* New ways to use desktop video
YouTube has convinced young people computers are visual devices. But proponents of videoconferencing have been saying the same thing for years. They even went so far as to promise the technology would eliminate air travel? We’re not there yet, but services are improving.
Visual meetings through computers have been a dream for two decades. Now technology exists to make it appear that people that are hundreds or thousands of miles away are actually at the table with you. Unfortunately, that level of service still requires custom installations that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We know video adds a depth and immediacy not found in e-mail or even instant messaging. Many business owners and managers certainly believe their visage adds impact, whether it does or not. But humans learn from birth to focus on faces, and while a talking head may be a cliché for TV, it adds impact to sales meetings and training videos.
Inexpensive cameras ($30 to $100) provide amazing images today when tied to modern computers. Of course, you can get laptops with built-in cameras, like Apple’s iSight iCamera which let iCustomers transmit their iFaces across the iNet. Every major IM service supports video links, but those aren’t ready for business use.
Enter two players with interesting and inexpensive approaches to desktop video: AccuConference and RadVision. The first offers desktop video as an upgrade to audio conferencing, and the second pushes their video technology down to desktops from boardroom systems.
Ft. Worth Texas based AccuConference started providing audio conference service back in 1989. It can handle hundreds of concurrent voice connections, and nearly two dozen Web cam concurrent connections. Starting as a hosted telephone service, AccuConference understands how to provide the horsepower necessary to support a conference on its equipment to keep the load off the attendee’s phone and data links. Therein lies much of its advantage over IM and Skype-based video services.
“We can support 20 people’s faces on the video conference screen at one time,” says David Byrd, director of operations and plant manager for AccuConference. “Or we can send the presenter’s camera feed, along with a PowerPoint presentation or the like, out to 40 or so people.”
The AccuConference meeting I had with Byrd was simple to set up and it took me only a few minutes to feel comfortable looking at the camera and Byrd. The company feels like it gets higher quality audio using a telephone link rather than sending voice over the same data connection as the video. It also recommends a headset rather than using a Webcam’s microphone, although that does work. While every service seems to recommend Logitech cameras because they have a wide range of affordable options, I used a Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 with no problems. The screen technology requires ActiveX, but it does work with Firefox 2.0 as well as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers.
Byrd doesn’t claim his desktop video will put airlines and hotels out of business. “This doesn’t replace business travel, but enhances meetings. You can put names to faces in preparation for a face to face. It’s great for lectures, where you put the presenter on camera and let viewers watch them and see their presentations. And we can record the audio and video so people can tune in and watch later.”
Pricing for video meetings starts at 25 cents per minute per video participant. Audio prices start at 9.9 cents per minute per user, which includes the toll-free dial-in number for participants.
BCS Global Networks resells RadVision’s desktop videoconferencing Click To Meet services as a less expensive option to its corporate videoconferencing products. By leveraging the company’s hosting and video expertise, BCS can put a desktop video attendee inside an expensive boardroom videoconference.
“We create virtual rooms,” says Stu Gold, vice president of Global Marketing for BCS. “We can tie desktop users into corporate video systems, or create conferences for just desktop and laptop users.”
BCS offers a variety of products, up to and including plasma monitors with dedicated video links between offices. Prices for all types of equipment and data services are dropping, making it easier for smaller companies to benefit from videoconferencing. Want to train your franchisees without traveling? Meet with remote sales people and demonstrate new products? These types of options are now affordable.
Unlike AccuConference, BCS uses a per-user, per-month pricing structure to encourage more video meetings. Prices start between $100 and $150 per user per month.
Those who travel regularly will likely fall for one strong sales pitch: making video calls home to say goodnight to their children. It may even impress the kids: look, daddy’s on TV.
Now daddy can be on TV, or at least a computer screen, for less money than ever before.
