AN ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO VIDEO COLLABORATION

Transcription

1 AN ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO VIDEO COLLABORATION 1300 VIDEOPRO BUSINESS.VIDEOPRO.COM.AU

2 AN ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO VIDEO COLLABORATION Video conferencing is quickly becoming one of the most important tools in the Unified Communications tool belt. It allows for real-time communication and collaboration through high quality video and audio for individuals and groups. There are many organisational and personal benefits to using video conferencing, which include: Increased productivity across dispersed workforce & teams. Reduced travel and the wasted, unproductive time when travelling. A lower carbon foot print, supporting a green environment. The freedom to interview candidates remotely. Increased attendance - the ability to have more stakeholders participate than may have otherwise been physically possible in a single location. Faster decision making and response times by preventing meeting delays. Access to experts. Faster and better customer service. Delivery of new services. Traditional video conferencing generally encompassed an end point (hardware video unit) in a room environment talking to another end point in another room. This model of conferencing, whilst still very active today; has now grown to include a plethora of desktop and mobile software conferencing tools, smaller and more cost effective room based video systems, web browsers, and video telephony VIDEOPRO BUSINESS.VIDEOPRO.COM.AU

3 AN ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO VIDEO COLLABORATION Video conferencing is no longer a technology only available to executives and specific meeting room environments. It is being distributed to the masses in organisations - primarily through soft clients on PC s, mobile devices and video telephony. The soft clients include products such as Microsoft Lync, Skype, Skype for Business and Cisco Jabber. Whilst these clients are driving a greater adoption, many of them still fail to work seamlessly with one another, or with the hardware-based endpoints from vendors such as Cisco, Polycom and Lifesize. Furthermore, a number of these clients won t allow communication outside of your immediate network unless the networks are federated. Whilst, in theory more users now have a form of low cost, widely deployed video conferencing; there exists a widening gap between these various technologies, in turn preventing true mass adoption and proper utilisation. Staff are becoming increasingly frustrated and confused as to which tool they should use and when. In many cases, they are working outside of the organisation's selected conferencing choice, which is known as shadow IT. In order to drive mass adoption of video conferencing and collaboration amongst all staff, the technology within your organisation needs to seamlessly interoperate with all of the major platforms. Staff must be able to simply and securely enter and exit your network to communicate with your customers, suppliers and partners with a minimum of fuss and stress around the technology choice. You need the ability to meet people in a Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) or call them directly, irrespective of the other person s platform or device - exactly as you would your telephone. You don t ask somebody if they have an iphone when you call them on an Android, you just expect it to work. Video Conferencing should be no different. When you are planning your enterprise video conferencing strategy you should consider these three key components: the individual user, the environment and the cloud VIDEOPRO BUSINESS.VIDEOPRO.COM.AU 2

4 AN ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO VIDEO COLLABORATION THE INDIVIDUAL USER The key focus here is to ensure ease of use for an individual user coming into a video call or conference; from anywhere, at anytime, on anything. They need the ability to join or initiate a conference / call on whatever device or hardware platform they choose to use - even if that is a web browser. Google Chrome and Internet Explorer have become windows to the virtual world. Everyone can use these browsers and with the invention of Web RTC technology, a very powerful video conferencing interface has been created. An individual expects to be mobile. If they are on the move or away from their laptop or video conferencing device, they need to be able to participate in meetings using their mobile phone. A user needs to be able to connect, irrespective of geographical location. Pros & Cons of Computers in Video Conferencing When desktop video conferencing through a soft client or directly through a web browser, it is important to understand the pros and cons. Most modern computers have great webcams, however, the microphone quality is still average. The user will have a far better experience if they are able to use a standalone headset. This also helps in open environments or agile workspaces allowing the call to remain private and to not disturb others in the immediate vicinity. Using a headset also reduces potential for audio echo - a loop back through the laptop causing feedback to those on the conference call or to you. Finally, the user expects a good experience first time and every time. Failure to achieve this will result in a lack of confidence in the technology and will stifle video conferencing adoption. Complex dial in processes, call dropouts and video lag will drive users away. These are also considerations for your cloud strategy, which is elaborated on further in this guide VIDEOPRO BUSINESS.VIDEOPRO.COM.AU

5 AN ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO VIDEO COLLABORATION THE ENVIRONMENT The environment is an element that traditional audio-visual integration companies have considered for the last 25 years. It is the culmination of great audio and video in a room, allowing seamless group and multiple individual collaboration sessions at the same time. When looking at a conferencing environment, consider the following key components: Video: Screens, Placement & Resolution The screens in a room environment need to be high resolution and positioned close enough to the user that they feel as though the other party is part of the room. LED and LCD screens are always preferable over projectors as quality video needs light, and projectors by nature cannot deal with competing light without washing out the image. The camera needs to be central to the screen (or screens) to best simulate looking at one another. Audio Audio selection and design is probably the most important aspect of video conferencing. Speakers should primarily create audio from the screen. Wall mounted speakers are best to ensure that the experience feels natural to the participants. Microphones are key to a successful video conference. In any sized room, microphones should be strategically placed to allow coverage of all participants. Sometimes a single microphone in the centre of the room will not provide optimum coverage, making it difficult for those in other locations to hear what is being said. Microphones should also be of high enough quality to provide an accurate and enjoyable experience. There are many options available; from buttons in the ceiling, popups in the table, hanging from the ceiling to the traditional desktop conferencing variety. It is important these microphones are kept away from air conditioning systems and any other intrusive environmental noises. Larger conferencing rooms also require microphones to pass through a DSP or digital signal processor to allow for audio echo cancellation and to best clean up environmental white noises. Room Poor lighting can lead to grainy or low resolution images. The background of a video conference needs to be a solid colour with simple design. Complex imagery can lead to a greater drain on resources and use up more bandwidth. Air conditioning levels need to be monitored to reduce white noise. Table and chair placements need to ensure that the conference feels natural and all participants are included in the meeting. Control and Connectivity The user should be able to connect their device or laptop with ease. Camera, volume and dialling controls need to be readily available and simple to use VIDEOPRO BUSINESS.VIDEOPRO.COM.AU 4

6 AN ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO VIDEO COLLABORATION THE CLOUD The Cloud has many benefits now widely known and understood by the IT community. This includes; scalability, flexibility, resource utilisation and instant provisioning and consumption as a service - dramatically reducing up-front capital expenditure. Video is a very resource-heavy technology to transport. This is why it has traditionally lived in the land of proprietary hardware, cables and protocols to encode and decode the signals. Cloud technologies continue to improve and their performance has reached a level whereby it has become a viable solution to use the cloud as an infrastructure; allowing users to consume the technology when and where they need it. Public Cloud The public cloud is most likely the easiest, lowest up-front cost option. There is little to no internal infrastructure required except the bandwidth necessary to access the cloud. While there are benefits to using a public cloud service, there are also a number of points you need to consider. When using a public cloud, the most important consideration for many companies is security. Where is your data being stored? The other consideration is video consumption. What costs will be involved in getting in and out of calls? VIDEOPRO BUSINESS.VIDEOPRO.COM.AU Private Cloud Private primarily means your LAN / WAN network. Using your private cloud allows you to customise the conferencing requirements to your organisations needs. This could include welcome messages, branding, reusing existing dial or call patterns (example Dial 5555 internally to connect to the conferencing solution) and integration to Active Directory. A private cloud also enables you to reuse existing data centre capabilities, monitoring tools and WAN connections. A private cloud will provide you administrator access to the services, allowing you full control and support. Hybrid Cloud A hybrid cloud can provision the best of both worlds. This outcome is best for organisations that utilise a large amount of video conferencing both internally and externally. A hybrid cloud can provide greater redundancy as well as a great way to keep costs down on internal calls happening across your network. It allows you to maintain the private cloud benefits, and burst into the public cloud for external capabilities and additional capacity.

7 AN ENTERPRISE GUIDE TO VIDEO COLLABORATION ABOUT THE AUTHORS STEVE NEVILLE Steve is the Australian Country Manager for Pexip. A company proudly designing and building powerful software that enables people to meet simply. He has been in the conferencing industry for 18 years having held various management positions with organisations such as Polycom, Tandberg and Cisco. CAMERON DOUGLAS Cameron is an Executive Director of Videopro, Australia s leading collaborative technologies company. Starting in 2006 in an internal sales capacity, he worked in the education and corporate arms of the business before eventually taking a board position in With a Bachelor of Business and Executive MBA from Queensland University of Technology, Cameron approaches technology like strategy, with organisational improvement the ultimate goal VIDEOPRO BUSINESS.VIDEOPRO.COM.AU 6

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