Tired of TSA (Transportation Security Administration) pat-downs? The expenditure of a plane ticket at present buys a year’s worth of virtual chats multiparty via a SaaS model.
For Information Technology (IT), the real business assurance of video communications has focused on enabling multiparty conferences. Multiparty conference (audio, web, video conferencing and telepresence) is a Hollywood Squares counterpart of the person-to-person call. However until recently, multiparty video bridges the gap were the domain of large enterprises and TV networks that could afford dedicated circuits, high-priced as well as conference rooms filled with expensive hardware.
Fortunately, democratizing result of technology has brought full-scale multiparty video conferencing into reach for any business that can swing the cost of a monthly software-as-a-service contribution. Thus, rather than looking into a separate webcam, consumers can take benefit of their tablets. Given today’s ubiquitous video-capable and high-speed Internet devices, it has been long taken for granted the capability to swiftly strike up a video call. While point-to-point video communications are ideal for allowing Grandma in Florida come across little Olivia’s first birthday, they are not so significant for business collaboration. For the past years, we’ve all been on webcasts, the very name of which connotes a TV-like experience of listener and talker.
Multiparty Conferencing Capability
LiveMeeting (now Microsoft Lync Online) and WebEx have multiparty conferences services that morphed into bidirectional video conferencing systems. They have been merged by services like Skype application that first added separate video calling and later on multiparty capability. Additional crowding the market is a slide of VoIP specialists such as Nefsis and 8×8 expanding into the video business.
Furthermore, aside from the gee-whiz aspect of having a crowd video conversation with far-flung associates, the exciting idea about these conference services is how reasonably priced they are, mostly when compared with renting a hotel conference room and catching a flight to hammer out things that might take a group only an hour or two of face-to-face time. And by inexpensive, I mean petty cash, expense-account cheap in many cases.
Conferencing Services
Conferencing services are usually grouped into a pair of pricing tiers. The ability to conference with eight people at a time cans be achieved for $10 to $20 per month per user. While, 15 to 25 simultaneous users typically run closer to $50 or $100 per month. The pricing models aren’t standardized, everyone may shop around. Some services, like 8×8, price per virtual room, meaning anyone in the organization can host, while others, like WebEx, price based on a meeting host. Most also allow slide and desktop sharing, archiving and meeting recording and either have an option or bundle in for conventional voice-only dial-in control access.
User interfaces also differ among telepresence services. Some are totally in the cloud, handling a browser-based application. However, others use proprietary thick consumers, and some like VuRoom, bolt onto LiveMeeting or Skype. Tablets stand for the next generation in video conferencing clients, and several apps, notably Fring, WebEx, VidyoMobile and Fuze, already provide multiparty conferencing on Android and iPad devices.
References:
http://www.conferencingnews.com/news/39516
http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx
