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Archive for December, 2010

Would you like to know how to save money, improve efficiency and gain green credentials? There is an opportunity to obtain all three by switching from traditional face-to-face meetings to conference calling.

During the current fragile economy businesses have to keep a tight rein on their finances so by using phone conference technology, as opposed to travelling to meetings businesses can make huge cost savings. The amount saved will depend on how often employees travel and the distances that they travel to meet customers and potential clients.

There is a huge awareness of the damage that humans are causing to the environment from our CO2 emissions. Everyone wants to reduce their impact on the planet therefore consumers are seeking out environmentally friendly businesses since it shows they hold similar values. By implementing telephone conference calling when meetings are unnecessary, businesses can show their commitment to the environment.

Reducing the businesses need to send employees to meetings gives them more time to work on other projects as well as reducing their impact from taking multiple flights, trains and other forms of commuting. It is most certainly likely to improve the energy levels of employees too if they don’t have to commute as much too.

As internet speeds continue to improve and become cheaper then teleconferencing is likely to continue to increase in popularity. To avoid being left behind businesses should look at incorporating phone conference services as soon as possible, allowing them to not only reduce costs but to move them to onto other tasks and allow the business to market its green credentials. Plus the efficiency gains not only from less travelling but with the speed of e-mail means less time spend on administrative duties.

Modern business operations all share the same rapidly depleting commodity: Time. When time is leveraged, productivity and output invariably increases within a business organization. Technology continues to provide workers and businesses with new tools to help leverage time. Video conferencing could prove to be one of the most important time leveraging business tools of the 21st century.

Once a luxury for only the largest companies, video conferencing is beginning to change the landscape of how businesses communicate with both employees and clients. In its simplest form, video conferencing allows two individuals to be thousands of miles apart yet still effectively communicate as if they were in the same room. Systems in use today can now connect multiple parties across multiple continents – in real time with excellent and high quality video and audio.

The Origins of Video Conferencing

Video conferencing capabilities originated in the 1970s. Similar to every other technology in use today, video conferencing has changed dramatically since first being developed. Early proponents of video conferencing technology had no standards or protocols to rely on. This fact made a teleconference via video an expensive proposition – one that only huge companies and government agencies could afford. In a time where cell phones were still a decade away for most consumers and businesses, video teleconferences were few and far between.

Today, affordable networks and systems are widely available across the globe. Interoperability of video teleconferencing systems is virtually guaranteed now that standards and protocols have been clearly established.

Specific Standards and Protocols for Video Conferencing

To make any technology usable for the masses, standards and protocols are required to insure systems, software and hardware are ubiquitous across the board.

To help guarantee video teleconferencing compatibility between manufacturers, the International Telecommunications Union developed and defined a series of video conferencing standards. In place since the mid-1990s, current standards are defined in terms of H.3xx.

H.3xx are “umbrella” recommendations for video conferencing. They include the protocols for coding video/audio, multiplexing, signaling, and control.

The core H.3xx recommendations are as follows:

H.320 – Narrow-band video conferencing over circuit-switched networks (N-ISDN, SW56, dedicated networks) H.321 – Narrow-band video conferencing over ATM and B-ISDN H.323 – Narrow-band video conferencing over non-guaranteed quality-of-service packet networks (LAN, Internet, etc.) H.324 – Very narrow-band video conferencing over the general (dial-up) telephone network H.310 – Wide-band (MPEG-2) video conferencing over ATM and B-ISDN H.323 is a standard for audio, video, and data communication over IP-based (Internet Protocol) networks.

All major video conferencing manufacturers produce ITU compliant equipment. When choosing video conference equipment, be sure that you select a system that does not offer only proprietary methods of operation.

How Video Conferencing Works

The success of a video teleconference depends entirely on the equipment and network capabilities behind that equipment.

Since real-time video contains a tremendous amount of data, it is imperative that the system being used can handle a high amount of bandwidth at any given time. Fortunately, video conferencing systems are designed to “sample” and “compress” a certain portion of data (such as the unchanging “background’ of the room) to help conserve bandwidth. This compression is accomplished through what is commonly known as a “codec”. A video codec is the device or software that enables video compression and or decompression for digital video.

It is the job of the codec to “sample” data at specific time intervals (fractions of a second) and then compress this data so that it can be delivered across the network. The codec on the receiving end then reassembles audio and video for transmission onto a television or computer screen. To conserve bandwidth, the codec focuses on the most important data – i.e. moving objects such as people, props, etc. Moving objects take a considerable amount of processing power, so the better the codec, the higher quality your video conference will appear.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing a Video Conferencing Solution

A wide variety of video conferencing systems are available in the marketplace. Before purchasing equipment or services from vendors, consider the following as a starting point to narrow down the requirements of a system that fits with your business needs:

How will you be using video conferencing? A simple video conference between employees in the same town, building or area will require a more basic solution than video conferencing multiple parties across the vast distances. Determine the maximum video conference scenario you will be utilizing to narrow down bandwidth and equipment requirements.

How large is the meeting room where you plan to conduct video conferences? Camera capabilities will depend on the size of the room and number of people involved. Conducting a video conference in a small auditorium with dozens of participants will require a quite different solution than 1-2 individuals transmitting from a small office.

On what type of network will your video conference be hosted? The network you choose to host your videoconference will play a key role in overall reliability and performance. Most video conferencing systems sold today include an IP interface with ISDN as an option. Determine the capabilities of your network before deciding on any one specific video conferencing solution.

The Future of Video Conferencing

Increasing productivity while reducing costs will always be an important part of any business. The popularity of video conferencing will undoubtedly increase in the coming years. Virtually all industries will eventually utilize video conferencing in some form to help bring people together – at considerably less cost than physical travel for face-to-face meetings. As more corporations, health care providers and governments experience the value in video conferencing as a time and money-saving tool, the technology will become more necessity than luxury. The age of the video conference has just begun!

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Many to Many web video conferencing is a combination of two web casting services named video conferencing and web conferencing. Video conferencing means collaboration of one or more than one people at same time while sharing sounds and videos with each other live. Web conferencing is an expansion pack of video conferencing. It includes not only live audio and video conferencing but also remote desktop sharing for sending or receiving documents, files and folders from one pc to another. Many to Many term is used when people are interconnect with each other in such a way that all participants can see, listen and speak with each other independently. It is just like a gathering in single room where everyone has independent access to each other. In a business meeting, business partners and co workers collaborate with each other to analyze their business objectives, sharing reports and making new business plans. When someone talks, all are able to listen and discuss at any point. This is a routine business meeting is real world. Many to Many web video conferencing is the best alternate of routine business meeting by providing virtual collaboration of business personnel through internet.

Why many to many web conferencing :

Question is why someone needed many to many web video conferencing rather than physical collaborations. What are advantages of web conferencing which replaced traditional business meetings with virtual business collaboration by using online web video conferencing technology? Answers are not much complicated. During current era, boom of technology creates enormous opportunities of business and trade. Horizontal and vertical expansion of business identifies the need of fast collaboration among different departments. Whole world was becoming a global village and geographical boundaries were no more barriers for any industry to establish its business and find new target markets. Need to be fast collaboration provides the opportunity of online virtual business meeting without travelling. Online Many to Many web video conferencing make it possible by availing this colossal opportunity. It saves travelling time from one region to another. There is no extra travelling and residential cost. Everyone has access to meet his partner at computer screen while sitting his workplace. Invention of web conferencing makes files and documents sharing very easy. there is no need to travel out of region with holding your pc. Someone can access his own computer from a long distance by using online remote desktop sharing solutions. During Many to Many web video conferencing, everyone can share business reports, videos and other data by sharing their personal computers with each other.

History:

History of online audio video conferencing is old as development of internet. In early 60s, a small program for distance learning was developed. It was designed for single class room and is called Plato. This program was much costly and main frame computers were used to run and operate it. During next few years, it was much developed and organized. In the mid of 70s, it was launched for commercial use. Hundreds of companies started to use video conferencing in next ten years. History of web video conferencing take a turn when main frame base Plato terminated in 1980 due to much high cost and low quality communication system. Mainframe computers were replaced with latest micro computers. Audio video conferencing technology enhanced to web video conferencing solutions. lot of expansions were added to facilitate and simplify online collaboration. Todays online web video conferencing solutions has become an industry which serves telemedicine, online seminars, online business meetings, law firms, religious organizations and online marketing companies.

How it works:

In many to many web video conferencing process, powerful dynamic streaming system is used today to run, stop, pause, and rewind online web video conferencing. It is latest technology till the day which works with integrated HTTP server. Adobe flash media streaming server 3.5 is a powerful mechanism to run all technical operations of web video conferencing. One person hosts the whole conference and invites guests by sending them conferencing link through email. Guest accepts this invitation to join many to many web video conferencing. Desktop sharing ID provides him access to desktop of another computer with him.

Coverage industries:

Many to Many web video conferencing is a bridge for telemedicine industry to Secure plus cure the health without any geographical restrictions. Get online Medicare by web video conferencing with your doctor while sitting at home. Online hospitals have become mature industry. Patients save time wastage, travelling expenses and other worries by instant consulting with their doctor. Online marketing companies are second largest coverage sector of Many to Many web video conferencing. Daily online collaboration made easy for online marketing companies to target achieving. Personal online meetings and virtual business collaboration are possible through face to face gathering by using many to many web video conferencing solutions.

As we all know, regular phone conferencing is nothing new. It has been around for years, and there are many companies pushing even more brands in the hope of capturing a slice of this particularly lucrative pie. Applications might include a company that deploys it in order to hold a sales briefing with their remote workforce.

In the UK, such services are typically offered for free, in return retention of a proportion of the accrued revenues generated by participants calling in to conference.

Premium conferencing, as the name suggests, simply takes that concept one stage further. Participants do not call a 0845 sharecall number to take part rather, they call in on a premium rate number instead.

The conference is hosted by anyone that adds value to the call in order to justify the premium rate element: this could be a celebrity, a sports personality, astrologer, lawyer, or expert in any given field. That person then receives the majority of the accrued revenue not least since they initiated the calls in the first place.

Such technology can also be used to hold fundraisers: celebrities, for example, could agree to donate a proportion of the funds generated to their favourite charity. Good PR for both the celeb and, for a change, premium rate – and useful money for a worthy cause in the process.

The success of such phone events depends on the combination of the perceived value of the cost of the call to the caller together with how the event is marketed.

If such conferencing is to be used in a one-to-many format, having a hundred or so callers simultaneously call in means that the open conference is out of the question just one participant with a screaming child in the background would end up ruining the entire event for everyone.

To this end, upon calling, participants are asked if they would like to join the queue for a chance to speak to the host, who can monitor all activity on their conference in realtime via their internet-enabled PC. He or she then talks 1:1 with the first caller, with all others listening in, including those that elected not to be placed in the queue so audience participation is an option, not a prerequisite.

Alternatively, such technology can be deployed to facilitate ad-hoc one-to-one revenue generating value-added phone calls, such as legal advice: the lawyer need not invoice the caller: rather, the caller pays for their counsel on a per-minute basis instead.

Furthermore, since premium rate billing already features in most developed countries, money can be made on a global scale, and not just a national one. Such numbers can be promoted in conjunction with the worlds first truly global medium, the internet, allowing conference hosts to make money from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.