Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is a communication tool that lets staff in different locations take part in the same meeting using live video and audio sent over the internet. Each person sits in front of a camera and microphone, and everyone can see and hear each other as if they were in the same room.

Imagine Riverside Tutoring, a small tutoring company whose tutors live in three different towns. Instead of everyone driving to head office for a monthly catch-up, the manager starts a video conference and all six tutors join from home. The meeting still happens, but nobody spends an hour travelling to it.

Benefits

• Saving travel time and money: staff do not need to drive, take a train or stay overnight, so the business spends less on fuel, tickets and hotels, and staff spend that time working instead.
• Enabling collaboration and decision making: because nobody has to travel, more people can join, including staff in other countries. A problem can be discussed face to face and a decision made the same day rather than waiting for the next visit.

For Riverside Tutoring, a tutor who spots a mistake in a lesson plan can raise it in the weekly video conference and the whole team can agree a fix there and then.

Drawbacks

• A high-speed internet link is needed: if a connection is slow or drops out, the picture freezes or becomes blurry and the sound breaks up, so the meeting is frustrating and time is wasted repeating points. A business may need to pay for a faster connection.
• Potentially expensive initial set-up costs: cameras, microphones, speakers, screens and any subscription for the conferencing service all cost money before the first meeting takes place, and equipment may need replacing over time.

Video conferencing is not automatically better than a phone call or a face-to-face meeting: it suits businesses whose staff are spread out and already have a reliable connection, but for a team working in one building the set-up costs may not be worth it.