Is video conferencing finally ready to replace business travel and in-person meetings?
After years of promises, video conferencing may finally be a viable alternative to face-to-face meetings. But there are still some best practices to follow.
Image: drogatnev, Getty Images/iStockphoto
I remember my first scratchy call over a computer in the late 1990s, attempting to chat with the girl I was dating in order to avoid long-distance phone charges. (For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, once upon a time you actually had to pay for voice calls to locations more than a dozen miles from where you were sitting.) The call quality was atrocious, and video wasn't even an option, but I remember thinking that this was the future of communications.
SEE: How to secure your zoom conference line from hackers (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
Years later, we've gone through multiple cycles of "video conferencing for the masses," usually pitched as a solution to avoid the airplanes, hotels, and cost of assembling people in a room together. Each cycle usually fizzled out, due to a combination of bad tools, poor facilitation, and a sense that critical meetings simply weren't that effective done over grainy video calls, with audio that often sounded like the latest autotune-enhanced pop singer or a wayward robot.
What's changed in video conferencing?
As someone whose job, as my youngest child tells it, is to "ride on airplanes and talk to people," the possibility of avoiding planes and hotels is highly attractive, and it appears that this dream is finally coming true. We've long had relatively high-quality video cameras and microphones on our computers, but the software was typically clunky and limited to desktop computers. Joining a video conference was a tedious act of installing or updating plugins, worrying about whether your hardware would be detected, and then several minutes of various participants attempting to share applications.
The tools still aren't perfect, but major players like Skype, GoToMeeting, and relative newcomer Zoom have focused on improving the user interfaces of their applications and unshackled them from the desktop. You can now join a video conference, and even see your colleague's Windows desktop while poolside on your iPad. Similarly, it's almost as easy as a phone call to jump on an ad hoc video conference and get the richness of a human interaction with very little technology overhead. Behind the scenes, new compression algorithms offer high quality audio and video even on mobile networks, versus the pixelated images and robot voices of the past.
SEE: Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2019: How Zoom promotes corporate culture change (TechRepublic)
The key is still culture and facilitation
You've likely spent a fair portion of your life on conference calls, many of them useless. There's always "Chatty Cathy/Karl," who wants to talk about the weather or some other non sequitur, "Solitaire Steve/Stacy," who clearly is focusing their attention elsewhere, and "Plugin Pete/Pam," who lacks the right plugin, didn't receive the attachment, or otherwise requires the entire team to pause while they sort out their technology issues. What's intriguing is not that these conference call personalities exist, but that they're tolerated in some organizations that would never tolerate that type of behavior in person.
The new video technologies help to some extent: It's harder to be on another call, mowing the lawn, or folding laundry when people are looking at you, and the updated software helps avoid some of the old technology challenges. But the technology is not a magic bullet. Simple cultural cues like making participation via video the expectation rather than the exception, is a good start. If you as a team leader are always on video, smiling and engaged, you'll set an example that's emulated. If you're always calling from the car and half listening, expect your team to follow your example as well. Showing up prepared and making video meetings 99% working time and only 1% fluff makes them a valuable experience most participants enjoy engaging with. If you allow these conferences to turn into gab sessions, or five minutes of value for every hour spent staring at a camera, you'll find the same old frustrations.
SEE: How video conferencing is reducing business travel and increasing productivity (TechRepublic)
Similarly, understand the pros and cons of the medium. On one of my teams where everyone has iPads or touch-sensitive laptops, reviewing a draft presentation is fantastic because people can mark up the document as we speak, and we can interactively draw and build on each other's ideas. Brainstorming sessions with a team that you know reasonably well can also be highly effective, since you can read each other's facial expressions, and identify when people are engaged and agree with a concept or have questions and are still processing.
Keep it interesting, or you'll lose them
With larger-scale presentations, video runs the risk of creating a "talking slideshow," where 60 minutes of the same voice droning on while slides flash across the screen quickly loses the attention of the audience. If you have to present to a large group, try to use the medium to your advantage, offering slides where the audience can write in a topic, or vote on the answer to a quick quiz, or try to cycle through different speakers and types of content to keep things interesting. The old trick of pausing and asking for questions is generally not very effective, but calling on a specific individual, even if the first one is arranged in advance, can signal to the audience that participation and engagement are expected and to their benefit.
SEE: Why the holidays are ideal for collaborative tech and remote work (TechRepublic)
While physical presence is still critical for something like a board meeting with accompanying body language, and the "unofficial meetings" that occur in the hallway are often more important than the "official" meeting, it's worth trying video conferencing with your team. This could be as simple as a one-on-one video-based call with some of your remote workers or attempting larger meetings. Invest the 10 minutes to test the tools and prepare your meeting, paying attention to the nuances of the tools. After a few sessions, video conferencing will become second nature, and might just keep you off a plane or two.
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© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Best video conferencing software
Advances in technology means that reliable video conferencing has become accessible and affordable, and can easily serve the modern workplace.
This has become important for a wide range of reasons, not least to empower employee flexibility to work remotely from home, businesses having multiple office locations, but also the increasing likelihood that key clients and partners are more likely to be based around the world.
Video conferencing means that none of these issues present the complications they used to, and now meetings can take place online without worrying about technical problems, accessibility, or cost.
Additionally, with increasing concerns about the carbon cost of travel to the environment, it makes total sense for companies to seek to communicate face-to-face online rather than indulge in the wasteful cost to the business and environment in forcing people to travel to meet in a single location.
Normal consumer offerings such as Facetime and Skype have made video communications a normalized part of the conversation process, and the expectation is that businesses will increasingly embrace this technology simply because it offers so many all-round benefits, though some larger corporations remain slow on the digital take-up.
As we move into 2020, here are the best video conferencing solutions on the market:
© Provided by TechRadar (Image credit: GoToMeeting) 1. GoToMeeting
Mobile-friendly video conferencing
Mobile friendly
Good apps
VoIP upgrade
GoToMeeting is the standalone webconferencing service provided by LogMeIn. As expected it provides audio and video conferencing, as well as screensharing.
One of the features that sets GoToMeetings apart is its mobile friendliness - you can set up and start a conference from your smartphone, something some big brand software would struggle to do. There are also settings to maximise call and image quality, as well as one-tap invites to join meetings as well as chats.
Mobile apps are provided separately for Android and iOS, and both have high positive review volumes, which again makes a change from some other providers who struggle to balance quality and usability with mobile use.
In terms of pricing, almost all standard features are available with the most basic payment tier, which costs $14 per month, or $12 per month with an annual payment. Even the limit of 150 participants is generous, and for most businesses this is all that will be required.
A Business plan tier is available for $19 per month (or $16 when paid annually) which increases the number of participants to 250 and includes a few admin features plus drawing tools and mouse sharing. An Enterprise plan is available to accommodate up to 3,000 participants.
However, while there are many good things to be said for GoToMeetings, if you're lookig for a business VoIP solution then GoToConnect offers both cloud-based phone system which integrates GoToMeetings as part of the package, and it may be more cost-effective to sign up for that instead.
Read our review of GoToMeeting here.
© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. (Image credit: Cyberlink) 2. CyberLink U Meeting
Browser based video conferencing ideal for smaller enterprises
Free tier
No download required
Feature-rich
CyberLink is a Taiwanese multimedia software company. It was founded in 1996. U Meeting is the company’s video conferencing solution.
CyberLink U Meeting has four pricing plans.
The ‘Basic’ plan is free. It includes up to 25 participants and 30 minutes per meeting.
‘Pro 50’ is $29.99 per host per month. It includes up to 50 participants, 24 hours per meeting, admin tools and PerfectCam.
‘Pro 100’ starts at $49.99 per user per month. This includes all ‘Pro 50’ has to offer plus up to 100 participants.
The ‘Enterprise Features’ plan includes all the other tiers offerings plus meeting analysis, premium customer support and end-to-end encryption. Users need to contact sales for a quote.
‘PerfectCam’ is a most random feature. Users can add computer generated makeup to their faces with the company promising to ‘create a truly professional look’.
U Meeting is entirely web-based. This might put some users off but it can be an advantage as you will not need to download any additional software to use U Meeting. It also does not offer video recording or the ability to dial into meetings using VoIP systems.
Read our review of Cyberlink U Meeting here.
© Provided by TechRadar (Image credit: Zoom) 3. Zoom Meetings
Zoom your way to more productive remote meetings with this affordable, easy-to-use video conferencing software
Free tier
User friendly
Could use more security features
Zoom Meetings offers a video conferencing and messaging solution for desktop and mobile devices, that aims to be very quick and easy to set up, and offer a wide range of scaleable features.
Not only does it provide HD video and audio, but it can support up to 1,000 participants at the same time, and up to 49 videos on a single screen, though such large gatherings are probably best suited to big-screen monitors.
Meetings can be saved locally or to the cloud, along with transcripts that have searchable text to work with. Additionally, collaboration is built in with the ability for participants to share their screens and work together to provide their own notes as required.
On top of this a team chat feature allows for file sharing, a searchable history, and a ten year archive. Meetings can also be escalated into one-on-one calls.
Security is built-in, using 256-bit TLS encryption for both meetings and shared files, and automated scheduling can be done from Gmail, Outlook, and iCal.
Even better is that a feature-rich free tier is available, and able to accommodate up to 100 people for up to 40 minutes, but to include additional tools for team administration and management pricing starts at $14.99 a month, rising to $19.99 a month per host for more dedicated business and enterprise packages.
Read out review of Zoom here.
© Provided by TechRadar (Image credit: BlueJeans) 4. BlueJeans
Think outside this box with this futuristic video conferencing tool
30-day free trial
Dolby voice support
Analytics
BlueJeans was founded in 2009 and has its headquarters in California. The company provides inter-operable cloud-based video conferencing platform.
There are three pricing tiers. BlueJeans does not have a free tier but it does offer a 30-day free trial.
The ‘Me’ tier costs $19.98 per month per user, when paid annually. Users can have up to 50 attendees, connect from any computer, iOS or Android device and all meetings include dial-in numbers.
The ‘My Team’ plan is $23.99 per month per host (when paid annually) and includes all the lower tier had to offer plus 10 hours of cloud meeting recordings, command center dashboard and up to 75 participants.
The ‘My Company’ packages includes all the features of the other plans along with connection H.323//SIP room systems, room system calendar support and up to 150 participants. Users need to contact BlueJeans directly in order to get a quote.
Users do not have to sign up to an annual subscription with BlueJeans. The basic tier supports free phone audio in over 40 countries. BlueJeans also supports Dolby voice. This might suit users who are more concerned about video quality rather than the number of features included with the platform.
BlueJeans seems to have less features than some of its nearest competitors however this is overlooked due to the quality of their system along with the fact users can utilize the 30-day free trial to see if it suits their needs.
Read our review of BlueJeans here.
© Provided by TechRadar (Image credit: Lifesize) 5. Lifesize
Bring your remote meetings to life with this handy tool
Hardware devices included
Free tier
Supports 4k video
Lifesize was founded in 2003. The company’s main branches are located in Austin, Texas and Munich, Germany. Lifesize provides high definition video conferencing endpoints, touchscreen conference room phones and a cloud-based video collaboration platform.
Lifesize has three pricing tiers. There was no free tier, however that has changed with Lifesize Go, a completely free browser-based version of Lifesize’s service that allows users to host an unlimited number of video calls (plus screen sharing on desktop) with up to 8 participants, no caps on meeting length and no app downloads.
Lifesize Standard is designed for small teams and costs $16.95 per host per month, and offers unlimited meetings for up to 100 participants, along with Single Sign On (SSO) support, personal meeting support, as well as lone chat and support.
Lifesize Plus is aimed at small and midsize companies, offering more features but a minimum of 15 hosts and costs $14.95 per host per month. This allows for up to 300 participants, includes Microsoft integrations, offers real-time meeting insights, phone and email support, as well as 1 hour cloud recording per host.
Lifesize Enterprise costs $12.95 per month with a minimum of 50 hosts. This plan allows for live streaming of up to 1,000 viewer events, unlimited US audio calling, branding and customization, premium support, as well as unlimited video recording.
Outside of the free version, Lifesize’s prices may seem a bit steep compared to other video conferencing solutions. This is more than made up for with the inclusion of its own hardware into the mix. Users receive numerous devices in each plan, freeing them from not having to rely on their own integrated camera systems. Lifesize also supports 4k video conferencing.
You can read out review of Lifesize here.
© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. (Image credit: Google Hangouts Meet) 6. Google Hangouts Meet
For accessible cloud-powered conferencing
G Suite integration
Accessible and simple
Competitive pricing
Google Hangouts Meet is part of the G Suite office productivity platform, and aims to provide a first-class conferencing service.
Developed specifically for business needs, it can cater for a large number of users at once, and also uses smart participation and a fast interface to reduce the need to wait.
As an improved version of the standard Google Hangouts, it aims to make it easier to work with external clients. It does this first by providing a web app experience, which means there is no software to download. Secondly, it also provides a dedicated dial-in number, which not only means that employees on the go can join in, but this also ensure that line quality is maintained and that there are no drop-outs.
As well as having dedicated apps available for mobile users in the Apple AppStore and Google Play store for Android, Google Hangouts Meet can also work with existing conferencing hardware. All that's required is that it follows SIP and H.323 standards for Skype for Business users. This also applies to Cisco, Lifesize, and Polycomm in particular, and by using Pexip Infinity can join in Hangouts meets.
Another key advantage is that by being within the G Suite platform it's easy to use data from other applications, not least Google Calendar, to not just plan meetings but also set up event information as required when users do sign in.
The other big plus is that Hangouts itself doesn't come with the big monthly costs that other providers might charge.
Ultimately, Hangout Meets is a serious business-grade conferencing platform that doesn't require big up-front costs for hardware, making it especially accessible for businesses of any size.
Read our review of Google Hangouts here.
Lifesize updates its admin console with analytics, video conferencing metrics
Lifesize is hoping to put more data and analytics behind your video conferencing habits.
The company rolled out new features to its Lifesize Admin Console that offer real-time reporting, live meeting statistics, network performance monitoring, usage and call quality data.
According to Lifesize, those data points and analytics will allow enterprises to avoid technical glitches and improve the meeting experience.
Lifesize
What Lifesize is hoping to accomplish represents another wave of meeting technology. While many companies have upgraded video conferencing systems and collaboration tools, enterprises could use more data to gauge productivity and improve the employee experience.
Also: 11 products to make your conference rooms smarter and easier to use
With the upgraded dashboards in the Lifesize Admin Console, admins can do the following:
The goal for Lifesize is to give its customers the ability to better allocate network resources, assure quality experiences and troubleshoot faster.
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