Is personal conferencing working for TSR? Yes. Segrete says travel expenses have dropped dramatically, which makes clients, who foot the bill, happy. And meetings themselves are shorter. "When you travel across the country, somehow you feel obligated to make meetings longer," he says. Another unanticipated benefit: junior employees, who in the past never interacted with clients, are sitting in on ProShare meetings. "It's a good way to grow their skills," says Segrete.
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Low-cost videoconferencing is still in its infancy and suffers from some serious limitations. Regardless of whose product you use, you aren't going to get tv-quality video on your computer screen. Video quality, largely a factor of speed, is measured in frames per second. tv images move at 30 frames a second, which creates a real-life effect known as full-motion video. Even top-of-the-line videoconferencing equipment using high-speed leased phone lines provides a sub-TV 20 or so frames per second. On the PC-based products, computer images generally move slowly, in herky-jerky fashion, across the monitor. If you're transmitting video signals over ISDN phone lines, which most vendors require, you can expect about 15 frames per second -- which is often fine for business videoconference users.
Most phone companies now offer ISDN phone service, at a typical installation cost of about $90. You can get by without it: Creative Labs' ShareVision, for example, runs over regular phone lines, or "plain old telephone service" -- POTS, to true videoconferencers. But quality drops to around five frames per second. The image is like a still photograph that moves around a bit.
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Although it can be a very effective tool, videoconferencing is unlikely to replace one-on-one meetings altogether. Christian & Timbers Inc., a $10-million executive-search firm, conducts four or five videoconferences a day. When Jeff Christian, president and ceo, interviews job candidates for Apple and other high-tech clients, he always looks for four qualities: intellect, enthusiasm, leadership, and integrity. He feels comfortable evaluating the first three in a videoconference. "But I need to be in the same room to sense whether or not a candidate has integrity," says Christian.
Christian & Timbers started out using Kinko's videoconferencing service but recently outfitted conference rooms at its headquarters in Cleveland and branch offices in Boston and Cupertino, Calif. Christian, who conducts only preliminary interviews via videoconference, estimates that he spent $150,000 to set up the conference rooms, a figure that includes lighting, furniture, PCs, and PictureTel's product. In addition he's spent about $150,000 for Kinko's videoconferencing services, which he still uses occasionally. He estimates that he's saved tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs.
But he remembers something his grandfather told him: "Don't write anything you can't say over the phone; don't say anything over the phone you can't say in person." And, says Christian, "if my grandfather were here today, he'd say, 'Don't communicate via videoconference if you can communicate face to face.' So I still do as much as I can personally."
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Jennifer deJong (jdejong@mcimail.com) is a freelance writer based in Wilder, Vt.
QUICK REFERENCE
Category: Multipoint videoconferencing
Vendors: Avistar Systems, Palo Alto, CA (Avistar Collaboration System); Compression Labs Inc., San Jose, CA (Cameo)
Costs: Geared for networks. Priced at $3,000 per seat for workgroups of about 30. Price includes software, cameras, video boards, workstations, and servers.
Video quality: Excellent; 30 frames per second
Category: Rollabout systems
Vendors: PictureTel Corp., Danvers, MA (PictureTel Group Systems product line, including Venue 2000 and System 4000EX); vtel Corp., Austin, TX (S-Max Platform 127S)
Costs: Geared for conference-room use; stand-alone systems, designed solely for videoconferencing. Prices start at $13,000 and go to about $40,000. Price includes all hardware and software.
Video quality: Good; approximately 24 frames a second
Category: Desktop videoconferencing
Vendors: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA (QuickTime Conferencing); AT&T Global Information Solutions, Dayton, OH (AT&T Vistium Personal Video); Creative Labs Inc., Milpitas, CA (ShareVision PC3000); Intel Corp., Hillsboro, OR (Intel ProShare Personal Conferencing); PictureTel Corp., Danvers, MA (PictureTel LIVE PCS 50)
Costs: Geared for point-to-point video- and document-conferencing use; systems run on pcs. Priced from about $1,800 to $5,000 per workstation. Price typically includes software, video boards, and a camera.
Video quality: Fair to poor; 15 frames per second for products that use an ISDN phone line; 5 frames per second for Creative Labs' ShareVision, which uses standard phone lines
Videoconferencing Vendors
AT&T Vistium Personal Video
AT&T Global Information Solutions
Dayton, OH
800-637-2600
Intel ProShare Personal Conferencing
Intel Corp.
Hillsboro, OR
800-538-3373
Kinko's Service Corp.
Ventura, CA
800-743-copy
PictureTel live pcs 50
PictureTel Corp.
Danvers, MA
800-716-6000
QuickTime Conferencing
Apple Computer Inc.
Cupertino, CA
408-996-1010
ShareVision PC3000
Creative Labs Inc.
Milpitas, CA
800-998-5227
Bear in Mind
If face-to-face contact isn't an essential part of the business transaction, you're probably wasting your money on videoconferencing.
Be realistic. The video images you'll get from a $2,000 desktop system will move at only 15 frames per second -- half the speed of tv.
Most systems don't talk to one another yet. Make sure the party you want to do business with is equipped to take your call.
No matter how well it works for you, never let videoconferencing replace all of your one-on-one meetings.
