Save on travel costs and reduce the ecological footprint of your company

Videoconferencing allows you not only to hear, but also see your correspondent. The combination of voice and video enables visual collaboration between two or more parties. Videoconferencing is the only technology that comes so close to a face-to-face experience.

As indicated by the term itself, videoconferencing is mainly used for conversations between more than two people (a conference). Different solutions are also available for individual use. Depending on your needs, you can choose the solution suits you best: for individual use or group use, to connect two or several locations, for portable equipment  or fully equipped rooms, etc.

Videoconferencing is not restricted to virtual meetings. It can be used to set up (virtual) press conferences, to give training courses or to disseminate audiovisual messages within or outside the company. These messages are usually recorded on video and later used for streaming or narrowcasting.

Advantages

The main tangible benefits of videoconferencing are cost and time savings. In addition, it is possible to calculate the reduction in CO2 emissions. These advantages are all related to the fact that people no longer need to travel to the meeting place.
Besides these quantifiable advantages, videoconferencing has other benefits which are more difficult to calculate. For instance, the impact of reduced travel on the work-life balance: this can have a positive impact on the image of the company, and attract new employees who are familiar with videoconferencing and have used it at home. The collaboration between virtual teams can also be impacted by the introduction of visual collaboration: communication is more effective when you can put a face to the name or voice.

How does it work ?

The basic technology used in videoconferencing consists of the digital compression of voice and video. A codec is used to perform this compression in real time. This codec is either built into the videoconferencing equipment or is stand alone. The packages created during this compression are sent via the digital network (ISDN or IP). In case only two locations are concerned in the communication, we speak of a point-to-point link. If more than two locations are connected, we speak of a multipoint link. In this case, a Multipoint Control Unit or bridge is needed to connect the different locations.

Telepresence

Imagine, you enter a meeting room and with a single click of a button you bring everybody into the same room as you. This is possible, thanks to Telepresence.
The main advantages of Telepresence are:

  • High audio and video quality: clear, echo-free sound and life-size images, as though the participants were in the same room as you. The audio and video signals are synchronized without a noticeable delay.
  • Ease of use: you can set up a connection with a single click. No user configuration is required.
  • High Reliability: telepresence systems deliver a consistent experience, time after time. The use of a higher bandwidth compared with videoconferencing provides greater stability and clarity during the communication.
  • Spatial arrangement: makes all the remote rooms look identical, creating the ultimate virtual face-to-face experience. Technical elements such as microphones are integrated into the décor so that they are not visible.