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Posted by john4321 on 07/24/06 04:55
http://www.shopzero.net/article/videoconferencing/45118.php
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.
http://www.shopzero.net/article/videoconferencing/45118.php
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