First Connections

Video conferencing overview - What is Videoconferencing?

Video conferencing is a powerful multimedia tool that improves communication and increases your organization's productivity. Along with e-mail, instant messaging, Web conferencing, and other collaboration technologies, video fits into the communications strategy of any organization looking to improve its competitive positioning and the quality of life of its employees.
But video also offers the experience of a face-to-face meeting in ways that other technologies cannot. Face-to-face communication is easier to understand, builds higher trust, and enables quicker decisions. Video conferencing provides a cost-effective way to capture these benefits without requiring you to attend every meeting in person.

What is videoconferencing?

Businesses cannot continue in the same way as we did last year and the year before, if we do we will loose share to our competitors.

Many companies have used technology to:

Improve Productivity
Reduce Costs
Reduce Time to Market
Enhance Competitive Advantage

Videoconferencing is now ripe for companies to use – it has overcome a huge amount of negatives and NOW is the time to see how videoconferencing has evolved.
Have a look at the video opposite.

As well as the tried and tested benefits and Return-On-Investment given above videoconferencing has many other benefits:

Accelerate Decision Making
Unify Organisations
Improve work/life balance
Help reduce Carbon Emissions
Enable effective access to knowledge

"Most videoconferencing installations we have installed have a payback period of well under a year and in some cases with the first meeting"

Adrian Lowe, First Connections, Commercial Director

For a more detailed list of Benefits and ROI calculations click here.

If you still think an audio conference call is good enough please look at the next clip.
This is natural communications and its here today.

So what could the technology look like in the very near future:

“So why not contact us and see how we can help you exploit this technology and gain competitive advantage as well as cost savings?”

Keith Gyford First Connections, Managing Director

Phone our team on 0800 096 6396

A view of what videoconferencing can deliver today (courtesy of Tandberg).
All you have seen is possible today: No one said it was simple! But WE can do it. Total Solution

Videoconferencing Technology Today:

“Videoconferencing is now as good as it ever needs to be”

Belinda Blundell First Connections, Finance Director

Videoconferencing has often left people feeling a bit flat!

Historically:

Poor Video – even the best VC systems only did ¼ of the TV resolution (CIF) you were used to at home!
Poor Audio – telephone quality or typically 2 x telephone quality.
Poor Ease of Use – intimidating awkward technology as user friendly as a cornered rattle snake.
Poor Reliability – too many failed meetings, unreliable connections, blue screen!
High Cost – not necessarily on cost of purchase but high usage and support costs.

We have had multiple senior managers say “ I want to see the whites of their eyes” and frankly videoconferencing often failed to deliver this, not necessarily from a failing of the videoconferencing system itself but more often because of: the network, poor installation and the lack of documentation, training and support.

Today:

Excellent Video – most manufacturers have launched HD products that deliver High Definition (Full HD is 1080p, HD Ready is HD 720p) that is ahead of most people expectation – many of us (thanks to the football world cup in 2006) invested in HD Ready TVs but few invested in upgrading Sky to HD (still only HD Ready 720p) or even buying HD capable DVD players and disks (Bluray Full HD 1080p).
Excellent Audio – now the audio on a VC call is Stereo at 20KHz or upwards! What does that mean “it’s as good as your iPod!” and more than most of us can hear.
Ease of Use – yes the user interface is better, but serious users worry about The Meeting Experience and this is improved by management systems (software, help desks etc) or using central booking systems to establish the call and ensure successful meetings.
Poor Reliability and High Costs – in the past videoconferencing has been run over ISDN which has been unreliable, costly and difficult to manage and grow. “ISDN has been the biggest inhibitor to the growth of videoconferencing.” The move to IP resolves all these issues. Evan home broadband delivers higher speeds that we were used to on high quality business system provided on ISDN (384Kbps).