Video Conferencing into the office

Posted by Karen on Mar 8, 2010 12:00:00 AM

Communication has always been a key tool for businesses, so with the invention of the internet and email the way in which the business world worked changed dramatically. Suddenly anywhere on the globe both individuals and organisations could connect with others with speed and ease. Although this development brought everyone closer together this could never replace the true value gained in face-to-face relationships. This is shown by the importance many companies place on meeting their colleagues and clients – even if this means travelling across the world to do so. Understanding this, communications developed even further to overcome the obstacle of a ‘faceless’ technology and created the concept of video conferencing. At first understanding the technology available organisations and settled with lower quality images to try and recover the personal approach. Now however with reliable internet connections being more readily available Video Conferencing is now a welcome asset to each industry. Cisco has recently expanded this idea further by announcing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the development of video conferencing packages for the home. This development will allow consumers to run the service through HD enabled devices, initially aimed to connect families and with plans to be utilised for video meetings between homebound patients and healthcare professionals, these affordable packages could see a new wave of communication. What does this mean for the business market? With video conferencing no longer being far off dream for each company workers will now have an added level approachability, enabling work life to be ever more flexible around changing lifestyles and home needs. Companies will be able to save money and increase productivity by allowing meetings and presentations to take place irrespective of weather or geography. Of course for home users, much like with Skype, there will be some tolerance of questionable quality, but for companies using VC in this manner, home connections will need to be more robust. Low contention and low jitter rate are always essential to lines that underpin time critical applications and we believe if this phenomenon does take off in the UK, that Fluidata will be very well placed to assist.

Topics: News