Subscriber Discussion

Customer Asked For A Video Conferencing Solution

JH
Jay Hobdy
Mar 14, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Customer asked for a solution that they can do demos, etc to an audience of around 10 people. Wouldn't gotomeeting or join.me be a better solution for this?

Is there a way to use an external camera with these programs?

 

I do not have many details, we are meeting in a couple days to discuss this and their mobile requirements

U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 14, 2017

Zoom. Definitely the best video conferencing I've found. 

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Brian Karas
Mar 14, 2017
IPVM

"Video conferencing" is often used to refer to something like CiscoLifesize, or Polycom, where each end point has specialized hardware, and the system is often used so that people in distant locations can see each other talking as if they were in the same conference rooms. These systems often have document cameras and whiteboard-sharing add-ons so that each end can do ad-hoc designs, sharing, etc. Video conferencing typically focuses on the clarity and resolution of the video and audio components and will have large TVs to make the person on the other end seem to be as "in the room" with you as possible. Because of the specialized hardware and large screens, these are often setup in conference rooms (though all do have portable systems that you can wheel into an office).

Join.meWebex, etc. are often called Screen Sharing/Web Conferencing/Remote Meeting tools, and are primarily used to share (and sometimes collaborate on) documents/files/presentations. They often have an audio component, and the ability to share a live image via a webcam or laptop cam, but will tend to prefer bandwidth savings over image quality so you rarely get a "lifelike" image. Because these are all software-based and do not require special hardware, they can be installed and used on most laptops, tablets, mobile phones, etc. Presenters and attendees typically join the meeting from their individual desks/offices, etc. Most of these also have options for external cameras, though I am not sure if you can share a live image of the presenter and an image from a second camera at the same time, if that matters.

I can't tell from your question if the customer really wants "video conferencing" or "web conferencing" (and at this point, they may not know either, but hopefully you can explain the differences to them).

Hope that helps.

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Richard Lavin
Mar 14, 2017
Salas O'Brien • IPVMU Certified

Brian hit a lot of good points on the difference between "video conferencing" and "web conferencing" (web conferencing is also often referred to as Unified Communications).  So, the first thing that needs to be answered is, do they really need full-blown video conferencing, or just web conferencing?

Some other things to think about or ask:

1.) They say they want to do a demo for about 10 people.  Are those 10 people in a single location, or are they 10 individuals that would be connecting from different locations?  Stated another way, do they need point-to-point or point-to-multipoint conferencing?

2.) Do they have control over what type of system (hardware and/or software) the remote end points are using?  As an example, my company has offices in Dallas, San Diego and UK.  We often have presentations or company meetings at our Dallas office that the San Diego and UK people will attend via video conference.  In that case, we have control over the hardware/software for all of the conference end points.  Conversely, if they need anyone to be able to connect from anywhere and they don't know what systems they have, they may need a "conference bridge" service (aka gateway) such as BlueJeans.  This would especially be the case if they need "real" video conferencing and need to connect end point codecs from different manufacturers. Cisco, Polycom, Lifesize, etc. typically don't talk directly to each other.  Cisco and Polycom have their own conferencing bridges that can be purchased but they are ridiculously expensive, especially when you get into higher numbers of end points.  Unless they do these video conferences all the time, it more cost effective to use a conference bridging service and just pay as they go.  Also note, pretty much all of the video conferencing hardware manufacturers also provide apps for desktops/laptops or mobile devices.  That means (for example) a Polycom hardware codec in their main demo room could conference with a bunch of laptops and mobile devices running the Polycom app as endpoints.  Additionally, most of these hardware codecs can also connect with Skype for Business/Microsoft Lync without requiring a gateway.

3.) Do they want/need archival recording of the demos?  Perhaps they want to be able to put links to videos of past demos on their web site?  If so, that is a whole new can of worms and there are a large number of can openers you can use to open it.  

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