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Benefits Of Video Conferencing Technology

By: Alvin Loh

   Video conferencing has enabled communication to take place among people who are located at different places at the same time, in real time. Its ability to transcend geographical barriers to bring people virtually together in a conference room when used in the office or in a classroom has brought upon tremendous possibilities for knowledge sharing and information dissemination.

Although before video conferencing systems were the norm and the technology was still in its infancy a few years ago, businesses who required people from different places to meet and discuss will employ the use of a speaker phone. The speaker phone is made up of a traditional phone enhanced with loud speaker output and microphones so that it can capture people's voices around the meeting table. However, this solution is not the most optimal solution because businesses found it hard to share any presentation material like presentation slides or meeting materials to the other party on the other end of the line. Moreover, the speaker had no idea what the response is because the speaker phone cannot transfer visual information and a large part of human communication is based on unspoken body language.

All these limitations have been erased with the introduction with the video conferencing systems. The combination of visual information with voice signals make interactions between parties located at different places seamless and easy. It brings about higher levels of communication because people no long have to guess whose voice belongs to who. With video conferencing systems, people at different locations are brought into a virtual meeting space where they can communicate freely about their ideas and even show presentation materials in real time.

This also brings about many kinds of benefits to a business. No longer an employee have to travel to another place just for a meeting. This amounts to huge cost savings for the company because sometimes the meeting can be taking place in a foreign land. Since such meetings are quite frequent, the cost savings from foreign business trips, car rentals, meals and entertainment for its employees quickly adds up and justify the cost of a video conference system which eliminates all these expenses.

With the promised advantage of allowing people from different regions to work together in real time at a low cost is a major selling point for video conferencing systems. No longer will the employees have the need to request special funding for their meeting expenses or the participants sending out meeting invitation to meet at a specific time., video conferencing allows anyone, anywhere to initiate a video conference call to share ideas and discuss issues at the touch of a button. This will undoubtedly, increase brainstorming and knowledge sharing sessions which will in result, increase efficiency and effectiveness for the company.