Over the years we have all probably taken part in video conferences when located in various fixed positions. You could say the experience has been a ‘journey’.
In terms of technology , much has changed along the way. Some of us started with video solutions that required linking together enough 64Kb basic rate lines to get somewhere near the 256/512Kb bandwidth required for a jitter free picture with continuous sound. There were many steps to enjoying an acceptable user experience.
That experience was invariably accompanied by an attendant technician, there to make sure all the right buttons were pressed in the right order to fire up and maintain the connection.
Later on, we moved to new ‘telepresence’ conferences. Of course it was brilliant. It was HD. It was indeed, as the marketers of the day termed it, an immersive experience. The trouble was that telepresence cost; technology requirements and on-going support meant that only an exclusive club could benefit from it. It was certainly beyond the reach of most organisations in the mid-market.
Desktop video conferencing, rather than dedicated room sized systems, have been prevalent for some time but all came with a built in disadvantage – you needed to buy an add-on kit and/or install and run local client software.
At this point in the ‘journey’, the video conference experience could be summarised as ‘great when it worked but otherwise clumsy, clunky and a bit expensive’. What we wanted, particularly what occasional users wanted, was to be able to simply replicate the instinctive, immediate and instant means of communication that we were used to – like making a phone call.
Despite market drivers of ever increasing transports costs and the best that Icelandic volcanoes could throw at us to disrupt air travel, video communications were slow to get off the ground.
Today however the world of instinctive, instant and immediate video calling, along with screen and application sharing, is with us and readily available in the form of WebRTC.
To give it its full name, Web Real Time Communications is set to disrupt the status quo as it gathers momentum and makes significant inroads – creating a simple browser-to-browser communications market.
Organisations are changing; many are recognising that the old silos they have been working in are proving restrictive in terms of getting ideas together, and hampering their need to get products more quickly to market.
Technology such as WebRTC is one element of a Unified Communications mix that finally addresses the delivery of achievable, simple communications and is a key reason why organisations will embrace Cloud UC. Our infographic shows how to resolve business challenges and simplify communications, all from the click of a browser.
Make Do
15 February 2016
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