Digital Video Conferencing

Digital Video conferencing is probably the latest innovation in the business applications that digital video has enjoyed. Picture the usual scene during a conference call: the sales team is all present and accounted for, the sales manager is pitching the new product or the latest deal, and the client is listening intently on the other end of the speaker phone. There is little if any interaction between the parties, as everyone is crowded around a speaker phone, and nobody dares to even drop a pencil for fear of disturbing the people who are doing the talking and the listening. This process can be somewhat maddening, especially if you are a visual kind of person.

Secondly, it is a bit of an odd way of doing business, because after all, you cannot see the body language of the other participants, nor will you be able to take advantage of the elaborate slide presentations that they taught you about in business school and which surely must be part and parcel of any well thought-out business presentation. For this reason, many large companies have been extremely hesitant to do business over the telephone, and so much money was spent on business trips, transportation, accommodations, and various other incidentals for the sales managers and other employees instrumental to representing the company to others.

Since the advent of video conferencing, many companies have been able to save substantial amounts of money n their travel budget simply by employing the digital video technology that now makes it possible for people in two different locations to meet up in the relative comforts of their conference rooms, and still interact almost face to face.

The usual setup involves a webcam - one on each side of the transaction - as well as a computer setup that allows for instant file transfer. Conferencing programs are also part and parcel of this new technology, and some companies have even gone into business by renting out fully equipped digital video conferencing rooms to other companies who either lack the facilities, the hardware, software, or technical know-how to make the connection happen.

The webcams record the movements of the participants. As such, they contribute to the "real life" feel of the meeting. Instant messaging and instant chat permit the individual members to exchange data online while the conference is going on. File sharing enables the transmission of PowerPoint presentations, which comes in especially handy when much of your presentation rests on visual data that needs to be observed while conferencing, simply to follow along the flow of information.

Savvy video conference attendees know how to combine the technologies of instant messaging, flash animation, and also digital video to present a professional image, share their information in the most basic yet complete manner possible, and still project an accessibility to the other participants that is rivaled only by those companies that still fly out their teams to the locations of other businesses in order to do close that deal. Of course, with today's air travel problems and delays, such trips may sometimes spell missed meetings, late starts, and lost luggage and laptops, and for this reason, more and more businesses are looking to digital video conferencing.