Conferencing Services Telepresence Facilities Video Conferencing Facilities

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Professions That Use Video Conferencing


Professions that use video conferencing are professions that interact with people.  If you work with people, sell to people, buy from people, counsel people, teach people, learn from people, or communicate with people, you very well could be using technology to see and hear those people during a videoconference.  The advantage of this tool is that added communication level attained when you can see the person you are talking with; their facial expressions and even body language filling in where mere audio has gaps.

Many boardrooms carry video conferencing equipment as a standard tool to enable staff meetings with remote workers.  This can be useful, enabling branch offices to connect with the main office or telecommuters discuss the week’s agenda with supervisors.  Businesses conduct interviews with potential employees and meet with clients with this tool eliminating travel expenses and time.  Training seminars are easily attended by an individual or a team.  But video conferencing is useful in many other professions.

Education can be greatly enhanced by the video conference.  Cyber-schooling is now available for elementary, secondary, and higher education with classes conducted online in a video format, with student interaction, and with whiteboard illustrations.  Small school districts can have one teacher with a combined class for several schools so their students have access to AP courses. Tutoring in specific subjects can occur between two laptops or a music student could potentially use higher-end equipment to have voice lessons with a teacher across the globe.  Medical students can sit in lectures and discussions can be had with students in coffee shops and living rooms and quads. Graduate students can interview with potential schools in between classes without the time and expense of travel.

The medical field is a natural for the videoconference.  Rural residents facing hours of drive time to reach a specialist could consult in a remote clinic that accesses all the expertise needed by a high quality videoconferencing set up with a medical center.  A team of caregivers can consult at a moment's notice about a challenging case and view charts, reports, and current patient status together.

Counseling can be done in videoconference or a support group meeting held in a virtual meeting room in the cloud.  Participants can access the room with whatever device they have and interact with the entire group, sharing their stories and watching the faces of friends as they help one another with the problems they face.

The arts can be incredibly collaborative with brainstorming sessions and design development occurring electronically as often as needed. With some applications it can be as simple as a phone call yet with the added ability to share documents and sketch ideas.  Logos can be created with continual input from the client as the artist makes an idea a reality.  Illustrations can be adjusted without miscommunication as easily as sitting at the same table over coffee. 

Any enterprise involving design between client and creator relies on accurate communication for a mutually satisfying result.  Communication in fact is the oil that makes the machinery of all enterprise run smoothly.  Videoconferencing increases communication when limited by time and location enabling any profession to be more successful.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Online Meeting Rooms Are Everywhere


Online meeting rooms are popping up all over the internet.  A quick search shows about 152,000,000 results!  Some of these are irrelevant, like booking a room at the public library online, but most are actual sites of businesses offering software and services to allow you to meet online with whomever you need to talk to for business, education, and more.

Once, the arena of videoconferencing was out of reach for all but the largest corporations.  Now, there are myriad opportunities for the small business owner or entrepreneur to utilize this essential tool of modern business.  There even are free trials available so you can explore the world of web conferencing services and see what fits your unique enterprise.

An online meeting room is essentially a dedicated spot on the internet that allows two or more people to simultaneously share information at the same time.   There can be standard or high definition video, sound, split screens to see other participants, whiteboard demonstrations, document sharing, and more.  You can have a small, simple discussion or a webinar with up to 1,000 attendees.  Some services offer multiple plans to fit your needs and the ability to record meetings, file sharing, annotation tools, scheduling, privacy control, and the ability to assign roles to participants.

A private room, leased for a monthly fee, often allows your branding with your own logos and colors.  You can provide on-demand presentations and courses, online training, and customize the program to match your organization.  You can customize your webinar sign-up form to your preference and send thank you notes when the webinar is over.  Some programs allow you to save the files you share on your site and send the attendees an URL instead of a problematic attachment.

Imagine easily using surveys, quizzes and polls to get feedback from your attendees.  Some services allow feedback during the meeting with integrated emoticons!  That feature could be helpful with a large audience.  The flexibility to interact with hundreds of people or a few without the expense of travel and accommodations makes even a pricier service a wise bargain.

If all you need to do is share your desktop for team meetings, sales demos, training, tutoring, or brainstorming, you can find free services that allow you to share your desktop with up to 20 attendees.  A monthly fee based on number of attendees will allow real-time collaboration with a whiteboard and other tools.  All the adaptability you need for your enterprise is found with a little research.

The advantages of using online meeting rooms are many.  You have flexibility to plan for scheduled meetings or spontaneously call an emergency brainstorming session.  You don’t have to spend time and money on travel expenses and sacrifice family or work time in airports and hotels.  Your carbon footprint is smaller because you are conserving energy but your relational impact with colleagues in increased because you still are meeting face to face.  Your work is more effective because you can get back to it after the session without travel time or jet lag.  Employees can work from home, flexing their schedule around family obligations and giving you quality time when on the job.

Explore the world of online meeting rooms and find the solution that solves your enterprise problems.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Vidyo Takes Videoconferencing To A New Level

It has been estimated that there will be 200,000,000 desktop videoconference users by 2015.  In addition, the tablet and smartphone market is only increasing, and those users will almost certainly aim to leverage their internet and 3G/4G wireless networks to join colleagues in a videoconference for school, work, or a medical consultation.  This modern communication tool has expanded far past the traditional business conference boardroom with its costly hardware and IT support model.  What is needed is a mobile, cloud-based meeting place that can be accessed with any standard device and yet has the quality of communication required in today’s marketplace.

Vidyo has invented “any-to-any personal telepresence,” a videoconferencing technology that is able to intelligently adapt video resiliency without sacrificing quality.  Dropped calls, delays, and distortion are no longer a problem because the Vidyo Adaptive Video Layering Architecture uses scalable video coding to seamlessly compensate for the variables in the network and deliver low-latency telepresence -quality video communication to any device connected to the internet, even those with lower bandwidth environments.  This allows natural, face-to-face meetings anywhere, anytime.  Service providers use the Vidyo Conferencing solution to create and offer private or public hosted video conferencing and cloud services, allowing options suitable for any enterprise.

Vidyo has the U.S. Department of Defense certification for Joint Interoperability Test Command, passing a stringent set of security-based information assurance and interoperability tests.  It delivers end-to-end encryption, giving security assurance for a number of fields, such as government and healthcare.

In the medical arena, this translates to HIPAA-compliant security and allows support for a variety of uses.  It integrates into existing conferencing infrastructure and enhances healthcare environments like cart systems and smart rooms, home health care, speech and language therapy, remote consultations and patient diagnostics.

Education is a natural for the flexibility of Vidyo.  Students, from early elementary through university, can use a laptop to talk to a teacher in a classroom far away.  Smaller school districts can have one specialty teacher giving classes in higher level math, for instance, within their budget.  Lectures, discussions, and research collaboration can occur on everyday networks with off-the-shelf hardware and cost a fraction of that spent on conventional video systems.

Vidyo solutions are fully customizable for your unique enterprise.  You can link room systems, desktops, and mobile endpoints with ordinary IP networks using an award-winning software-based platform.  Vidyo’s software-based technology is the next generation of videoconferencing.  It allows you to connect mobile service, desktop and room system users everywhere, securely and reliably in your enterprise cloud.  It is the only solution that brings the entire spectrum of end users and their assorted devices to the same virtual conference table at a reasonably affordable cost.

Friday, June 8, 2012

What A Video Conferencing System Can Do For Your Business


Today’s workplace includes a growing number of telecommuters who use the flexibility of their schedule to accomplish a great deal outside the traditional confines of the cubicle.  Where a midmorning business meeting in a conference room once allowed regular updates and consistency in ongoing projects, the internet has become the medium for connecting with other members of the work team.

While email has its place, there is often a need for a video conferencing system that provides virtual sharing and editing of documents and optimal communication of face-to-face interaction.  Programs like Skype are notorious for their instability and lack the ability to share documents efficiently.  There are videoconferencing facilities available through brokers like Whygo, and often these rooms are a good solution for a business but sometimes a less costly, more individualized and flexible solution is needed.

Now you can be connected to a coworker or client in moments with high quality face-to-face communications.

Here are some of the things that a video conferencing system can do for your business:
  • Provide you with a way to hold one-to-one personal meetings with colleagues in another country or U.S. state
  • Help you host a one-to-many seminar with your entire company or a department within your business, even if all the participants are in different locations
  • Through telepresence technology, make each member of a video conference feel as if they are sitting in the same room
  • Share documents across a wide geographical area with one person or with many over the Internet
  • Schedule a teleconference room remotely through Outlook
  • Sync calendars with clients and colleagues in other locations 

A video conferencing system should be able to bridge the communication gaps between you and your workforce. Whether you are an executive who needs to reach your entire company across several continents, a division manager who wants to hold intra-office brainstorming sessions, or a business owner who needs to use video to make sales calls, the right video conferencing system can save your money on travel and other expenses while making your entire company more efficient from the top down.

Instead of sending your employees on endless flights across country or around the world to attend meetings that cost your company hundreds of thousands of dollars, you can host a video conference that costs one-tenth the amount that you would have spent fifteen years ago.

With Whygo's video conference booking platform you can now only book single rooms for video conferencing or telepresence meetings, but you can also book multiple rooms at once so that your colleagues on the other side of the world can schedule their commitments. Take advantage of the best video conferencing system on the planet, which uses state-of-the-art technology to deliver virtual meetings unlike any meeting you've ever encountered.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Live Video Conferencing Is No Longer A Figment Of Imagination


In the past, the idea of a live video conference seemed to be a figment of an author’s imagination.  Science fiction novels and movies had people talking to one another while looking at each other. Even cartoons like “The Jetsons” used video communication, but those ideas were not a reality when they were conceived.  Today’s technological advances have made fiction a reality.

Written communication has some advantages: you can reread what was written and edit it as needed, hoping to clarify your words so that the reader understands what you are trying to say and the words have a permanence that non-recorded discussions lack.  The problem is that communication involves more than words.  Tone of voice, facial expression, even body language can all play a part in expression of thought.

During a live video conference, the participants’ faces are seen simultaneously on screens that other participants view.  Everybody sees everybody else, just like sitting at a table together.  Everyone also hears everyone else (unless particular screening technology is used) so it is in truth a ‘real time’ meeting with people you want to talk to.  This is not a one-way broadcast.  Goofing off or reading your email during a video conference has the same consequences it does in a board meeting!

A videoconference is a wise use of resources, eliminating the time and expense of travel to confer with colleagues.  You have the advantage of a face-to-face discussion without the cost of being away from other tasks or family to journey to the meeting.  You can invest your money in a reusable resource--your technology--and give your clients and staff increased flexibility. 

There are a wide range of options for using technology to hold live videoconferences.  Some services are cloud-based allowing any device that can access a wireless internet site to meet ‘in the cloud’ to discuss ideas.  Participants could be in a coffee shop, a hotel, a home office, or workspace and have anything from a smartphone or tablet to a laptop, desktop, or business grade phone system and they all could connect because the cloud-based service is not dependent upon the device used.  Other systems rely on software or equipment to enable connection.  You can even rent aroom equipped with what you need to have a conference with team members in another country, who are renting a corresponding room.  There are thousands of venues globally available for this option.

A quick search on the internet will bring up many avenues to explore when you decide to have this type of meeting.  Clarify what your enterprise needs to accomplish in communication and effectiveness and use your list to see what you can do with your current devices, then try a few live videoconferences with some of the many free trial offers.  Once you have seen the advantages of this tool, dream a little about what you could do with it and turn your dream into a reality.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Cisco's Telepresence Technology Connects The World

The ultimate in videoconferencing is telepresence.  Some have even observed that Cisco’s Telepresence system is an entirely different league than the run-of-the-mill videoconference experience.  In a telepresence meeting, participants are life-sized with no delay when moving or talking.  You can actually look them in the eye and make the mistake of trying to pass them a piece of paper through the screen because they seem to be across the table from you.

Cisco has come up with a lot of options for those who need a high-quality interaction with remote team members.  This saves more than money: It reduces your carbon footprint by lowering the amount of resources spent on travel and increases productivity by allowing your team members to be flexible in their workspace and schedule.  You can call a quick meeting or have efficient regular updates with employees, clients, customers, and colleagues.  Your communication is excellent with telepresence because all the nuances of expression, tone of voice, and body language are available so you do not sacrifice quality for efficiency.

The new benchmark for telepresence is Cisco’s TX9000 Series, a three-screen, immersive audio/visual experience that plans for future expansion into “high-intensity collaboration” allowing a dynamic interaction with content not previously possible.  This system also helps reduce the total cost of ownership, a welcome factor in investing in the technology a business needs to stay current.  There are two products, the one-row system seating up to six people and the two-row system seating up to 18 people.  The three video streams and one high-definition, full-motion content-sharing stream deliver “the ultimate immersive telepresence experience.”

Cisco’s Telepresence MCU 5300 Series is a standards-based, stackable system allowing your initial investment in videoconferencing services to be upgraded as needed and configured as your business develops.  It offers a low-risk and cost-effective solution for communicating effectively with multiple colleagues.

You can enhance your communication with partners and customers with the Cisco TelePresence VCS solution.  This supports a variety of devices and works in unifying systems transparently, facilitating your videoconferencing needs in a simple and efficient manner to bring high-quality telepresence services to a mass audience.

Looking to enhance your current conference table or room?  The Cisco Telepresence TX1300 Series is a single-screen, three-camera system that is designed for different environments and room sizes with limited space or bandwidth.  All meeting participants are life-size on the screen, illuminated by integrated lighting (no weird shadows!) and interaction is automatic, voice-activated, and natural.  Another option, the SX20 Quick Set easily turns a flat panel display into a telepresence system with three camera choices, dual screen options, and multipoint support for three additional callers.

The military, emergency response teams, construction, oil, or gas industries are all examples of extreme outdoor fields that can use Cisco Telepresence VX Tactical systems in their work.  This is portable and rugged, weather/impact resistant with a screen optimized for outdoor viewing and is easily carried.  A secondary camera and display can even be set up in a shelter to create a room-based telepresence environment in extremely remote locations.

With Public Cisco TelePresence Suites, pay-by-the-hour facilities are available world-wide.  There are subscription-based services available with Cisco technology as well.  This brings the advantages of face-to-face interaction with far-flung associates within reach for less than the cost of airfare and hotel. 

Any enterprise that involves people can be benefited by one of Cisco’s TelePresence options.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Telepresence Rooms Must Be Properly Designed


When you're using telepresence rooms it's important to have an immersive experience. You want the best and most natural meeting experience possible so your contacts, clients and employees can have a predictable participatory discussion that is free from distractions. This includes the design of the telepresence rooms, which must have excellent lighting and audio components, meet recommended dimensions, adequate power, and HVAC requirements as well.

Small distractions can build up when human beings are in uncomfortable surroundings. You may even want to go so far as to include certain colors on the walls, framed art, and pay special attention to the fabrics and textures of the furniture and flooring as well. This gives the telepresence rooms an overall look and feel that is in keeping with the branding and image of your company.

When discussing important and critical business through telepresence meetings face-to-face, the communication and interaction should be as clear and natural as possible. This creates the greatest chance of overall understanding of what has been discussed so everyone at the meeting is on the same page. There are some elements of the room that should be in place that will help with this seamless experience.

Make sure the room has been treated with the best acoustical materials and architectural interior design. The lighting must be optimal for reading and viewing video without being irritating to the eyes. When these principle elements are applied it's called “room remediation.” The company that provides the telepresence rooms should be able to tell you exactly what the rooms include to make your meeting as distraction-free as possible. Having said this, there should be room for flexibility as well.

Know if anyone attending the meeting has special needs of any kind. Perhaps one of the attendees is physically challenged or has trouble with their vision. Take these conditions into consideration. Something as simple as incorrect or insufficient lighting can create poor video quality, which can be an interference.

Ultimately, you want everyone on both sides of the telepresence meeting to feel like they are having a real face-to-face meeting. This will engage everyone to a greater degree, which can only provide a higher level of energy and creativity to the task at hand. Instead of feeling inhibited by the sense that the more they move and talk the less will be heard and understood, your participants can freely contribute.

Scientific studies show that as human beings we gain most of our understanding and communication through physical cues and facial expressions when we speak to each other. If you can't be in the same room for a meeting, then finding the best telepresence rooms with the best equipment is the next best thing.

There are a number of successful and meticulous companies who offer this service. Make sure you check to see if they have rooms in areas near where your participants can gather. If the participants need to travel too long of a distance to get to the meeting, it can defeat the entire purpose of why you set up the meeting via telepresence. Know where your people are and where they can meet. It's good business.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Calendar Sync Applications Are Your Best Friend


The toughest part about a telepresence meeting is getting everyone there who needs to be there at the right time and the right place. After that it's usually a breeze. There’s calendar sync software that many telepresence facilities use which helps you set appointments, send invitations to participants and make sure the rooms are booked at the right time. It's important though that everyone who is supposed to attend check the calendar regularly before the scheduled time for any updates.

Most calendar sync systems are compatible with all the major operating systems, so that’s not usually an issue for the participants of the meeting. Determine which software application host has the most current and relevant meeting information. This will help to avoid any potential problems down the line. Once you've determined the calendar sync system you want to use, keep a backup of the schedule. Knowing you have this data will allow you to keep everyone informed of the meeting details and any updates at any time.

The best way to do this is to have everyone who will be participating in the meeting log into the calendar sync application on the telepresence facility's website. There is usually a choice as to which server you want to access the program from, which eliminates calendar sync troubles.

Once you book the room and lock in the time, everyone who is part of the meeting will get a confirmation message instantly. Of course, the calendar sync system can bring people together from all over the world. No matter where your participants are situated around the world, the calendar sync application gets everyone to the meeting on time and engaged.

The synchronization operations area of the telepresence facility's website will show you when any information in the server database was last updated as well as updated meetings, schedules for a time and date and any other information you need to relay to your participants. You can also call the telepresence facility's help center to verify any details.

You can then go back into the calendar sync application and make any necessary changes to the schedule. The calendar sync application is a complex technological system that makes scheduling very convenient for teleconference meetings.

For the best experience in the scheduling and calendar sync sections of a telepresence website, use it efficiently. If you are the one responsible for organizing the meeting, then be thoroughly prepared before you actually book the room for the smoothest and most pleasant conference experience.

Other advantages to using a calendar sync system at the same telepresence facility each time is the ability to allow the system to remember your company information. That way you don’t have to re-enter it as well as allowing the system to present your company branding when participants are checking the data. An added bonus is the elimination of excessive phone calls to confirm appointments between participants and no need for faxes. The calendar sync application does all this for you. 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012


Video conferencing technology could be considered a toolbox of aids to business function & growth.  There are many things in this toolbox, all useful and appropriate for specific needs.  Whygo, a videoconferencing broker for over 70% of the world’s major bridging providers, has opened their toolbox online to offer you access to extremely competitive video, audio, and web conferencing rates.  We have excellent customer service reps to help you choose the tools you need for your business no matter if the connections are to desktop (PC) or boardroom, private or public, ISDN or IP, Standard Definition or High Definition, or even Tele-Presence locations.

For a personal telepresence service with high definition audio & video on your computer over the internet, Whygo uses the Vidyo system to offer the best quality video picture and sound over standard broadband connections allowing you to use your current compatible boardroom video conferencing system or any other broadband connection such as a home, hotel, or coffee shop.

Unlike a flash or Java-based system, Vidyo uses Scalable Video Coding to take the best parts of the picture and sounds and removing poorer quality bits.  The result is less freezing and pixilation with more useable bandwidth for your videoconference.  The processing power of your PC and the speeds of the broadband internet connection can deliver up to HD quality desktop video conferencing to multiple users at one time.  For many businesses, this is a simple, reliable, inexpensive solution for an increasingly mobile workforce.

Another tool in the video conferencing toolbox is audio conferencing; on-demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week without the need to make a reservation.  You dial a permanent number and enter a conference code to access a variety of features allowing you to control and secure your conference; muting all callers except the chairperson, locking the conference to additional callers, conference record, playback, operator intervention at your request only.  You simply open an account and forward the relevant details (telephone numbers and codes) to your colleagues.

The WebEx web conferencing/collaboration tool allows you to share anything on your desktop with your participants.  You can engage your team by sharing a PowerPoint presentation, demonstrating software, showing website navigation, and transferring files.  Reservationless-PlusSM integration allows you to control the audio portion of your meeting directly from the web interface.

If you need to connect two or more groups of people, the video conference facility booking system will allow you to quickly find nearby video conferencing rooms and set up your seminar or conference with all the technological support you require for success.  Your group goes to the local facility and connects with colleagues in other facilities across the world without the cost of airfare or hotel.

Certain facilities even have the ultimate in videoconferencing…Telepresence.  Seamless high-definition life-size video combines with studio quality high-fidelity acoustics, giving you the absolute best video conferencing experience available today.  You will feel that every participant is sitting in the same room or at the same table.

Such a complete toolbox of opportunity deserves a look inside to see which tool you could use today.  Whygo has live, real-time assistance to help you select the tool you need for your business success.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Using Telepresence Facilities Saves Time and Money


Telepresence is the new generation of video conferencing. Most companies can benefit from this technology that employs very high bandwidth networks. For security reasons, it's vital that the telepresence conference be conducted through a private network. Depending on where your employees or contact people are, this can be a problem. That's why there are telepresence facilities across the nation and in various parts of the world.

Many telepresence facilities will provide you with a private meeting room with tasteful décor and comfortable furniture as well as one or more large HD screens to have an immersion experience. You'll need to make sure that the equipment offered at the telepresence facilities is compatible with the transmitting equipment.

For example, it will depend on the software that enables interoperability between existing pieces of equipment. Some software is now integrated into certain brands of audio and video equipment and other brands of equipment currently do not have compatibility with any other vendor or video conferencing system.

You'll need to examine the type of network that's offered by the telepresence facility. If it's a closed network, you may only be able to link within that network and then hire other facilities to connect with everyone in your meeting unless you use an immersive telepresence system. If it is an open network, you'll be able to connect via a gateway service. In addition to a full service telepresence facility, you may also need to bring in a variety of independent suppliers. The independent suppliers will be able to link up from your own telepresence equipment in your facility to someone else's equipment in another location.

Within many large corporations, video conferencing is well established and the capabilities are growing all the time. In fact, there are millions of video conferencing systems in use throughout the world today. Using an advanced network of public video conferencing and telepresence facilities your company can link to them all.

There are almost endless ways to employ this technology that you may not have thought of. You can interview new recruits, used in high legal courts, in-house business presentations when offices are in different locations, product training demonstrations, sales presentations, product launches, business assessment, B2B consultancy services, castings and auditions for TV production and there are some hotels that have this type of technology in virtual meeting rooms.

Ultimately, telepresence and video conferencing are the way of the future. It's an extremely convenient and cost efficient alternative to sending your employees to various parts of the country or around the world. This way you avoid putting your company and your people through any travel hassles, flight delays, over-priced airfares and accommodation needs.

Besides all this, there's usually a very fast and easy way to book the telepresence facilities. Most companies who provide this service will allow their users to book the rooms and equipment they need right on their website. The steps are usually laid out for you including pricing, pictures of the rooms and exact addresses and directions to the facilities. This only increases the level of productivity within your company and reduces the carbon footprint your company leaves behind. It also improves staff morale by allowing them to have a better balanced work and home life! With a telepresence system, everyone wins!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Telepresence Scheduling Can Be Smooth and Easy

Telepresence scheduling can be pretty easy if everyone stays on the same page. Many companies that offer telepresence meeting rooms have online booking software so you can visit their site and choose the date and room you want to meet in. This software will also let you cancel the meeting as well.

Additionally, you'll be able to invite participants, submit and modify details of the meeting and set privacy preferences through the use of the software system as well. This can usually be done for up to 2 months before the time of the meeting and if you want to book a time further into the future, this may take specific instructions from their helpline to lock it in. Remember, for all telepresence meetings there must to 2 different rooms booked. These facilities are not for single group meetings.

Many telepresence companies have tried to accommodate their customer's needs by providing as many different rooms in as many different locations around the world as possible. This means there will be meeting rooms available that are in a building the telepresence company does not own. When this is the case, you'll need to speak with someone on the phone to make sure the room is booked properly.

When booking a room online, you'll need to pull up the calendar of events at the telepresence facilities so you can book the room at an available time. However, if you want to keep the name of the company and any individuals connected with the meeting private, you can select an option to do so. That way the room will be marked as booked on the public calendar, but no one will know who has booked the room.

If you meet regularly at a telepresence room then you can select a recurring appointments option. There are also possibilities to book the rooms for usually a minimum of an hour or two all the way up to a full day event and even 24 hrs.

There are also specific calendar settings within the settings themselves. If the meeting is marked as private or has a limited number of participants, then anyone who wants to see the calendar for these events must have permission to access that calendar. However, this changes when a conference room is booked. Conference rooms are usually booked under global access calendar scheduling especially if the conference room is at a proxy location.

Much of this type of scheduling is contingent upon the availability of everyone invited to the meeting. They must all be available at the time the meeting is due and within the proximity of the location. The logistics of getting people to the telepresence meetings at the correct time can be the biggest hurdle. Once everyone has arrived though, the meetings tend to go off without a technical glitch. Telepresence technology is advanced and with a responsible company running the facility you should be able to hold productive and distraction-free meetings every time you book the rooms!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

What is Telepresence and Why Does Your Company Need It?

Telepresence is basically a group of technologies that allows someone to interact with someone else almost as if they were in the room with them even if they are on the other side of the world. This means that the technologies of telepresence allow the users to experience the communication with their senses in much the same way if they were standing in front of them.

As well, users of telepresence can manipulate the technologies to affect the communication they send and receive to the remote location. These technologies allow the flow of information to travel back and forth in both directions. The telepresence technologies are especially popular and useful in the area of videoconferencing used extensively in large corporations that have contacts and employees all over the world. Much of this technology is via video and creates very sharp images and clear sound for excellent communications.

Another wonderful advancement of these technologies comes in the form of mobile collaboration. Smart phones have moved in and taken over so that what was started in the office can continue on the road. The power and convenience of telepresence technologies is unparalleled and considered a necessity by many mega companies.

There are substantial benefits to using these technologies besides just being able to communicate clearly via remote locations. The bottom line is money. When it comes to large companies in particular, they can get more done in less time via telepresence technologies. The companies can reduce the amount of travel spending, create less environmental impact, improve their employees' lives in general by cutting down on absences from home and ultimately improve employee productivity.

Instead of traveling long distances for a face-to-face meeting, personnel can now use a telepresence system, which brings each member of the meeting into the telepresence “room.” Everyone can see and hear everyone speak to every one else in the meeting. Of course, this saves enormous amounts of time and money for the company and its staff members.

Telepresence conferencing is far superior to phone conferencing and the visual abilities greatly enhance the communications between the members. Human beings perceive communication by many cues that go well beyond verbal. Body language and facial expressions are a critical part of that communication.

The use of mobile collaboration of telepresence systems is no less impressive or valuable to a company. The mobile system combines the use of video, audio and other advanced capabilities so that an employee can use their smart phone or other hand-held device and participate in a multi-party conference in real time. This is another cost effective way for companies to keep their people informed and up to date. It also allows their staff to solve problems more quickly, prevent downtime, increase productivity and improve customer service.

The telepresence technologies are extremely versatile and many types of industries are using it as well as businesses large and small. So, if someone asks you “What is telepresence” you can tell them it's a set of revolutionary technologies that has an endless stream of possibilities!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Securing A Video Conferencing Facility From Whygo

How much would it cost your business to arrange a seminar or a conference with your staff and clients? Include coordinating the travel time, hotels, meals, transportation costs, and days lost in productivity. The expense escalates exponentially as the number involved increases. Now think how it could be if you could have communication across long distances with video and audio contact, perhaps even graphics and data exchange, at your own office. All parties merely travel to the nearest video conferencing facility and, after the meeting, return to work or home.

Whygo is a videoconference room broker. We provide the network you need to communicate effectively with your specific staff and clientele. The venues you are working with will be briefed on your requirements and do their best to provide you with a successful videoconference experience. The technology and tech support would be provided with many other perks as well.

Whygo's Worldwide Video Conferencing Facilities

There are over three thousand facilities across the globe, spanning all time zones. These locations are offered to the public on a fee-for-usage basis. They vary in size and technological detail, both clearly labeled when you use the search feature on the Whygo website.

The first step in the simple process is choosing a location. As an example, a research group at Chadron State College in Nebraska, US would like to brainstorm with colleagues in Singapore. A quick search shows that there is a site in Chadron that has a room capacity of 62 (you don‘t need that much room, but it is reasonably close), can operate all 24 hours at prices varying according to time slot. The range is currently $395 to $480 an hour and the facility has flip charts, hands free phone, internet, and whiteboard (a shared document that can be marked during the session). They will cater biscuits (cookies), tea and coffee, and water. A room coordinator will be available to make sure the equipment is on and operational, greet the incoming attendees, troubleshoot, and answer questions about the facility.

The technology available is clearly marked yet unintelligible to those not in the IT field. You have the advantage of on-call support staffs who can help you determine if this facility will meet your requirements. It seems to be what you need, so now you see if your colleagues in Singapore have a similar site within their reach.

Video Conferencing Facilities In Singapore

There are twenty five sites in Singapore! Which one is the best for your brainstorming session? Once again, the support staff at Whygo will help you figure it out. You don’t need as large a room; there are only 8 researchers in Singapore. The site at the Chevron House will suffice; it handles up to 8 people and provides the technology you prefer for your conference. This fee will be between $265 and $385 an hour. Both sites are available all 24 hours so it is a matter of deciding when both teams can sit down and talk for an hour to work out some details in your project. Once you know when you want both rooms, it is easy to book both locations and acquaint yourself with the material on the Whygo website on video conferencing meetings and tips.

For less than the cost of one plane ticket from Nebraska to Singapore, everyone on this research project has been able to present opinions, argue points, show data, negotiate difficulties, and communicate effectively in a video conference facility that enables them to focus on their work rather than the technology.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

How Whygo Makes Telepresence Technology Seamless

The human side of business, the visceral connection that develops with personal interaction, is the soil that enables business transactions to grow and bear fruit. A business that limits its clientele to local residents has this asset naturally, but those who wish to expand their range must use a variety of tools to maintain that personal contact. In the past, representatives of a company needed to travel to another location so they could have face-to-face contact with a prospective client. The relationship would then be maintained by various limited ways until the traveling rep could schedule another visit. That human contact would strengthen bonds nurturing the seeds of potential business relationships. Unfortunately, sending staff on regular business trips has become increasingly costly. Airfare has risen, time involved with travel has increased, and the personal cost has affected morale by upsetting the work-life balance essential to being effective.

One Company That Provides Telepresence Facilities

Telepresence is an impressive tool for cultivating relationships with team members and clients to reap a harvest of opportunity for your goals. If you have an IT team and facility with the proper resources, then you can do this in-house, but most businesses would rather invest themselves in the actual connections with client and team. An ideal video-conferencing tool would be worldwide, utilize technology that is current and consistent for all involved, be available at all hours for multiple time zones, and have instant support for any issues. Maintaining this type of facility for a single business would be prohibitively costly since you must also ensure equal technological access for the other party. Whygo is an excellent way to achieve the goals of human connection in business. With this tool, a company can access all the benefits of an in-house video conferencing facility for all parties with very little trouble. According to their website, Whygo offers multiple options for you to book public video conferencing facilities. This will allow you to increase productivity and strengthen your staff morale by providing a better work-life balance as well as reducing your carbon footprint. Regular users can have branded systems that help schedule bookings including links from your own website.

Whygo's World Class VC And Telepresence Operation

There are 4 global operation centers enabling your business to function globally. The centers work together to give seamless service. The website is clearly laid out with a mere 4 steps to book a video conferencing room:
  • find a location,
  • select a center,
  • customize your meeting,
  • and confirm.
Telepresence, the ‘Rolls Royce’ of video conferencing, is a seamless high-definition life-size video combined with high-fidelity acoustics in a room built to give the experience of realism. This ‘absolute best option’ is ideal for complete communication of facial expression, body language, and voice inflection. You will feel that every participant is sitting in the same room or at the same table. Many lesser forms of communication lose some of the detail that telepresence captures. If you do not need that ultimate level of communication, Whygo offers other video conferencing services as well. You can choose the tools that will help your business become firmly planted in the soil of human connection and reap an abundant harvest.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Global Video Conferencing Makes Business Communication Easier

Today’s business climate is global. A call to customer support could be in an alternate time zone, the items you purchase locally could come from the other side of the world, and co-workers often do their daily tasks at entirely different facilities. A global economy affects the local market, and communication is the oil that makes the engine of that economy run smoothly. It is essential that effective communication occur between the customer and business, employee and boss, management and labor, and any of the other relationships that make up a functioning market. As that market expands globally, that communication becomes vital. Miscommunication results in a loss of relationship and the benefit of that relationship; lost productivity, lost sales, lost clients, lost profit.

The Ways And Means Of Modern Communication

There are many ways to communicate today. Email allows words to be read and considered before replying but lacks the inflection of voice and face to clarify the words’ meaning. Internet chat allows instant verification of meaning…
”did you intend to say this?” “No, I meant…”
which can help. Similarly, a phone call allows instant verification of intent. But those methods lack the ability to share visual aids and see facial expression in real time and again, lose a little in communication. They also are limited in the ability to interact in a group.

How Businesses Communicate In The Global Market

The business meeting is traditionally the way an organization communicates with workforce and clientele. This allows face-to-face interaction, sharing of documents and presentations, immediate clarification of questions, and potentially the most effective conducting of business. However, in a global market, one would then need to have business meetings in a global format. How can such a meeting be held without involving considerable time and cost in travel arrangements? The rising cost of airfare, time spent away from family and daily assignments, hotel and other costs all make coming together prohibitively expensive, yet a global business meeting is still a very good idea.

Global videoconferencing is a solution to this dilemma. Whygo, a videoconferencing broker, has multiple options to book public video conferencing facilities. The Whygo website has clear explanations of all the options available for your business, from individual connections in a virtual meeting room to increasing your current boardroom video conferencing capabilities and beyond, networking over 300,000 video conference facilities worldwide. They are open 24 hours a day in all time zones and can work seamlessly together to give you same region bookings, billing, and support. The Whygo operation closest to your venue will work with the venue you desire to connect with to ensure they can respond faster and more efficiently than any of their competitors.

Global Video Conferencing Options Abound

The abundance of options for global video conferencing is confusing to those who do not regularly deal with the details. This is where customer support gives you the edge over your competitors…the staff of Whygo is available at all times with live support to answer all your questions and ensure you the global communication your business needs to communicate effectively in your meetings and keep the engine of your business running smoothly.