Video Teleconferencing: An Evolving Enterprise Necessity

On the commercial side, Vialog Corp., Andover , Mass., is one company that prides itself as the largest independent provider of teleconferencing services. It just announced its new Web conferencing portal, a one-stop shop for teleconferencing and Web conferencing (www.webconferencing.com) that allows users seamless access for remote meetings, presentations and group collaboration.After users connect to the Web site, they can set up an account that allows them to schedule audioconferences, videoconferences and Web presentations. Alongside the teleconferencing services, Vialog offers fax, e-mail and voicemail broadcasts for delivery of corporate communications, investor information and marketing messages.In the near future, the company plans to add features such as an e-commerce audioconferencing solution, which will serve as the basis for its Internet strategic partnering strategy. Corporate plans also call for allowing customers to manage account information, to have real-time control of meetings in progress and to synchronize their personal information managers, such as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Organizer, with its conferencing services. Finally, the company is looking to incorporate the next generation of Web presentation technology and other IP-based services into the meeting portal.According to Mimi Englander, assistant vice president of marketing, Vialog offers a bridging capability for users that need to interconnect at least three sites for a teleconference. Among the key questions that must be asked when setting up a VTC, for example, include whether or not the call will originate from Vialog (Operator Dial Out) or from the participating companies dialing into the Vialog bridge (Meet Me Mode).A second question covers an optional feature called Continuous Presence. This allows participants to see all the sites at once, much like the TV game show "Hollywood Squares," rather than seeing only the site currently talking. Finally, there is the question of the number of public rooms to be available for the VTC."The benefit of the WebConfer-encing.com site is that someone can schedule a teleconference anytime without having to interact with an individual," Englander said. From her standpoint, a company such as Vialog, with its bread-and-butter audio conferencing services, is a competitor to long-distance phone companies. And VTC is only one trend of many in this space."Some large multinationals are adopting VTC as a mainstream option, a cost-effective alternative to meeting. We even see its use for payroll processing by companies that have 50 locations worldwide," said Englander.Another growth area is what the company calls Web Presentation Sharing, where users need only an Internet connection and a separate telephone line. The service amounts to pushing a Microsoft PowerPoint-type presentation at an audience, for example, in a seminar. Not only does Vialog offer to package the presentation for the user, replete with audio and animation, it also has a polling feature that allows users to vote on an issue or select an answer to a question and get an automatic tabulation delivered in a pie chart format.Overall, Englander sized up the VTC situation in terms similar to Earon's: With its convenience, minor investment and absence of technical hassles, audioconferencing will continue to experience stable growth."One of the biggest trends is everything over the Internet; it is just a question of time and bandwidth," Englander said. "VTC will continue to grow, simply because of the increasing need to communicate that the globalization of e-commerce will demand."XXXSPLITXXX-Looking at the VTC scene from a purely practical point of view is "VTC Tips" (web2.airmail.net/plong/vctips.html) author Paul Long. His eminently useful personal points cover things such as lighting, locale, body movement and clothing color. In his day job, Long is a computer programmer in the video products division of Smith Micro Software Inc., Austin, Texas. He has a telecommunications and language-tools background. He is developing videoconferencing products for Smith Micro.Asked whether people need to be seen to communicate effectively, Long said in interpersonal communication, there is a correlation between credibility and vulnerability."To make our message more credible, we must simultaneously make ourselves more vulnerable," he said. "Yet all forms have their uses. One is not better [emphasis] than another. Consider these progressive forms, which range from the highly suspect, anonymous rumor to the credible, in-person visit which, however, makes all parties physically vulnerable to each other: rumor, e-mail, letter, telephone, videophone, in-person visit."His point is that VTC is not intended to replace telephone calls or in-person visits. It is simply a new form of communication that fills a gap in the continuum. Compared to a telephone call, one is more vulnerable by exposing one's image to the other party. However, the message is more credible because visual cues are present, such as smirking or leaning into the camera. Compared to a personal visit, one has the safety (also the savings) of not being physically present, yet the credibility of providing added visual cues.While some may see increased bandwidth as the answer to greater VTC acceptance, Long is quick to note two key problems: delays imposed by routers and packet loss. In fact, increased bandwidth actually may make those problems worse for VTC users."A different issue is the existence of firewalls. That is not a performance question, but whether VTC works at all for use with vendors and partners," he said.With all the attention paid to VTC, however, the killer app for teleconferencing right now, as most observers agree, is voice over IP. The goal, as Long said, is for the enterprise to put everything over the same network and offer more sophisticated services to employees."VTC is, to some degree, a novelty. Interesting, but still delays and at times choppy. It needs a well-managed network," Long said. "Still, it is a new technology, and it will take a while for things to shake out."According to Long, stand-alone, conference-room systems will continue to dominate the high-end, corporate market, and "we'll see a variety of vertical-market solutions, and handheld and palm-sized wireless VTC clients will start showing up."But the big news is that desktop, PC-based, consumer VTC will become service-oriented rather than product-oriented, he said. Desktop VTC will go the way of e-mail, calendars and fax: They will become increasingly Web-based.There are already a couple of voice-only services and one video-and-voice service like this. The World Wide Web will be the dominant delivery method for VTC technology, Long said.