Videoconference Options

Those who haven’t used videoconferencing for a while may be in for an eye-opener when sampling the technology today. Rather than the choppy delivery, jittery audio, or stamp-sized computer images that characterized many earlier systems, today’s high-definition videoconferencing applications, beamed over ever-expanding bandwidth connections, create the feeling of an in-person meeting. Users now expect the same video and audio quality they get from the flat-screen HD televisions and surround-sound in their living rooms.

A combination of improved quality, advances in networking, and falling bandwidth costs—along with shrinking travel budgets—have more organizations using videoconferencing as an everyday communications tool. Today, it’s common to find front-line employees videoconferencing from cubicles and executives appearing on life-sized screens in boardrooms that are oceans away.

Life-sized Demand

There are two main types of videoconferencing systems: group and personal systems. Group systems rely on high-quality, remote-controlled, pan-tilt-zoom cameras, omnidirectional microphones, flat-panel screens, and projectors to offer the highest-quality video experience. Advances in video compression technology, such as the H.264 standard, have paved the way for TV-quality and high-definition video in room-based systems.

“High-definition videoconferencing has been around for a while, but the difference now is the price has been falling, which makes the technology more affordable and accessible to more companies,” says David Woolley, president of Minneapolis-based Thinkofit, an online conferencing consulting company.

Personal or “one-to-one” videoconferencing systems deliver video images over the office desktop, transmitting video via Internet protocol (IP) networks with use of PC-based Webcams and software. The migration of video from traditional circuit-switched ISDN transmission, which sends video over phone lines, to IP networks has meant lower costs and other benefits. As the costs of bandwidth have fallen and compression technologies improved, it’s allowed for easier sharing of video images, PowerPoint presentations, documents, and the like across corporate networks.

As a result, organizations are finding new applications for videoconferencing. City fire departments now use the technology to train firefighters in multiple firehouses so they don’t have to travel to a central location—and risk being gone should an alarm sound. Patients unable to visit remote clinics or too sick to travel can use the technology to consult with their doctors from the comfort of their homes. Home-based workers can videoconference with bosses or co-workers during the day.