New Video Conferencing Options for Telecommuting

We've been testing and playing around with ideas related to telecommuting and video conferencing for quite some time now. We just released a new product offering related to using webcams for telecommuting. One of the problems we had always dealt with was just getting sufficient bandwidth in order to use the systems. Then the systems were always in a conference room somewhere that everyone had to share. With this new product, we are using H.264SVC which allows us to monitor and adjust to the user's available bandwidth and provide excellent quality. We are using Logitech webcams on PCs. Now, I can go anywhere and have a video conference (audi and video) with my staff or other employees.

Below is a picture of a meeting I held a few months ago. The picture doesn't show the real quality of the picture. We had 3 guys with older single processor laptops and 3 guys with new dual core process laptops. The dual core processor laptops performed much better. The video does put a load on the processors, but that will change over time. In this picture we all used headsets, but most of the time I use a USB speakerphone (ClearOne Chat 50) that does wonders.

















Today was one of those days that I just wasn't feeling as well. Instead of being in the office at 7:30am (70 minutes from home), I had my directors join me on a video con call instead. I was at home on a cable modem and they were in their respective offices. I was able to complete the call, get status updates on all projects, and then go back to bed. Pretty cool (other than I wasn't feeling well). It is changing the way we are working and will hopefully help our customers as well.

We are starting to hear lots of new ways to use the technology. We use it for meetings. One customer talked about using it as a way to put their mascot in front of kids at schools without having to actually make as many trips to the school. Now the mascot can "visit" 10-20 schools in one day instead of 3-4.

Have ideas on how this might help others? Just let me know.

Wayne