Video conferencing commoditised?
The oh-so-natural nature of simply “jumping on a call” to communicate and collaborate might suggest that this is indeed the case.
Thanks to the inexorable rise of the hybrid working model, we all do it anywhere at any time: in the office, at home, or on the move. Sometimes it’s via a video-equipped meeting room, sometimes it’s on our pro home office kit, other times our laptop or even our smartphone does the work.
However, if you look closely, it’s clear that differentiators do exist – and now science is helping to prove it.
Deep research is finding that virtual meetings conducted via specific video conferencing solutions can deliver a superior user experience. Levels of expressiveness, interaction, engagement, and trust have all been found to vary depending on the quality of the hardware.
Those critical aspects of user experience can be directly linked to levels of workforce productivity, efficiency, and, ultimately, organisational profitability, so it’s easy to see why it pays for enterprises to be discerning.
In short, choosing a provider for whom the science resonates - and whose solutions score big – is likely to deliver significant return on investment.
“We have believed for a long time that the overall meeting experience ultimately impacts the bottom line of any business as the more productive people feel, the more they contribute – however, now we know it to be a scientific fact,” says James Spencer, Video Solutions Director at leading global audio and video solutions provider Jabra, which has just published the results of a behavioural research study on the human impact of technology conducted jointly with the world-renowned London School of Economics.
“There is a lot going on in our minds when we are participating in a virtual meeting. We are hearing but are we listening? We are seeing but are we understanding? We are joining in the conversation but are we engaged? And, importantly, how much do we trust what is being said and who is saying it?
“These are sophisticated cognitive, psychological, and biological questions which are capable of directly affecting the performance of an enterprise or organization. And that means every business leader should be interested in the answers.”
The Jabra/LSE research project studied the behaviour of 88 participants of all ages and across 15 different nationalities. They all took part in two 60-minute real-world tasks whilst in one of four virtual interaction environments. The first mimicked a conference room equipped with the powerful Jabra PanaCast 50 video conferencing solution; the second mimicked a remote location where the Jabra PanaCast 20 personal video conferencing camera and flagship Evolve2 85 professional headset was deployed; the third mimicked a virtual meeting supported by a standard laptop’s in-built camera, microphone and speaker; and the fourth mimicked a competitor brand’s conference room videobar set-up.
