Video conferencing is quickly charting the same path that email did, and soon might end up a must-have tool for businesses. Organizations and people are using video conferencing on a daily basis for both business and social purposes. This is increasing the adoption of the technology, and therefore its popularity, especially in the case of web conferencing.
In this article, we will explore the top trends in this sector that will change how we collaborate.
1. The Quality of Video Conferencing Is Improving – and it’s Getting Cheaper
The most significant trend in video conferencing is the improvement of video conferencing technology’s effectiveness coupled with a reduction in its cost. The latest video conferencing technology comes with improved security, crystal-clear sound and images, room-wide video conferencing capabilities, improved reliability, reduced lag, improved meeting recording capabilities, efficient file sharing capabilities, and much more. These developments have improved business video conferencing and made it a standard tool in the modern world that we live in.
Fortunately, these improvements have coincided with a reduction in the cost of video conferencing. Increased competition and improved efficiencies are some of the reasons video conferencing is increasingly becoming cheaper with each passing year. However, improved internet coverage and increased capacity have also helped to make data-intensive activities such as video conferencing and webinars very cost-effective as well.
2. Video Conferencing Is Increasingly Cost-Effective
Traditionally, the main financial benefit that businesses have seen from video conferencing has been a reduction in travel costs. By making use of video conferencing for business, companies do not have to incur the cost of travel and accommodation when sending their employees somewhere; meetings are held online via the chosen video conferencing services.
The latest developments in the video conferencing sector have made this reduction of costs even more effective. For instance, today’s businesses can use room-based video conferencing rather than traditional individual-to-individual video conferencing. As such, video conferencing can be – and is being – used for much more than in the previous years, including team collaborations and brainstorming, interviews, and more.
Additionally, the rise of webinar meetings as an offshoot of one-to-one tech has enabled video conferencing for business solutions, allowing companies to train employees across the globe without having to send company representatives to all the branches and outlets.
3. The Democratization of Video Conferencing Is Changing Workplace Structure
For a very long time, video conferencing was exclusively used by the senior staff in typical organizations, which meant that as a tool, it was underutilized. However, with the reduction in cost, improvement in capacity, simplification of function, and increased awareness, video conferencing has permeated all levels of business organizations. Individual employees now have access to video conferencing as a tool to use daily.
The democratization of video conferencing has tied in very well with the newfound demands for workplace environment, like the need for increased flexibility and mobility. Workers can now work right from their homes by using video conferencing to stay connected; they can work and travel without compromising the quality of their daily output and their contribution to the employer. The nomad life, where people live and work from anywhere in the world, is seemingly in its infancy and will only grow moving into the future. This brings into focus another of the many benefits of video conferencing.
4. Browser-Based Video Conferencing Is Fast Becoming the Norm
With the use of WebRTC, the free and open-source web-based video conferencing technology, it is now possible to make conference video calls (or voice calls, data sharing, etc.) without downloading anything. This has done away with the old system of installing fully fledged, permanent video conferencing systems in offices. Modern-day video conferencing solutions now involve common hardware, including mobile devices like smartphones and webcams. Importantly, the software running these systems and the data generated from the conference calls are now stored in the cloud, freeing business organizations from having to worry about managing and paying for data storage.
5. Top Tech Companies Are Investing in – and Consolidating – Video Technology
Recent surveys of business decision-makers found over three-quarters of their respondents use video conferencing in their work, with 56% of the respondents saying they use video conferencing at least once every week.
Seeing an opportunity within the tremendous benefits of video conferencing, the leading technology companies – Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook – have shown an interest in this sector and are investing in mass-market solutions. All of them eyeing a dominant position in this market. Each of these companies is not only integrating video conferencing into their already extant platforms and products – like Facebook adding video conferencing to WhatsApp – they are also collaborating with hardware manufacturers to produce video conferencing solutions as a partnership. For example, Microsoft is collaborating with Logitech to make Microsoft Skype Room Systems.
However, as an alternative to the "one size fits all" technology that the larger companies are working on, which mostly target individuals and social applications, there are a handful of other companies offering specialized video conferencing solutions to businesses in a bespoke and customized manner.
These solutions tend to be more optimized to meet the needs of individual businesses, as well as more feature-rich when it comes to collaboration tools such as screen sharing and API integration. As such, businesses do not need to alter their communication structures and systems to suit a product, but instead are able to deal with a solution that meets, and can adapt to, their precise needs.
6. Inter-Company Video Conferences Are Increasing in Popularity
During the infancy of web conferencing through its emergence as a viable everyday technology, video conferencing has tended to take place internally within a company, rather than being a general communications tool. Even though businesses had installed dedicated video conferencing technology, it could typically only be used directly within the company's own infrastructure and offices.
The advent and proliferation of web conferencing have allowed businesses to use video technology for communication not just within a company, but with partners, vendors, and clients as well. More businesses are using video conferencing for interviews, for collaborating with partner companies, for consultations with experts, for sales webinars, for company training, and much more.
As previously stated, the benefits of video conferencing for business continue to increase. With the costs continuing to decrease, video conferencing will become even more widely accepted in the business world than it already is – a way to make business more personal.
MegaMeeting solves the biggest challenges of modern video conferencing. For users, it is an all-in-one platform that delivers both video conferencing and webinars in a single, simplified interface. For attendees, it is 100% browser-based, making it highly accessible; joining a meeting is instantaneous from a single click. For enterprises, it is highly customizable, with white-labeling options for a private branded solution. For developers, it is API-driven and easy to integrate.
Powered by WebRTC, Node.js, React, and GraphQL, it is a cutting-edge platform that is fun and easy to use for users and developers alike.
