Video conferencing systems, which enable teams to work more efficiently through collaboration, are widely used in sectors such as education, corporate, and government. In addition to the usual conference calls, business partners can see each other’s body language during the conversation, as well as provide a more powerful connection, and many video conferencing systems provide a variety of possibilities to increase productivity, such as file and screen sharing.
Video conferencing systems, which are now used for businesses of all sizes, are gradually becoming a popular method of business communication, replacing voice conferencing systems, as they both reduce travel costs and save time for employees.
The most important advantage of video connections in job interviews is to strengthen non-verbal expressions and strengthen the communication of the participants based on their facial expressions, body language, and gaze and enable them to work more efficiently and effectively. The average attention span is 23 minutes for normal phone calls. The average attention span increases to 35 minutes for video conference calls due to more sensory stimulation through seeing instead of just hearing. To get the most out of these benefits, companies need to choose the most suitable video conferencing system for them.
In order to choose the right conference system, businesses need to ask the right questions. How many people will participate in your meetings? Do you need a video conferencing system solution that can integrate with your existing system or device(s)? Do you benefit from access to computers and mobile devices? When deciding on your video conferencing system you need to consider all these questions and more to ensure you get a video conferencing system that fits your needs. Not every company has the same needs, nor does every video conferencing system work exactly the same.
But you don’t have to worry! We’ve compiled some details and video conferencing solutions for you to choose the most appropriate system for your needs;
1) Reliability and Quality
Having a system that works is the most important part. If a video conferencing system doesn’t fulfill your needs as an organization, it is in essence, useless. Whether it be a cheap system that you can’t rely on working from day to day or even meeting to meeting, has poor audio and/or video quality, has trouble maintaining connection during calls when there is no issue with internet or signal, or simply can’t handle your video conferencing needs for any reason whatsoever, why even have it? Your organization will opt to either not use it or use it begrudgingly. Buy a quality video conferencing system that is reliable and you will see positive results.
2) Security
This is an easy one to overlook. Security is one of the most important factors in technological products and systems. With everyone’s privacy under constant threat from hackers worldwide, this unsung hero will pay unrecognized dividends to your company. Encryption is the process of preventing data from being read by people and other computers and preventing the original content from being accessed. In the IT world, encryption is to convert data from a readable format into an encoded format that can only be read or processed after it is decrypted. When it comes to videoconferencing systems, it is a good idea to have both your software and hardware components carry standards such as AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), TLS or SRTP.
3) Number of Participants and Estimated Time of Use
Before deciding on your video conferencing system, you need to know the demands of your users, your team and your customers. Buying a product that does not fully meet your needs may result in higher additional purchase costs in the future, but can also result in productivity losses.
To choose the right equipment, first discover how meetings are handled, how long it takes, and how many people attend each session. Then search for a system after determining what video conferencing capabilities are needed. For example, with some services it is possible to get anywhere from a few up to dozens of people to call simultaneously, and in others, you pay a license fee per the number of participants.
4) Ease of Use
When choosing a video conferencing system, you need to make sure that you have easy-to-use system. Otherwise, you may have to start your conversation before some participants are involved due to the time it takes for some users to get the system running. Choose an intuitive system with a user-friendly interface to ensure your keep the focus on business, not the video conferencing system. The aesthetics of the software are more important than you’d think for ease of use, because if it looks cluttered and even worse, boring, anyone who isn’t savvy with AV technology will not figure it out without help.
5) Mobile Accessibility
Before deciding on your video conferencing system, you should consider whether your meetings are planned or spontaneous. This is because video conferencing provides users with the opportunity to connect remotely to meetings, such as business trips or spontaneous meetings. With BYOD, bring your own device, becoming more and more prevalent, having mobile accessibility as a feature allows conferences to be connected from mobile devices (Android and iOS), laptops (with Mac, Windows and Linux), and WebRTC from anywhere in the world via the internet.
6) Screen and Content Sharing
A great way to make your conferences more interactive is to keep participants connected to your presentation with screen sharing. Screen sharing is a feature that allows you to show what’s on the screen of your own device onto a larger screen for everyone in a meeting to see. You can also share documents with the capabilities of some video conferencing platforms that allow multiple users to work on the same screen simultaneously. Two popular options for for screen sharing and content sharing in smaller rooms are the Barco Clickshare and the Mersive Solstice. The Barco Clickshare is a plug-and-play option that simply requires a USB port and the click of a button to connect where the Mersive Solstice is a great wireless option for those without USB ports or who would rather collaborate without additional hardware that is visible.
7) Record and Archive
You may need to save the points of your meetings that are important and you will want to remember them later. The video or audio recording feature allows you to record and replay the locations you want to highlight in conferences in the cloud or locally. For those who are not good at taking notes, archiving past meetings will be very efficient.
8) Cost
In some businesses, video conferencing systems are not adopted as a regular means of communication, because the video is often perceived as a costly solution. However, this view changes especially as young generations join the labor force. Cloud-based communication systems are also very useful and are becoming more and more popular as they reduce the administrative burden and the cost of IT infrastructure. When deciding on your system, consider not only the system cost, but also the terminal, support, expansion, and maintenance costs. Sometimes they are cheap to buy but very expensive to use.
Another important cost consideration is the amount of time spent during conference call time windows that is wasted due to the video conferencing system not working properly. Time does cost money in any professional setting. If you decide to buy a system that is not easy and intuitive to use, you lose time. Say your company uses a video conferencing system that takes 10 minutes to set up on average. If your typical meeting consists of 10 people in the room waiting 10 minutes being paid an average of $20 per hour, after just 3 meetings, your company has lost $100 of productivity trying to connect to calls. After 30 calls, you’ve likely wasted $1000. Now consider if audio quality is bad and only 75% of the words are crystal clear without cutting out, ambient noise, feedback, etc. This now means that in and hour long meeting, 15 minutes need to be either repeated or are missed. In a meeting with 10 people missing 15 minutes of audio clarity at and average wage of $20 per hour is a $50 loss per meeting. What are your yearly costs on your video conferencing system not performing properly and can you justify spending more?
While most video conferencing systems perform better than this, consider time wasted as a factor when considering savings on a cheaper solution. If you have a double whammy of long set up times and poor audio or video quality, you should highly consider crunching the numbers. You’ll be surprised what your yearly loss may be. Many video conferencing softwares can record these numbers for you.
Hopefully some of these video conferencing tips were helpful!
To explore all the advantages of video conferencing and get detailed information, you can check out our video conferencing solutions in our project portfolio. There are many great video conferencing options that are priced competitively for huddle rooms, so don’t worry if you feel like finding a good option for your company’s needs will be daunting and cost a fortune. The CCS Presentation Systems New England team is always happy to help! If you want to talk to a rep today, visit our website on the contact us page.
