During a January visit to his company's New York office, a sales rep from Los Angeles finds out his biggest account back home is considering jumping ship after a botched delivery. A snowstorm has closed the airports so he can't get back to L.A. So he sets up a videoconference from the branch office and reassures his client, face-to-face.
That's videoconferencing at its best. The bandwidth available on the Internet and improved video technology make videoconferencing an attractive reality for business use. But too many roadblocks and difficulties--such as ensuring bandwidth, delivering a clear picture and getting all the participants together--still hamper the process.
There are three modes of videoconferencing: over the enterprise LAN or WAN, over a service provider's dedicated network and across the Internet. This workshop focuses primarily on Internet-based videoconferencing. While enterprise LAN/WAN and service provider networks usually offer more bandwidth and quality-of-service (QoS) control, the quality of the connection over the Internet is unpredictable. Beyond the edge of your own network, there's no QoS control and, on a good day, you're likely to get only an average of 16 frames per second for a one-on-one meeting, about half the frame rate of television.
Many users envision videoconferencing over the Internet as CUSeeMe, circa 1995--the low quality and low frame rates, the blurry headshots and the choppy audio. Today's computers, however, are fast enough to handle full-motion video capture. With enough bandwidth, there's no reason a PC or a videoconferencing appliance can't deliver a high-quality session.
Question Everything
Before you decide to run a videoconference, though, ask why. In other words, what's the benefit of the videoconference? In the case of the salesperson stranded across the country from his client, the benefit is a no-brainer: He gets to reassure his customer and maintain business ties from afar. But the benefits may not always be so straightforward. Consider whether users participating in the videoconference session will gain any added information, or whether the video feed will make the meeting or presentation experience better.
You should also address questions about the requirements for the conference. Do you need full-motion video or will still frames work? Is video even necessary? Interestingly, there's been a recent movement in the industry to take the video out of videoconferencing, because some remote presentations work just fine without full-motion video. So consider whether you can get away with sharing a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or running a Webex session instead of a videoconference.
Several devices on the market, such as Electronics for Imaging's eBeam system, let you share whiteboard drawings, facilitating distance-learning seminars, for instance. These devices require less bandwidth, which minimizes QoS concerns. Plus, they can withstand high latency on the Internet.
Make sure you have a backup plan for the videoconference. It's Murphy's law applied to business meetings: The more vital the meeting, the more likely something will go wrong. Just in case, reserve a conference-call bridge for the meeting. If the Internet is suffering from congestion somewhere upstream, your conference may suffer from choppy video and audio. A few dropped hand gestures may be OK in some speeches and presentations, but broken or mangled sentences can ruin all presentations. Telephone backup may be better than no meeting at all.
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