The Future of Video Conferencing – The Party Has Just Begun!

Future trends on videoconferencing received an unwanted but undeniably productive boost from the tragic events of September 11, 2001. In the post 9/11 world the video conferencing future suddenly became more attractive than ever to the 70% percent of the population that indicated they were looking for an alternative to travel. The ability to decrease the need for business travel is still one of the most often quoted benefits of implementing videoconferencing technologies.

Prior to Sept. 11 some 44.3% of business people believed these emerging conferencing technologies were important to them personally. After the events of that day the number jumped to 63.9%. Seventy-eight percent of respondents to a survey in 2002 said they believed that conferencing technologies would allow them to get more work done and keep them more competitive in their industries. This trend of acceptance in videoconferencing technology has only continued to grow.

Where is Video Conferencing Headed in the Future?

In the years since 9/11 improvements in technology and the increasing availability and speed of broadband connections has carried video conferencing to the desktop PC. Most pundits agree that these developments represent the real future of video conference applications. Single-user, hardware-based conferencing systems still cost in a range from $600 to $3000, but software-clients that can be paired with inexpensive webcams (some webcams are themselves as cheap as $20) have fallen to $150.

While videoconferencing can still utilize the public telephone network, sessions are increasingly channeled over private LAN networks and the Internet. Real interactive video communication requires a data stream of 300 to 400 Kbps (even LAN video conferencing) and it is important to estimate how many simultaneous sessions a network can support.

For instance, a T-1 line offers 1.5 Mbps in each direction and could easily support three simultaneous 384 Kbps videoconferences. Much of the future of video conferencing as a method for even intra-office communications depends on the increasing capacity and speed of broadband connections.

Multipoint conferencing can be conducted with software or with special hardware. Individually, these multi-user interactions consume bandwidth as a factor of the overall “pipe” allocated for the conference. Most multipoint conferences are, consequently, still conducted with special hardware but it is only a matter of time until these multi-user sessions have moved to the desktop as well.

It is estimated that some 80% of videoconferences, especially those involving groups, are still carried out over ISDN lines. This is true, in part, because broadband IPs are still so expensive in Europe. More and more, however, future trends in video conferencing are driving this traffic to IP networks because ISDN lines are less and less available in the U.S., are cranky to configure, and are subject to interruption.


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