Things to know before going for Video conferencing

The video conferencing advantage:

Most businesses require both employers and employees to do frequent corporate traveling to attend meeting and seminars. Imagine the difficulty in traveling to attend conferences around the world. You have to put up with all the tension and spend valuable time and money traveling to the place and coming back. Think about the money you need to spend on travel expenses like flight tickets, hotel and dining expense. You can avoid these by setting up a multipoint video conference facility which can allow communication from different parts of the world without any hustle or bustle. In this way you can spare more time and money for your employees. Setting up a conference system may be an expensive affair, it depends on the how complex it is. But there is a lot of long term advantages in terms of time, money and stress saved.

Things to check before buying and installing the system:

Before getting into the process of installing the system, you need to do a lot of research on the Internet about video conferencing. Based on this you should decide the right system for your business. Then comes the job of selecting a suitable software according to your requirements. You need to consider whether it is a multipoint video conference or point to point conference while deciding the software. Take care to get the the software from a recognized dealer. Most companies will send technicians for installing and giving you the tips on how to use the system. Make sure you clear all your doubts about how to operate and troubleshoot. After installing software and running the system you should check whether your cameras can scan all regions of your conference hall. Also see that there are enough microphones and whether you can hear the audio from all microphones equally well. Pay attention to lighting, all parts of the room should be well lit. You don't want to see people hidden in darkness during the video conference.

Your video conference hardware:

Your video conference kit can range from simple systems where a codec is placed on top of a monitor to more complex systems meant for huge boardrooms and seminar halls. Such complex systems require installation and setup by specialist technicians. The other hardware for your video conferencing kit is the carrier. A carrier does the job of communicating data between any two systems on the conferencing network. You can use ISDN telephone networks or IP networks. ISDN can be used as carrier if the conferencing is between local organizations. IP option can be used for online video conferencing across the globe. There are special protocols that govern the use of IP and ISDN as carriers. The H323 video conferencing protocol is a standard for IP based video conferencing and H320 is the protocol for ISDN based videoconferencing. Whichever is your option with regards to the software, hardware, equipment and technology – it is better to know your needs before going for the set up. You can visit websites, read books and do whatever, but always see that you know what your are doing before running through your video conference installation process.