We all hold meetings on a daily basis. Most of which is through conventional means like audio bridge calls. Though voice calls are still the most utilized communication mechanism, the industry is trending rapidly towards video. Remember when two people start talking at the same time on an audio call? Or there is an abrupt silence or a situation where you are trying hard to speak but can’t because someone else is talking continuously? This confusion happens because we lose the visual cues that help drive a conversation. To make meetings more productive organizations are adopting the use of video. Here are a few reasons why you should schedule your next team meeting over video:
1. Improved Communication – Video conferencing restores many visual cues that are necessary for long-distance communication. Non-verbal communication constitutes about two-thirds of communication between people. For instance, eye contact enables us to understand the meaning of a message from a speaker that voice communication alone may not completely convey, thus creating essential social bonds and shared understandings. With audio conferencing, these non-verbal cues do not exist.
2. Lessens Opportunities for Misinterpretation – According to PC Tech Magazine, video sessions also help eliminate the miscommunication that often occurs during the exchange of ideas between team members. This is because emotionless audio calls or emails leave room for open interpretation, and people may misread the purpose of an important point. Video conferencing, however, reduces confusion since people can grasp unspoken elements or reiterate facts that may have initially been misunderstood.
3. Reduce Decision Making Time – The sharing of visual content could previously only be done with an in-person meeting. Now, thanks to video collaboration, teams can immediately share and provide feedback as soon as it is required. In an instant, colleagues can share notes, designs, and visually see their reactions in real-time.
4. Conferencing Quality – All of the pros and cons of video conferencing depend on network quality. Early versions of video conferencing had uneven clarity of the audio and video broadcast. Today, state-of-the-art technology like WebRTC can deliver clear, reliable audio and video quality, making this previous disadvantage a thing of the past.
5. Troubleshoot Problems – Some companies use their video conferencing systems to troubleshoot technical problems. Instead of having a technician travel between facilities they simply hop on a quick video conference call so they can see the problem and hopefully fix it within minutes.
6. Allow for True Collaboration and Team Building – According to a study by Fraunhofer Institute, teams who worked together via video conferencing rather than email and phone were more productive. Specifically, “81% of participants said that, on phone and email, the task felt divided rather than united – whereas video-conferencing delivered genuine collaboration,” and “74% felt that decisions reached through video-conferencing felt more like joint decisions than those reached via phone/email.”
There are an infinite amount of use cases and benefits of video collaboration. For example, interviewing candidates is now much easier through video conferencing. With it, your business can reduce unproductive travel time and decrease your carbon footprint. The list of ways to incorporate video goes on and on. TetraVX helps you to design and deploy the best video solution according to your requirements, providing you a cost-effective, customized solution based on your desired end-user experience. To learn more about video collaboration, contact us at [email protected]