Over the years Telework International has run several articles on video conferencing as we believe that this technology will eventually have a significant impact on remote work and alternative officing practices.
The past articles have focused on three basic types of video conferencing products. The room unit is a product which is permanently located in a specific video conferencing room and is suitable for groups of over 10 people. The room product represents the highest level of quality and cost while offering the lowest level of flexibility in terms of location.
The next step down is the roll-about unit. This unit is usually on a rather large stand which is supposed to be "rolled" from location to location. My experience has been that this type of unit typically stays in one room since it is usually heavy and awkward to move. The roll-about can work for groups of up to 10 people. It is significantly lower in cost than the fixed room unit and is probably the most common form of video conferencing found today.
The third level of video conferencing is the desktop unit. This unit attaches to your personal computer and allows you to video conference from any location where you have a PC and the appropriate phone lines (usually at least one ISDN line). The desktop unit is the least expensive but is usually limited to one or two users.
Up until recently there has been quite a gap between the desktop unit and the roll-about. Many users have chosen not to get into video conferencing because they were not prepared to pay the cost of the roll-about and were at the same time unhappy with the limitations of the desktop units. PictureTel, one of the leading video conferencing vendors, has addressed this issue with its latest product "SwiftSite - Compact Video Conferencing System."
SwiftSite is a fully integrated video conferencing system that weighs just ten pounds. To use this product the user must have an ISDN line(s), an ordinary television monitor and electrical power. The one unit system includes speakers, microphone and lens in a machine that should be as easy to connect as your VCR (those of you who have your VCR's flashing 12:00 may be challenged by this new technology).
This new product will likely be very popular and will provide users with an affordable solution to group video conferencing. It is good to see the continued developments in this field as we at Telework International strongly believe that video-based communication will start to become mainstream within the next three years.
CONTACT:
PictureTel Corporation
phone: (800) 716-6000 (within United States)
(508) 292-5000 (worldwide)
web: www.picturetel.com
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