There’s more to communication in the current landscape than emails and phone calls.
Video is quickly emerging as the ultimate way to connect with virtually any audience. Around 98% of people say that video conferencing helps with building relationships inside and outside of their company. Additionally, 90% of today’s workers believe that video adds more context to a conversation, so it’s easier to get a point across.
Video is the medium that comes closest to mimicking face-to-face interaction in the digital environment. No other service allows us to share the unique nuances of things like body language and facial expression.
The question for many businesses isn’t whether they need to add video conferencing into their communication stack in the years to come. Instead, we’re increasingly asking ourselves what kind of video technology we need, and how we can make this conferencing environment as accessible, yet secure as possible.
What is Video Conferencing, How Does it Work?
It wasn’t so long ago that video conferencing was largely regarded as an inaccessible technology for smaller businesses. The expense of the video conferencing tools on the market, and the amount of IT assistance required to get solutions up and running meant that only a small portion of the marketplace could approach video.
That’s all changing now. According to Grandview Research, video conferencing is growing at a rate of 9.9% from 2020 to 2017. Technology like plug-and-play huddle room systems that allow us to host video meetings in real-time and WebRTC for online streaming has made this environment easier than ever. We’re even discovering new and improved ways to make video more immersive.
Today, all you need to launch a video conference is a few basic tools, such as:
- A computer screen, projector, or monitor to broadcast video
- A network for data transferring, usually high-speed broadband or a LAN connection will be best for most businesses.
- Two or more video cameras for video input. You’ll also need microphones so you can add audio to the meetings too.
- Headphones, laptop speakers, or professional speakers so you can listen to the people on the other hand of the call.
- Software for compressing video or audio into packets that you can distribute over the internet. You can choose either a stand-alone conferencing tool, or something that implements video into a full collaboration service.
As remote teams and globalized businesses become more dependent on video for contextual connections, video is quickly becoming a crucial component of the collaboration hubs that businesses rely on every day. Services like Microsoft Teams and Slack give business users the freedom to start a conversation with instant messaging, then upgrade to video whenever they need to.
Combined with additional features like automatic noise cancellation in headsets and background blur for video meetings that support remote workers, video conferencing is becoming a more natural part of the communication stack.
Video Conferencing Trends
The demand for video conferencing has increased rapidly in recent years, particularly thanks to the uptick in the number of employees working from home. The number of telecommuting workers has increased by around 115% in the last decade, even before you take into account the COVID-19 pandemic that arose at the beginning of 2020.
On top of that, video conferencing has also gained steam in an environment where new generations are entering the workforce. Millennials and Gen Z are far more accustomed to communicating through video because they grew up with access to things like Facetime and other video-enhanced technology. These new users are demanding the same kind of accessible video interactions and meetings in the workplace as they get from home.
The biggest trends in video conferencing right now include:
- The rise of AI: Artificial intelligence is playing a part in virtually every aspect of communication. AI virtual assistants in a meeting can eliminate the complications of setting up a video call with a colleague, by automatically starting a discussion based on an event in a calendar. AI tools can also make gathering information from video calls easier. These tools can automatically transcribe or translate conversations to make meetings more manageable and searchable. Natural language processing is rapidly making time-consuming tasks like note-taking a thing of the past.
- Improved video quality: The arrival of 5G and updated video codecs mean that business leaders can access much more immersive video in the current landscape. Vendors are offering everything from 4K video, to high-quality streams that users can access from virtually any device. Thanks to AI implementation and face and body mapping, users can also access features like background blurring and custom backgrounds too.
- Biometrics: Computer vision and biometrics are simplifying the way that teams access video. For instance, with these tools, a camera can automatically recognize a team member when he or she walks into a room and set up a meeting based on that person’s profile. Camera systems can also use the image of a person as a form of two-factor authentication to improve security too.
- Huddle rooms: The video meeting rooms of the past, defined by large systems and complex technology, have rapidly been replaced with smaller, ad-hoc spaces. Huddle rooms with plug-and-play room kits designed to get video conferences up and running in a matter of seconds are much more accessible today. Thanks to huddle rooms, business leaders can retain crucial office space.
- Updated security: As video becomes a more essential component of the communication landscape, businesses are increasingly searching for the best ways to keep their employees and teams secure. 96% of respondents believe that video conferencing improves the connectedness of team members. However, a remote employee could easily log into a public Wi-Fi connection or system that puts your entire business at risk. The right policies and procedures need to be available to prevent this.
Video Conferencing Vendors
The increasing demand for video conferencing services means that countless companies are now adding video to their offering. Some companies started with videos and built out from there, like Zoom Communications. Others began with an internal collaboration service and added video as a crucial component, like Microsoft Teams, RingCentral, and Avaya Spaces.
Here at UC Today, we like to keep on top of what the latest video vendors in the digital market are doing. That’s why we have a full list of video conferencing providers here for you to browse. What’s more, each year, the UC Awards delivered by our team highlight the biggest and best players in the video conferencing landscape.
