Video Conferencing Guide for New Startups and Companies

If you’re looking to try and improve your company’s communication capabilities, you might look at any possible alternatives to e-mail, phone or instant messaging. Powwow Now video conferencing could the answer to the prayers of many a business that worries about the cost and difficulty of speaking to clients from far afield.

For those of you intrigued by video conferencing and how it works, you may think that getting to grips with it is difficult. However, once you follow these steps, you’ll find that it’s as easy as learning how to send an e-mail or use instant messaging software:

• Make sure you have all the relevant equipment. As well as a strong broadband connection, you need at least two video cameras or webcams, microphones, speakers and either a monitor, projector or whiteboard.
• To make sure that everything runs smoothly, make sure you have a codec – decoder technology that helps to compress data being sent during your video conference call. This will minimise the risk of buffering or other delays.
• To ensure the sound is as clear as can be, download some echo cancellation software to enable real-time conversation, a staple of video conferencing.
• For your first attempt at video conferencing, decide whether you want to have a point-to-point or multi-point video conference. The former is for a one-to-one conversation, while the latter is best for a conversation involving three or more locations.
• Decide whether or not you want to centralise or decentralise your video conference. Centralising it is easier and uses less bandwidth, but decentralising means that the video and audio quality may actually improve.
• Invite who you want to your video conference and make sure they have the equipment (camera, microphone, speakers et al) necessary to participate. If they don’t, you cannot engage in a video conference with them.
• Make sure you have video conferencing software. This is hugely important, as it helps to do part of the job of setting up a video conference for you.

Once you’ve followed all these steps, you’re ready to start video conferencing as and when you need to, but make sure you’re prepared before starting.