What You May Not Have Considered.

Welcome to part 2 of our ‘Selecting a Video Conferencing System? Here’s What You Need to Know‘ guide.

In part 1 we covered 6 key questions you should consider when choosing your video conferencing system, below are a list of additional considerations you should think about when making your decisions.

Additional Considerations

Excellent video and audio quality are essential in meeting the solution of device variety and user expectation. To achieve this, it is worth considering the environment the devices will be used in, as with room-based systems the details of the room itself becomes very important, whereas desk & mobile-based solutions have more limited choices. Consider;

• Lighting – Video Conferencing cameras will work with office-based levels of lighting but increasing the lighting a bit further will reduce the noise in the video image which will in turn reduce the bandwidth requirements. With desk-based video calls there is generally less that can be done about the lighting and on a mobile device the location will be unknown.
• Camera Location– Traditionally the camera is mounted above the screen, however, with screen sizes becoming larger over time, this is causing the cameras to be mounted higher which gives a very unnatural view and so it is becoming more common to mount below the screen. The actual view should be checked to make sure it is neither too high nor unnaturally low.
• Audio – Without video you can continue the call but without audio it is game over (or rather call over) unless everyone is good at semaphore. Headsets are highly recommended for laptop or desktop use, with more advanced and modern headsets having clever noise cancelling microphones to give excellent quality audio even without a boom mic. For room-based systems there are a range of solutions including varieties of desk and ceiling mics and all of these will be of limited use if the acoustics of the room are poor. The sound quality of rooms with hard surfaces will be significantly less than a room with some tailored absorption or use of soft surface treatments. Noise being transmitted through the wall/floor/ceiling or air conditioning system can be another issue caused by the room acoustics. Proper design of the room can save the solution from requiring acoustical treatment later.

Depending on how advanced your plans for your solution are, you might elect for allowing for desktop sharing and white-boarding and even integration with your line of business applications.

As mentioned in part 1, make sure you choose a video conferencing system that will be a great investment and tool for boosting your company’s communication profile. If you’re uncertain, consider calling in a professional to give you advice and evaluate your needs.

If you need support or advice in selecting or implementing a video conferencing system, please contact us. We’d love to help.