The concept of free video chat over the Internet is a reality, thanks to services such as Skype, Google Talk and Google Voice. But as much of a breakthrough as these proprietary systems were at launch a couple of years ago, so their features have faded in the eyes of professional users. They are attractive today only to a minority of home users, having failed to capture the imagination of the business community.
Nevertheless, there is significant support for the belief that new, innovative and more cost-efficient video conferencing technologies will change the way business people communicate. There is little doubt that mass visual communications will represent the next major paradigm shift in the commercial sector.
While there are superior technologies available for the businessman capable of meeting his current demands for advanced, large-scale, boardroom-based audiovisual capabilities - such as high definition (HD) video conferencing walls - what the market needs now is a 'cross-over' solution.
The norm
This solution, being robust enough for the boardroom yet simple enough for the home-office space, must be capable of adoption by a broad cross-section of business entities, to the point where it is as common as the cellphone.
The answer lies in more dedicated, more sophisticated services than the 'best efforts' currently on offer with Skype, Google Talk and Google Voice. Most likely the drivers for such services - or competing services - will come in the forms of cloud computing and virtualisation.
The cloud's ability to allow service providers to operate such services at centralised locations accessed via a browser-based interface from any location are already attractive to the business world, with its requirement for on-the-move accessibility.
Mass visual communications will represent the next major paradigm shift in the commercial sector.
Andy Robb is chief technology officer at Duxbury Networking.
Moreover, businesses are attracted by virtualisation technologies' ability to boost manageability, security and flexibility while cutting costs through a 'pay-as-you-use' formula.
When applied to communications in general - and video conferencing in particular - the cloud and virtualisation could provide an infrastructure suitable for a robust HD video conferencing service that will bridge the gap between the needs of the largest corporate user and the smallest enterprise, and even the home user.
In my opinion, the point at which this merger takes place will be where real market potential and sales growth are realised.
Showing promise
Some of the world's largest telecommunications companies are exploring opportunities around this point of departure, and in May, Europe launched its first managed video service provider, with offerings promising much more in the way of features than conventional video conferencing systems - at significantly reduced cost.
One of the most important features is a way for organisations to actively differentiate themselves from competing firms, at the same time stimulating client interaction and invigorating their business models.
For example, because of the cost advantages associated with new-generation systems, organisations could afford to pay for such systems to be installed at their key customers' or suppliers' premises as part of loyalty or efficiency programmes.
The resulting increase in interaction between the partners would be of sizable benefit to all concerned, not only from a profitability perspective, but from better management and organisational viewpoints too.
In this light, companies traditionally employing consultants to attend face-to-face meetings with clients could reduce their fees if such systems were used, as travelling time and expenses (especially if air travel is involved) would be obviated.
Innovative thinking along these lines could be applied to the business model of organisations with worldwide partner or associate networks. Building and expanding the network using advanced video conferencing technology would be possible in a fraction of the time it would take in physical terms.
These benefits would also be attractive to 'green conscious' companies looking to save on energy costs and reduce their carbon footprint.
As the appeal of these systems increases, we can expect vendors to focus on areas such as distance-learning and teleworking in order to increase their mass usage and lower costs even further than the $500 (R3 500) per user figure mentioned in early, speculative reports.
Above all, expect 'simplicity' to be the key to the new systems with TV featuring prominently in plug-and-play implementation scenarios.
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