Do you have offices all over Australia? You know that communication can be difficult. Face to face meetings, although necessary for several purposes, involve travel, time off from work, and the expense of hotels and meals.

Most people find conference calls annoying and intrusive. No one can see each other, and chances are most participants spend at least some time distracted by other activities like checking emails, texting, or even playing games.

Video Solutions

Nowadays most people are used to communicating by telephone or email. As dependent as we have become on them, they have important limitations. Email, being entirely written communication, is incapable of conveying the nuances of spoken language. Talking on the telephone at least preserves the tone of voice, which conveys emotion and at other unspoken elements of communication. Video conferencing solves some of these problems. People can see each other. Making real eye contact is still impossible, but at least video allows such non-verbal cues as facial expression and posture. People are more likely to be attentive on a videoconference.

There can be many participants in a video conference involving multiple locations, or a few people can meet together in a working group. The ability for everyone to see the same documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and work on them in real time is especially helpful for small-group collaboration.

Although it is much less expensive than meeting face to face at a single location, video conferencing can be an expensive process. You will need to invest in equipment. Monitors, cameras, microphones, and speakers are obviously necessary. You also need some means to control the cameras. Desktop videoconferencing control systems rely on software. Higher-end systems used for professional and business applications have the controls as a part of the camera itself and allow users to control the camera remotely. No one needs to touch it. Finally, video conferencing requires a codec, which means a device to compress and decompress data to enhance delivery. It's analogous to a modem. It compresses and digitizes analogue video signals at one end, transmits them, and then decompresses the signals and turns them back to analogue to enable people to view it.

Questions to Ask

It is critically important for the executive and IT teams to have answers to some basic questions:

• * What do you want to accomplish with your videoconferencing equipment?

• * How much sophistication do you require to meet your goals? You get what you pay for, and cheap equipment will not satisfy. On the other hand, there is no sense in buying expensive equipment loaded with features you'll never need.

• * How many people will be using the system? And will the system support predicted growth?

• * Where will the users be located? It is possible to have video conferences within the same building. It is also, of course, possible to have video conferences with locations all over the country. You may need capability to use both.

• * What quality of video and audio will your users expect? If their needs vary, you will need to find ways to address their different needs.

• * Can you incorporate equipment or software that you already have?

• * Do you have enough infrastructure and bandwidth to support successful videoconferencing?

• * Do you have sufficient IT expertise in house, or will you have to outsource it?

More and more companies are adopting cloud-based video conferencing. With a cloud-based service provider such as Blue Jeans, you don't need to invest in your own video conferencing equipment. You also can do without the infrastructure and network required for large-scale traditional video conferences. This significant decrease in the amount of money to be invested in video conferencing makes it available to small and medium sized companies that otherwise could not afford it.

Cloud-based video conferencing also does away with the need for in-house IT expertise to manage the equipment and run the calls. It is all outsourced. Too often, organizations have not outlined all of the steps employees need to follow in order to participate in a video conference. Such neglect leads to error. A cloud-based service provider will insure that all calls are connected the same way, regardless if the call is point-to-point or involves multiple sites.

With traditional video conferencing, using systems made by different manufacturers make conferences prone to technical glitches that can ruin the experience. The way to make all of these different systems work together is called transcoding, a complex process that a cloud-based service provider will perform.

The rising use of mobile devices will drive the growth of cloud-based video conferencing. The market for those services could reach nearly $4 million (AUD) by the end of the decade. Analysts expect the Asia-Pacific region to be the fastest growing market for cloud-based video conferencing during that same period of time.

No matter what kind of video conferencing is best for you, it will improve communication within your organization.