video web conferencing – internet audio video meetings

Vinodh Pushparaj asked:




Online collaboration has begun to evolve from just being the Wow factor to something core that every business has to invest and have a plan for. Internet has changed the way we work and live, it has made virtual offices and work from homes possible. Web conferencing is one big tool that increases the productivity of the employees and the company as such. There are multiple products in this web collaboration segment out there from companies starting with Cisco, Microsoft to PresentPlus.com. These online conferencing products enable live meetings to happen in a virtual conference room. This is a Sci-Fi dream just a few decades ago, now it is a reality in high resolution video beamed across continents. The advent of high speed Internet and fantastic QoS (Quality of Service) implementations in the backbone networks has enabled these highly productive multimedia conferences. Typical conferences has always included a dull one way non-interactive lecture style over the phone meetings, remember Charlie’s Angels. Now it has evolved into something highly feature rich and highly productive.

Web conferences “NOW” enable online sharing of your presentation material and additional documentation that is needed for the meeting. Additionally it provides the collaboration aspects like shared white boards and live synchronized presentations. The other main core components are the audio, video and text collaboration. The traditional PBX audio has been replaced with the reach VOIP audio features and video has evolved from dull one ways to active speaker- grid solutions. Video has evolved so well that now you can have custom views for each person in the conference, each person can choose the endpoints or cameras they want to watch in addition to the capabilities like automatically getting the video from the active speaker in the conference. One of the much used features is the integrated text chats with emoticons. What a fantastic feature this is, along with the public chat modules the users get to have their own private chats. While you are in the online meeting you can chat with your co-worker on specific questions and get something cleared without interrupting the overall meeting. This is one thing that is uniquely possible in online conferences which is really an annoyance in real face to face meetings. How many times have you really wanted the mute button for the private conversation between 2 guys in a group meeting in parallel to the main speaker? This text capability has found really some interesting and useful twists like real time polling and online question submissions. Think about it, you can keep sending the questions you want to be answered in the final Q/A as and when it strikes you. These are typically added to a queue which can feed as the source for the Q/A session that typically follows the preso or meeting. This is very useful in lecture style meetings. Enough said about the features and let’s take a quick look at the business side of things.

Web conferencing products allow the businesses to setup virtual global office ready to meet with business prospects and clients at any time anywhere. When I say anywhere I mean contact any one through these online collaboration products having a rich experience like the face to face meeting without the costly Flight and Hotel expenses. These also present a great opportunity to telecommute without distancing yourself from your colleagues. More so often it happens that folks who telecommute are forgotten by most colleagues, these video and other real time capabilities gets these telecommuters closer to the rest of the team. One of the killer uses is webcasting which is organizing live events and broadcasting these events to employees and customers who are not able to attend the event. This is added with the capability to record these meetings with unlimited playbacks. Without much investment in terms of capital equipment you can get them as online services on a need basis from some of the good companies. One such company with many web conferencing offerings is presented to you below.

Floyd

Tom Cruz asked:




When you are ready to use video conferencing in your business, you need to find a reliable video conferencing company. It is much simpler and easier for everyone if you choose a company to host the software for you and provide web login to your employees. That way, the conference can be accessed from any computer, anywhere in the world as long as the proper log in information is supplied.

When you search for a video conferencing company, you will come across a wide range of options and prices. Remember that cheaper is not always better. You want a company that has a strong track record for uptime and that will present your company in the best light. You do not want to use a free option that will shove ads in the faces of your attendees.

On the other hand, there is no need to overpay by going with a video conferencing company that provides features and services that you will not ever use. You must carefully balance the company’s reliability against the price and services offered.

Many of these conferencing companies offer free trials which is a great way to take the system for a test drive to determine if it is a good fit for you. In fact, it is a good idea to test out a few choices to get a feel for what the various options are.

Some of the best video conferencing companies for businesses are Cisco, WebEx, and Adobe. All three of these are well respected brands that offer a variety of features that would be suitable for businesses of any size.

Cisco offers a high-end service for corporations, media, and educational uses. With the proper equipment, participants appear life-size and life-like. Although high tech, it is simple enough to use that no tech department is needed. Their video conferencing solution can be integrated with collaboration software making this one of the top picks among high level corporations.

Adobe offers conferencing along with collaboration. Their service won an Editor’s Choice award from PC Magazine because of all of the useful features it provides in one package. You are able to provide live video conferencing along with real time collaboration that allows you to easily set up meetings and virtual classrooms. Adobe offers a thirty day free trial so you can test the system to see if it is right for your company.

WebEx is a conferencing company suitable for small businesses and individuals. It is priced under $50 per month yet gives you many features. It does limit you to 25 participants at a time, but the meetings can be recorded and viewed by others later. It allows for up to six-way live video conferencing as well as document sharing and collaboration. Their service can be accessed from any computer or 3-G mobile device.

As you can see there is a video conferencing company suitable for all levels of business owners from million dollar corporations to mom and pop operations. The three above are popular choices but there are many others available to choose from. Video conferencing is a boon to all businesses today no matter if it is used to make sales, train employees, or allow for collaboration. Thankfully it is affordable and easy to use as well.

Melinda

Dan Richmond asked:




If you want to make money in an online business, then you need to find a product or service that is fresh, up-to-date and that hasn’t been beaten to death with hundreds of copy-cat affiliates. Web and video conferencing are relatively new applications, and becoming a reseller of online conferencing services could be a good way to start up or add to an already existing online business. Let’s take a look at the prospects for this type of online enterprise.

First of all, web and video conferencing is an up-and-coming field of activity. Business is becoming increasingly globalized and many companies now have staff or clients located in distant locations, sometimes in other countries or on other continents. Online meetings are being used by some of the leading enterprises, but there are many more organizations that have not even begun to take advantage of web or video conferencing.

This is a huge market waiting to be tapped, and with the increasing penetration of broadband use both in the workplace and at home, the market grows larger with each passing month.

Just as there are relatively few companies using web and video conferencing, there are comparatively few resellers or affiliate sellers of these services to compete with. If you would like to get into this business then you should do an online search for web conferencing resellers or affiliates, and choose a program that you can effectively handle.

Typically, affiliate programs for these kinds of services are easy to enter. In many cases all you have to do is sign up and get an affiliate code or url and paste it onto your website and you are in business. However, if you want to be an effective affiliate for web and video conferencing, or for that matter, any other product or service, the best way to sell it is by using it yourself and really knowing what it is all about. Only then can you truly recommend the product in a convincing way.

A step above an affiliate is to become a reseller. Usually this requires a comprehensive training in the web and video conferencing system and there may also be an entry fee attached to becoming a reseller. Whereas affiliates simply refer potential clients to the conferencing service, Resellers are responsible for signing up the clients themselves. The advantage though, is that a reseller is likely to get a higher percentage of the signup and monthly subscription fees paid to the conferencing service by his or her referred clients.

If you are successful as a reseller then you will earn a residual income for as long as the people signed-up by you subscribe to the conferencing service.

Whether you decide to become an affiliate or a reseller, the key to cashing in on the coming boom in online conferencing is to study the market, know the product thoroughly and then place it before your web visitors or mailing list audience in a compelling and convincing manner. Another key factor to success is to make a timely move, a product or service that is “new” today will be commonplace tomorrow.

Kimberly

Old Man from Scene 24 asked:


Airport moving walkways
Microbooks
Videophones/video conferencing
Wrist phones/televisions
Self-service kiosks for financial transactions
Home computers
Robotics
Repetitive motion injuries from pushing buttons
Massage chairs

just to name a few….

Phyllis

Carlos Montenegro asked:




When companies have to buy something, it has to be approved by management. With the cost of air travel going up, it is only right to justify the use of video conferencing since it is more affordable to do so in the long term.

How do you justify that? Most companies use numbers as their basis in making a decision so if you look at the expense report and notice that a huge chunk is spent on traveling, they will realize that they can cut cost here and use the money saved somewhere else.

But doesn’t video conferencing equipment cost a lot of money and isn’t the system very complex? For a time but this has changed. This is because vendors no longer use ISDN lines and they have now shifted to IP networks. This is the same system used by the Internet thus making it easy to integrate with other systems.

For those who are concerned about how much it costs, the price of video conferencing equipment has gone down through the years making it more affordable for businesses.

A decade ago, a video conferencing system costs $75,000 or even more. Nowadays, you can find one for less than $10,000. Other accessories like a webcam will cost you less than thousand.

As a result, it is no wonder that a consumer report has shown that there was a 22% increase in sales of the equipment in 2006 versus 2005. So although you may need a lot so this can be installed in each office, in the long term it doesn’t because you already have the system in place which is not affected by the price of oil in the world market.

Another way to justify the need for this technology is to do a study by interviewing those who have gone on business trips in the past and ask how well it went. Previous reports have shown that traveling takes a toll on your body due to fatigue and stress. By the time they get to where they are going, their mind is not focused with what needs to be done thus decreasing their productivity.

You can also argue the other benefits of video conferencing like the ability to increase the sales and product development cycles, improve the quality of communications, better delivery of training and coaching to the other offices as well an improvement in the quality of the work after a staff meeting.

There have also been other improvements both in audio and video quality so you get to communicate with the other party in real time. But the best part about such systems is that they are user friendly since most of the systems currently available are menu driven so you don’t need to study a manual inside out and no special expertise is needed.

When management has approved your request, it is time to go out shopping for the right system. Ideally, you should get one that has an audio and video channel but the latest is the kind that allows multi-media communications. This allows the user to send and receive data in a dual stream IP environment.

Do I need to say more to help you justify the need for video conferencing systems? Maybe not so do your research and use the system to your potential.

Jane

Dan Richmond asked:




Web and video conferencing technology is becoming more sophisticated with each passing day. A few years ago it was a novelty just to talk with someone online, and view his or her image at the same time. Today web conferences bring together entire companies in complex interaction that rivals live face-to-face meetings. How you might benefit from the latest developments in web conferencing depends on your particular needs. Here are a few points that you should consider.

1. Do you need to make a Powerpoint or other presentation during your conference?

If you answered “yes” to this question, then you will be glad to know that current web and video conferencing services allow the host of a conference to present a slide show or power point demonstration that will be visible on the screens of all the participants of a conference. Similarly, hosts can also open and show other document formats to their attendees. If you need this kind of capability, make sure that your conference provider can give this to you.

2. Do you require telephone conferencing integrated with your web/video conference?

Many organizations have found telephone conferencing to be an effective way to get work done. If you are already connecting with your members and staff via telephone conferences you can expand on this by choosing a web conferencing system that integrates telephone conferencing along with the online conference. The combined service will give you the ease of phone conferencing along with the enhanced visual and presentation features of online conferencing.

Some services allow the host to pay the long distance bill of all the participants (toll free conferencing), while others require each participant to cover their long distance fees.

3. Do all of your conference participants use the same type of computer?

If your participants are going to be using a variety of computers (PC, Mac, Linux) then you will benefit most by choosing a web conferencing system that works on any platform. While earlier conferencing systems required the downloading of complex software that would work only on specified operating systems, newer conferencing formats are delivered online and are browser based. They work on any operating system and if yours in an eclectic audience, then you will get best results with this type of conferencing.

4. Will it be necessary for one of your technicians to “take-over” and operate the computers of any of your participants?

If you wish to use conferencing as a service tool and want to avoid having to send out your service team on physical visits to clients, you can save a lot of travel time and cost by selecting a web and video conferencing system that allows the host of the conference to go online and actually take control of the computer of the client or conference participant. If you are looking at web conferencing as an after-sales service tool, then this particular feature will probably give you one of the most important benefits that you could wish for.

5. Do you want to conduct an online poll or survey during the conference?

If you have a large organization and want to make a quick and accurate poll of opinion or vote on a particular issue then the new polling capabilities of the most advanced web conferencing services will be an important feature for you.

Similarly, if you need to gather demographic information about your meeting participants, obtain valuable input, or quiz and test your participants, then the new online survey capabilities of current web conferencing systems will be an important feature to look for when choosing your conference format. Data from these types of online “surveys” can typically be saved and used for future use.

6. Do you want to brainstorm online, using a “whiteboard”?

Brainstorming is a great way to tap the ideas of a group and to come up with and select new ideas. If this is what you like to do when holding physical meetings, then you will probably want to be able to do the same thing in your virtual meetings as well. This is now possible in some of the more advanced web conferencing systems by using a “group notepad” that enables meeting participants to utilize a shared workspace. The results of these brainstorming sessions can typically be saved in a storage area.

Which of these features will benefit you the most? It all depends on your particular needs. However, one thing is sure: once you experience the convenience of online meetings, you will not want to go back to the era when every meeting required you to pack up your bags and get on an airplane.

Samantha

Michael Lemm asked:




For a small business trying to decide on a network solution which will be required to support video conferencing …. the journey can be aggravating.

Basically ….. Give me an open check and I will spend every dime on bandwidth pipes. Give me a fixed budget and I will squeeze every dime of bandwidth with compression techniques and accept the quality trade off.

Therein lies the dilemma ….. bandwidth vs quality.

So this is really not a question of bandwidth, but QoS (Quality of Service).

If you’re willing to accept some risk in QoS to keep your budget under control…..there are options open to you.

With the bandwidth, you would scale to the number of users using the video/multimedia streaming network. About 384kbps per active connection per direction is the scaling for basic video conferencing(320×240). For 640×480 double it, and for 1080i HD 3-7Mbps for each feed.

LAN – Local Area Network, the one you buy and build

WAN – The one you lease and pay for, DSL etc

DSL – Digital Subscriber Line, 3-7Mbps

VPN – Virtual Private Networking, key technology for your solution

For your LAN network topology you want Ethernet at each video conferencing location. This is standard for most all LANs. Your WAN or Wide Area Network connection is the one that needs speculation. Just 10 years ago your choice would have been either a few T-1’s at 1.5Mbps each, T-3 at 45Mbps, or Fibre for near limitless bandwidth depending on the above calculated bandwidth need.

Today’s internet backbone is much more developed and can handle VPN over cable/DSL very well. VPN is creating a virtual software driven dedicated connection over a broadband connection like DSL.

Many (Linksys) network routers come with VPN capabilities. This should be the first solution attempt because it is exponentially cheaper than any other way. All you would require is a VPN router (Linksys $100) and 3-7Mbps DSL/Cable at each video feed location. Don’t forget to get static IP’s for each DSL location so you can make your VPN a permanent structure of the internet.

That’s the basics. If you need help finding a DSL or cable provider in your area that won’t steal your wallet …. visit us at Broadband Nation.

Stacy

James Hunter asked:




With videoconferencing people can interact as if they were talking face to face with both images and sound relayed in real time. This article is designed to guide you through the various options to arrive at the system type best suited to your purpose.

There are various types of videoconferencing; which is suitable for your application will depend upon the IT structure available and what it is that you actually want to achieve.
Video conferencing has in the past been relatively expensive, but prices are coming down and it is possible for anyone with a fast enough internet connection to operate a video conference.

Systems are available for hire, lease or sale.

Systems may be installed at all or any of the following: – on the desktop PC a dedicated videoconference suite mobile – for use when and where the need arises.

Each has various advantages and limitations which may be critical to your purpose.

Paradoxically it is far more critical that audio connections are maintained than the video. You may loose a video signal or it may be intermittent but the conference will still proceed – if you lose audio, nothing can be achieved (unless both parties are versed in sign language!)

Video speed for equipment is often shown as frames per second abbreviated as FPS.

In the UK video from most sources runs under the PAL standard which 25 frames per second – e.g. domestic VHS players. In the USA the system is NTSC which runs at 30 frames per second. Videoconference equipment commonly is specified as 15 fps or 30 fps. In layman’s terms – 15 fps will be jerky, it shows every other frame, 30 fps is full motion video.

The higher the frame rate the greater the data load, so the faster the connection required.

A minimum requirement for full motion video and audio between two points is 768 Kbps.

This made up of:- an encoding rate of 384 Kbps (typically used) is selected. This is broken down into two parts – 64Kbps is for the audio 320 Kbps is for the video.
The resulting 384 Kbps stream is compressed and sent (from you – the source) to the remote point (the destination). Similarly a 384 Kbps stream is received from the remote point to you. Thus twice 384 Kbps in bandwidth is required.

If there is a lot of motion in the video, very little compression is achieved. If there is little or no motion in the video, the savings can approach 50%. It would, however, be foolish to design a system which relied on the participants being forced to remain static.

There are two types of video conferencing, each has sub-types. Point to point – a live video / audio communication between any two locations. Multipoint – links between a three or more locations

Point to Point (P2P)

Point to point – a live video and audio communication link between any two locations.

P2P – Application

Where the need is to communicate between two points only at any one time: – Two offices of the same company Yourself and a business partner company, e.g. Yourselves and a major supplier Senior management/ teams from two divisions – e.g. research and manufacture.

P2P – Use

Virtual meetings on a one to one basis Project workgroup co-ordination of effort, live adjustment of data, drawings, documents or prototypes Virtual board meeting between two groups of people in specific locations – say 5 in one and 4 in another

P2P – Limitations

Bandwidth required increases in proportion to the amount of data being exchanged. Audit trail of actions taken by whom with a timeline sequence often required. Extra equipment is necessary to show physical objects, using a visulaiser for say engineering parts

Point-to-Point Videoconferencing

Consider two videoconference terminals (vct) that are connected to the Internet.

The vct and its associated peripherals allow the user to make a call to another client, send the local audio/video stream to the remote client, and hear/view the received audio/video stream on a local speaker/monitor that is connected to the vct.
Assume one user (the local user) uses a vct to call a user at a remote vct by entering the IP address of the remote vct. The clients setup a call between the stations following the specifications of the H.323 protocol. Once the call is setup, the clients exchange audio/video streams over the Internet. The point-to-point videoconference continues until one of the users “hangs up” the call.

IP numbers are difficult to remember; some users have dynamically assigned (DHCP) IP numbers that can change every time they boot their system and problems in using IP addressing when different vendor systems are used.

The Gatekeeper

To alleviate the problem of IP dialing, the H.323 standard defines the use of a gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper is a system that connects to the Internet just like the client terminals. The IP address of the gatekeeper is configured into the client terminals and when the clients “power up”, they communicate with the gatekeeper and transfer certain information to the gatekeeper that describes the vct.

When the clients register with the gatekeeper, they pass their IP numbers, H.323 alias, and H.323 extension to the gatekeeper where it is stored. This allows a local user to dial a remote user by entering the remote users H.323 extension in effect their video telephone number.

The local vct communicates the H.323 extension to the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper then checks to see if the remote client is registered with the gatekeeper, then sets up the call between the two clients.

Once the call has been setup, the audio/video streams flow directly between the clients over the Internet.

Multipoint

Live video and audio links between a three or more locations.
To handle this situation, the H.323 standard introduces the concept of a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU). The MCU can be thought of as a “video bridge”. The MCU connects to the Internet and registers with the gatekeeper.

A MCU, depending on its design capacity, can handle a certain number of simultaneous videoconferences each with each videoconference being logically separate from the others and with each having a specified number of users.

When users want to join a particular videoconferencing session, they dial the service number/password combination. The gatekeeper checks to see if that service has been registered by a MCU. The gatekeeper completes the call by connecting the client to the specified videoconference on the MCU.

Once the call has been connected, the client’s audio/video stream is then sent over the Internet from the client to the MCU. Similarly, other clients connect to the session and send their audio/video streams to the MCU. The MCU selects one of the audio/video streams on the videoconference and returns that audio/video stream to all of the clients (that is all except the client whose stream was selected).

There are several methods for selecting an audio/video stream. Audio switching and chairman control are two alternatives. Typically, the method that is chosen is audio switching where the MCU selects the stream that currently has active audio (someone is talking or is talking the loudest).

As the user(s) at one site stop talking and the user(s) at another site start to talk, they capture the MCU. The process is repeated with the video from the newly selected site now being sent to all the other sites.

Streaming

To participate in a H.323 videoconference, users must have appropriate videoconferencing client terminals and have Internet connectivity with sufficient bandwidth to support the videoconference.

Some users may not have these capabilities but would still like to be able to participate even if that meant that they could only see and hear conference participants but not be able to interact with them. (Watch and Listen)

Users can receive the stream using a browser on a computer. They enter the URL of the server, and the server starts the encoded audio/video stream over the Internet to the computer.
Plug-Ins for the browser exist that are capable of decoding both RealVideo and Windows media streams. The user can thus see and hear the participants in the streamed videoconference in near real-time.

Alternatively, a user can connect to the server at a latter date and view the archived version of the videoconference.

Fernando

Charles Cheow asked:




Today, many businesses are adopting the use of video conferencing because it brings many benefits to the organization. With video conferencing, businesses can save time and money. Also, it increases the efficiency of the employees too.

One aspect of video conferencing that appeals to many businesses is the ease of installation. Anyone who has a computer and a webcam can enjoy this technology. You just need to install a software into your computer and plug in your webcam to start conferencing. You do not need to buy an advanced webcam. Just buy a simple one and you are ready to go.

Today, LCD monitors also become very popular. With a few hundred dollars, you can get a huge and good LCD monitor for your home or office. This makes it very affordable for you to get a good LCD and enjoy conferencing with your colleagues or friends.

With the popularity of video conferencing, the digital world is guaranteed success. As more and more aspects of a business are handled through the computer, the ability to have a meeting within minutes of the thought, will definitely win out. With trains, planes, and automobiles being the competition, video is sure to win. Who would not rather have an important meeting online, instead of a wild goose chase for the same meeting?

Although it may seems like a hefty investment for now, but in the long run, you will definitely reap the rewards. So if you have not try video conferencing, the time to try is now.

Jacqueline

GK asked:


Hi. Im currently using BSNL Dataone Home 250 Plan at 2mbps speeds. Im a frequent user of the video call facility in msn messenger. Video conferencing works gr8 on 2mbps line with no video choppping and the video is real time with no shakes. But since i have a download limit of 1GB, i am planning to switch over to 750UL-the only drawback being the speed reducing to 256kbps. I just wanted to know whether my video calls would work just as well as before or would i suffer on some fronts…Pls Help…..

Jeremy