMeeting, BlueJean, Zoom) to act as the modern-day version of an analog phone-line.
Facetime and Skype were the beginning of video conferencing and were used to talk to family and friends, but now these video applications are frequently used within a business setting. More and more people in today’s business climate are ditching the phones for laptops and USB microphones. If you aren’t on-board yet, you would be shocked at the quality and simplicity of a conferencing setup.
World’s first public video telephone service by Georg Schubert. Berlin, 1936.
The conference call later evolved in two directions. On one side, web conferencing focused on enhancing a multiway audio conference call with a shared presentation feature. This gave everyone on the call access to the same spreadsheet or slides and helped create the illusion that everyone was in the same room viewing the same material.
The other side of enhancements came by way of video conferencing. Video technology focused more on the human connection of collaboration and gave everyone a voice and a face at the table. Where web conference calls shone for a few presenters speaking to a large group, video conference calls targeted smaller groups where everyone could participate more effectively.
As the evolution continued, we started to see the best aspects of web conferencing merge with the best aspects of video conferencing. Screen sharing was built into video services. The telepresence megarooms started to die out as network speeds improved and businesses realized they could get more value by adding more agile video systems to every meeting space.
Personal connections like laptops with built-in webcams and mobile devices joined the meeting, and the introduction of cloud video conferencing made it easy to deploy a powerful collaboration solution without needing to dedicate an IT resource to manage onsite equipment.
Top benefits of using video conferencing for your business
Here are the top advantages to video conferencing and the ways modern businesses are using new communication tools to transform the way they communicate.
- Enable the Digital Workforce
Video meetings helps teams maintain human connections, irrespective of the physical locations, which speeds up physical decisions making and improve your ability to collaborate globally.
- Simplify Management and Usability
By developing a consolidated online meeting solutions with simple UI that is centrally managed, teams can focus on their meetings instead of being burdened with troubleshooting every meeting.
- Saves Money
By giving teams a simple way to meet face-to-face, video conferencing delivers a collaborative, “in-person” experience without the expense of travel. Not only that but with the power to meet virtually, you can hire the best talent and allow them to work anywhere.
- Enable live Events
Whether you want to connect with your entire team, your complete client roster or the public, video conferencing tools can help. With the power to share your message visually, these tools give you the ability to host panel discussions, webinars, product launches and more for audiences in your office or around the world.
- Increase Communication Reliability
Video Conferencing provides a fast and secure way to communicate with your teams. As video continues to evolve into a business-critical function, it’s important to prioritize enterprise-class service reliability and support reliability in your solution.
- Improve Values and Reduce Redundancy
Companies are upgrading their legacy audio or web conferencing providers and finding more value in full video conferencing solutions that include audio conferencing, screen sharing, chat, meeting recording and event live streaming. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of maintenance and licensing for multiple vendors just adds unnecessary costs and complexity for the end users of the solution.
- Helps build relationships
When you meet face-to-face, you can make a personal connection, pick up on verbal and non-verbal cues and begin to build trust. And while there may be critical connections that you’ll need to travel for, video conferencing can help bridge the gap for all other meetings, while still helping you connect on a personal level.
From managing remote teams to closing business deals overseas, video conferencing has become a critical need for businesses of all sizes and functions. This means that successful firms and agencies will need to provide their clients and employees a suitable solution for high-quality video conferencing, which is the pinnacle of remote work and communications.
No longer do companies have to subject their clients or employees to subpar interactions. With HD video streaming and clear, noise-reducing audio, the best video conferencing tech can transform your business operations by bringing an in-person experience to your digital meetings.
What Kind of Video Conferencing is needed?
- Displays: Laptop, Desktop, Monitor, Television Screen
- Microphones and Cameras: Build in microphone and webcams, USB microphones and webcams
- Speakers: Build-in computer speaker, external speakers, VoIP (Voice over IP) Conferencing Phone.
- Internet Connections: WIFI, Ethernet
- Video Conferencing Software: Video Conferencing tools and apps.
Types of Video Conferencing Systems
Depending on your needs, there are different types of video conferencing systems you can choose from.
- Telepresence Video Conferencing System: Multiple screens or monitors are used to make everyone feel like they’re joining the meeting in person.
- Desktop Video Conferencing System: All the video conferencing hardware and software is built-in to a computer or laptop.
- Room-Based Video Conferencing: The video conferencing technology is built-in to the room itself.
Top Users of Video Conferencing Technology
- Team Meetings
- Webinars
- Product Demos
- One-on-One Training and Support
- Job Interviews
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