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Web conferencing
This is the index page for access to Trig Consulting's web conference demonstrations.
What is web conferencing?
Web conferencing allows presentations, seminars, sales briefings, press conferences and so on to be given without reference to geography. Participants in a web conference can share documents, see slideshow presentations, join in audioconferences, doodle on whiteboards, vote online, be taken to websites live, and chat to other participants.
For those unable to attend the meeting, or who want to review the meeting later, the event can be recorded and archived for later replay in exact detail - even down to the drawing of individual lines draw on a virtual whiteboard.
Conferences of up to fifty participants can usually be organised instantly. For major events, the advance organisation can include automatic emailing of invitations to potential participants, integrated audioconferencing, streaming media and many more facilities.
Who benefits?
A web conference is never as effective as a face-to-face meeting, but the latter are often not practical or cost-effective. Physical conferences involve travel and the organisation of facilities such as rooms or computer equipment. Even if the direct cost of these is small, the cost in terms of lost management time may be much greater. Without needing to factor in travel time, co-ordination of meeting diaries also becomes easier. Because users are working from their offices, they are also available to take phone calls or carry on with other work when not required to participate.
Virtual conferences offer the convenience of an instantly-available, fully-equipped meeting room in everybody's office. No travelling, no set up, no need to worry if there will be an OHP or tablet in the meeting room. There's no question of leaving the presentation behind in the office or bringing an outdated version. Still working on the paper? Upload it at the last moment when the presentation actually starts. Forgotten to invite someone, or need to bring in an additional presenter? Call them and invite them to join in instantly. Missed your flight and stuck on the wrong side of the world? Find a telephone point and participate as if you were in the office. Can't be bothered to go to the office? Log in from home and no-one will know...
Virtual conferences lower the entry cost of arranging and attending meetings, make more effective use of time, and are flexible enough to take last-minute changes to the program in their stride.
Web versus video conferences
Web conferences are often called "virtual conferences" or "internet conferences". Video conferencing offers an alternate way to communicate over a distance. In video conferencing, special hardware allows two-way audio and video, as well as all the other benefits mentioned above.
The two-way audio and video makes meetings much more effective than web conferences. Conversation is possible, and you can observe the expression and reaction of participants. In addition, because video conferencing uses international standards, different systems produced by different manufacturers will generally talk to each other quite happily.
Video conferences can either be a collection of two-way connections (similar to Microsoft NetMeeting) or they can be server-based. In the latter case, a dedicated server absorbs and redistributes all the messages coming in from the conference locations. This is an expensive solution, but very much more efficient when more than four or five "rooms" are being connected.
However, there are a number of drawbacks:
- Dedicated hardware: videoconferencing requires specific hardware. It is possible to do video conferencing with as little as a card installed in a PC, but practically video conferencing requires a dedicated room with cameras, screens and ISDN links.
- Cost: although a PC could be equipped for videoconferencing from as little as $500-$600, an effective video conferencing solution requires an expenditure several times larger. Moreover, this is the cost for just one room; each location needs to be similarly equipped. For web conferences, a PC which talks to the internet is generally all the equipment required.
Once the system has been installed, the main expense is the cost of the ISDN lines: at least two 64k lines are needed for each connected location. Where the conferences involve lots of people in one room, video conferences are much cheaper to run than web conferences, which charge by the person. With only small numbers of people in each videoconference room, the economics are reversed.
- Flexibility: it is possible to video conference over the internet, but this is to be avoided as much as possible. Video conferencing requires a reliable broadband connection, and although 128kbps over ISDN for each location is adequate, over IP one would require 200-300kbps for a similar level of quality. Additionally there is the problem that video conferencing requires hardware. In contrast, web conferencing just requires an internet connection and browser (and possibly some operating system requirement). Hence, web conferences are flexible while video conferences are limited to pre-arranged locations.
- Limited participation: video conferences can have unlimited people in the conference "rooms", but the number of rooms is strictly limited by either the number of ISDN channels or, for server-based systems, by the capacity of the server; current systems top out at around forty locations. Web conferences, by contrast, can run to tens of thousands of users, partly because the server demand is much lower.
So video conferences and web conferences answer different business needs. For meetings between a small number of fixed locations where two-way A/V communication is essential, video conferencing is clearly a better solution. For meetings where one-way audio and two-way text communication is acceptable, where the locations of the participants is unknown or changes, and where there are many participating locations, web conferencing is the obvious solution.
Between these two extremes, the choice depends partly upon funds available, although the low entry cost of web conferencing tends to give it the edge. However, the relative cost of the two systems can vary quite significantly depending upon use.
Examples
Trig consultants have been involved with clients of various sectors, both public and private sector, in various industries. Example uses for web conferencing include:
- Avoiding time constraints: a group of general practices want to disseminate research findings, but the demands of work make organising meetings very difficult. In particular locum duty requires the doctors to be physically in the surgery and avialable for calls. Web conferencing allows the research findings to be shared by all with no commitment to be somewhere physically.
- Crossing continents: an international manufacturing company with offices in the US, Europe and the Far East wants to be able to regularly update sales employees on product development. It wants instant feedback on the new information, so sending out training packs is an unsatisfactory option. Web conferencing removes the geographical boundaries and provides the necessary instant feedback. Archive playback of conferences means that those unable to attend the presentation can review it later.
- Filtering sales: a software company based in Scotland selling to large coroporations receives regular sales enquiries. Giving software demonstrations requires a lot of logistical planning, and preparation time - and a whole day to travel to the client, irrespective of the length of the demonstration. A web conference allows the software to be instantly demonstrated using application sharing; there is no travel time or cost, and potential clients can see the software in practice. Unsuitable sales leads can be filtered out, and physical meetings with new clients become more productive as they already have an introduction to the product.
Costs
Conferences are charged on per-user per-minute basis, and depend upon number of participants and usage levels. For example, a half-hour meeting for five or six people would cost around £50 plus VAT.
Hosting of these services is provided by partner organisations. Trig will make all arrangements to set up the service. Branding and integration of services come in three categories:
- No branding: clients may hook into the Trig Consulting web site. Services charged purely on a usage basis, depending upon the level of Trig supervision
- Integration with client website: Trig will build a web site to provide a consistent interface between the conference server and the client sites. For an example of a simple one-page entry, go to http://www.trigconsulting.co.uk/simple_conf.html. For an example of a more complex password-protected section, please go to http://www.trigconsulting.co.uk/conf/trig/ and log in with the user name "Guest" and password "guest".
- Full branding: In this case Trig will integrate a web site but will also reconfigure the conference servers to reflect your corporate identity.
Trig will give full training and provide support services direct to clients.
What to do next
To discuss these services, or for further information on web or video conferences, please email conferences@trigconsulting.co.uk.
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