THE MODERN DAY GUIDE TO VIDEO CONFERENCING How to get the absolute best from your Video Conferencing installation and company deployment.
WHY DO YOU NEED THIS GUIDE? Surely a Technology that is so compelling, so easy to use, so intuitive and so obvious should not require a guide such as this to advise and convince that deploying it is the best business decision you can make this year? But Video Conferencing used to be the opposite of the above the technology was unconvincing, it was difficult to use, extensive training needed to be given and although there was an obvious need to reduce travel costs and increase productivity Video Conferencing did not represent the best decision you could make..by far. But now IT JUST WORKS! So, now the technology works and it is very easy to use (as easy as a mobile phone) then what we need to go through are the fundamentals to get the absolute best from your installation and company deployment.
DISCOVER THE BENEFITS Well yes, it still needs justification and there are many reasons to deploy Video Conferencing: IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY The words on everyone s lips right now is productivity. Your employees have more productive time, so can do more business. Key people and key information become more accessible, enabling best use of resources. BETTER COLLABORATION Your people can meet more often and share knowledge easily, improving internal communications and facilitating collaborative working environments. Dare I say it, TEAM performance improves! INCREASED COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE No matter what business you are in, the success of it is driven largely by the quality and speed of your decision-making. Video Conferencing enables faster decision-making, greater consensus and quicker action. New products can be brought to market quicker. Crisis management becomes faster and more effective. MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE EMERGING WORKFORCE The next generation of workers are technically savvy, they expect the best communication technology as a matter of course. Most of this new generation already use video on a daily basis outside of the workplace. IMPROVED RELATIONSHIPS We know there is nothing like meeting face to face on those really important occasions. Video is a good alternative between meetings, much better than building relationships over the phone or on email. It is as close to face to face as you can get without the cost of actually being there. COST SAVINGS While meeting on Video you are not spending so much money on travel, accommodation and entertainment costs. The Business Case Productivity Collaboration Competitive Advantage Cost Savings Environmental Responsibility Work-Life Balance REDUCED CARBON FOOTPRINT Looking at travel reduction is a vital part of an organisation s environmentally responsibility. Video Conferencing reduces the need for travel, therefore reducing your CO2 emissions whilst also improving profitability. IMPROVED WORK-LIFE BALANCE With Video Conferencing your people will be less stressed, spend more time contributing to the success of the business and less time twiddling their thumbs in airports, train stations and traffic jams. From their perspective the work/life balance is more in equilibrium.
TRUTHS NOT MYTHS IT S EXPENSIVE! Compared to what? Recent surveys suggest UK companies spend over 510k per annum on travel. It is calculated that a 6 person meeting costs UK companies 394.80, once salary, cost of travel and time out of the office is taken into account. A StarLeaf Video Conferencing meeting from AuDeo could cost just 31.92 with no downtime from travelling. WE HAVE NO DEMAND FOR IT! That s what we said about mobile phones in the early 80s and now there are more mobile phones than people..video Conferencing, when implemented correctly becomes a very demanded technology, especially personal. Satisfy the Ease of Use demand and people will return to use it time and time again. IT S NOT AS GOOD AS A FACE TO FACE MEETING That s right it isn t. But when you can t meet quickly enough or cheaply enough we immediately turn to the phone. This is already starting to be said for Video Conferencing. From a technology and cost perspective, there is no reason why Video Conferencing cannot satisfy more than half of the face to face meetings we have today. WE VE TRIED IT BEFORE IT DOESN T WORK That used to be right it isn t anymore. This compelling technology works really well, just like your mobile phone in fact. So it is now easy to use, easy to deploy, low cost and very scalable. So all employees can use it. I WILL NEED LOTS OF INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT IT Again, not anymore. This technology, like many other services we have today, is cloud based. No more servers, IT support contracts, upgrades, large internet bandwidth demands and high costs of support. It is all in the cloud where everything is looked after and shared amongst ALL users of the technology. Just like your phones, your satellite TV, your movies and your music.
THE BASICS WHAT IS IT? Video Conferencing is a real time connection between people in different locations geographically. It is a phone call that has BOTH audio AND video communications. There are two types of calls: Point to point or person to person. This is obvious. Multipoint or conference call this involves 3 or more participants to replicate a multi person meeting in a meeting room or board room. Today, all that is required is just a conference licence in the cloud which can either be scheduled (planned in advance) or ad-hoc (available on demand). Like phone calls the most common is the point to point and today s technology allows many of these calls to take place without always having to enter meeting spaces or book rooms. WHAT EQUIPMENT DO I NEED? It can be a simple ipad or other tablet device or PC/MAC with web cam and speakers OR for meeting rooms, dedicated hardware device with camera, microphone and TV. In AuDeo s experience, a few smaller meeting rooms fitted with good quality devices is more productive than just a single, fully fitted out and potentially expensive large boardroom. HOW DO I CONNECT? If you can get an internet connection, you can Video Conference. It can be that simple. Of course many companies restrict this ability or have proxy servers, but these are not unsurmountable issues. Today s Video Conferencing devices would like 1.5Mb of bandwidth to provide HD video, but can operate on much lower if needed. CAN I SHOW DOCUMENTS LIKE I DO IN A MEETING? Of course you can. Screen sharing or document sharing is part and parcel of any business quality Video Conferencing system and it is easy to do.
VIDEO CONFERENCING ROOMS You wouldn t dream of holding a meeting in a broom cupboard or outside in the street. We fundamentally know that meetings require an environment in order for them to be successful. Above everything the equipment must be good quality, easy to use (even by novices). However, there are other very important issues that are worth considering..the advice here is to give the equipment the easiest job to do that you can. We understand that meeting rooms are multifunctional so are a compromise when it comes to video but the following may help in planning meeting rooms that will include Video Conferencing equipment. WHICH ROOM? In many businesses, the Boardroom or Conference Room is the main focus for large meetings. Although this is true and these rooms may need Video Conferencing, it is often the nonexecutive staff that use Video Conferencing on a daily basis and smaller rooms may be a better choice in some circumstances. If budget allows, a smaller Video Conference room in addition to a Boardroom is preferred and found to be very practical. It is often easier to book a small room for a Video Conference meeting with 3 participants than to book the Boardroom for the same. SOUND By this I mean microphones, speakers and environment. It is impractical for all participants to have a vocal mic to use, it is also cumbersome and unnatural. That said, the closer microphones can be to the face the better, so fit as many as is practical or cost effective. Remember, you can easily have a discussion without Video, but in most cases no meeting takes place without audio. In small or medium sized rooms, speakers from the TV may suffice, but larger rooms may require equipment to spread the sound more evenly. Of course special care needs to be taken over echo or feedback problems. In most cases, the obvious is obvious. Hard walls and floors, lack of soft furnishings and glass everywhere will create a very reverberant room. Try hard to avoid these hard surfaces by installing, acoustic ceiling tiles or carpet (rather than flooring), wooden tables rather than glass and especially avoid designed ceilings that create echo chambers. Acoustic treatment is always worth a consideration. The installation of a few low cost Acoustic Panels will reduce echo and reverberation, thus giving the electronics less work to do as well as making the experience better for the far end of any video conference call. AuDeo works with a number of vendors products that do this and we are always happy to discuss Acoustic issues at any time.
LIGHTING We all know that good lighting improves our photographs; that light sources must be behind the camera not in front and that the presence of too much white light can potentially create a silhouette effect. Apply all this knowledge to your meeting room. Even light is best, which can often be difficult in a room with windows, so try blinds but vertical versus horizontal. The objective is to avoid small slithers of light bleeding via the edges of windows. DÉCOR Often forgotten about, but the colour scheme of a room can have a massive effect on the quality of a video conference call. Too much white walls or neutral colour schemes creates a lack of contrast and the picture can appear washed out. Try and add some contrasting colour to the room such as a light blue, for instance. This works particularly well when used on the wall facing the camera. With no blue pigment in skin, this is an ideal colour contrast for people. A corner plant adds a great contrast to blue and skin colour as well as creating a 3d effect to the viewer. Subtlety should be the watchword here, however. In general, keeping things uncluttered will create the best picture. Tables are often very personal and much is spent on table design. At AuDeo we respect this and suggest only ideas that make the meetings work better. In a Video Conference, participants need to be seen. So circular tables are difficult as are wide tables and long ones. In smaller rooms tables with a trapezoidal shape work particularly well. Access to power, data networking and other cabling can often be a nightmare, so much care needs to be applied here. There are many solutions to this problem and AuDeo can advise further in more detail, if required. Your Room Sound Lighting Décor Furniture Screens OTHER EQUIPMENT Screens LCD Screen or projector, what size & how many? The answers vary depending on the room size and the application. There is, however, some science behind screen size choice. Most screens are measured on their diagonal viewing area e.g. 55, 65 etc. So, Screen size x 5 = Furthest viewing distance recommended. Screen size x 2.5 = Optimum viewing distance Presentation Room Booking This is not a hard & fast law as some applications that are detailed in nature such as CAD or Spreadsheets require you to be closer to the screen. If this is a dominant use of the room, then larger is better. Presenting or connecting devices There are many modern tools to achieve this. Wireless projectors, wireless gateways and hard wired connections are all great additions to the room that make meetings work better. Room booking Always worth a consideration. Again there is a plethora of choices at varying costs. The key with any solution is how it handles the room being cancelled, let go or unoccupied. Often rooms are booked fully for weeks into the future but rarely are they occupied fully on the same basis.
ABOUT AUDEO AuDeo is a highly respected specialist company, dedicated to meeting rooms and making meetings work well. Focused on Video conferencing, AuDeo partners with StarLeaf, a British company of high quality, business level Cloud based Video Conferencing systems and services. The experience AuDeo has gained by spending 20 years in this business is available to all AuDeo s clients through its highly skilled and long-serving team of engineers and account managers. AuDeo s aim is to become your trusted advisor where Video Conferencing and Meeting Rooms are concerned. Over the years there are many happy clients and customers of AuDeo across the whole industry spectrum.