Vendors push new, improved video conferencing solutions
IF FACE-TO-FACE meetings are vital to winning the trust of clients and business partners, and building strong collaborative relationships with colleagues, video conferencing solutions may well be worth considering in light of recent technological advances.
Video conferencing has for a long time been associated with grainy, stuttering, bandwidth-hogging images streamed over strained data networks. But technology vendors pushing new and improved video conferencing solutions are encouraging users to reconsider what video communication has to offer with the latest technologies built in.
The big selling point in the new crop of teleconferencing solutions is high-definition video. New video conferencing products sport large 1,080 pixel plasma panels capable of displaying life-sized images captured using 1,080 pixel video cameras.
With 1,080 lines of vertical resolution, high-definition video has 50 per cent greater resolution than standard DVD video, providing an unprecedented level of detail.
The dramatic improvement in picture quality adds to an immersive experience, vendors say. Users can see the whites of the eyes of people at a virtual meeting, observe body language and spot microscopic bits of lint on a jacket.
'Audio conference calls and older video conferencing solutions do not capture the visual cues that make up 64 per cent of the communication dynamic between people,' said Charleston Sin Chiu-shun, Cisco general manager for Hong Kong and Macau. The higher definition pictures means enterprises can use video conferencing more flexibly. With the ability to zoom in and see the individual fibres on a piece of fabric, high-definition video conferencing would allow trading companies to market clothes or fabrics to buyers worldwide.
At a recent conference of neurosurgeons in Britain, new techniques in dealing with brain tumours were demonstrated in a live brain operation shown on screen using a high-definition teleconferencing solution supplied by Questmark.
Cisco commissioned an online survey this year that supported a strong business case for enterprises to invest in high-definition video conferencing solutions, such as its TelePresence Meeting product.
In its survey of 239 'technical and business decision makers in medium to large organisations', Cisco found that improved employee collaboration was one of the top benefits survey respondents expected to reap from high-definition teleconferencing.
The survey found that 78 per cent of US respondents and 69 per cent of British respondents expected to achieve improved relationships and faster decision-making between their headquarters and branch or remote offices if they had high-definition video communications at their disposal.
Cisco noted in the report that improving collaboration among employees was a 'pressing priority' in many companies and high-definition video conferencing could play its part.
What may prove the deal-maker for enterprises considering the latest generation of video conferencing solutions is the potential cost savings to be gained from reduced travel and associated expenses, including accommodation and living expenses.
'Because of its ability to create a real sense of an in-person, face-to-face meeting,' Mr Sin said, 'organisations can reap considerable benefits from reduced travel costs and better relationships among employees, customers and partners.'
