Videoconferencing – changing the way we work

Videoconferencing has come a long way since it was first introduced at the 1964 World Fair in New York. In ensuing decades, perhaps because of its prohibitive cost, the technology was never really embraced by consumers or business. But with recent innovations and the advent of high-speed internet connections, the technology is now coming into its own.

Gone are the days of jerky pictures and off-putting audio time delays. Current videoconferencing technology has the power to make two people in opposite sides of the world feel as if they are conversing in the same room. The technology, say fans, has the power to change the way people work and learn.

Current products offered by companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems can take the form of custom-designed rooms in different locations, complete with massive high-definition screens showing life-size images of people talking around the same table. Rooms are of the same colour and shape with identical furnishings.

"What you’re creating is a telepresence [sic]," says Sally Reynolds, managing director of ATiT, a consultancy specialised in bringing audio-visual and information technologies to the fields of culture and education. "The technology is changing all the time," she adds. "Eventually we’re talking about someone sitting beside you, the power of a picture."

John Frey, Houston-based manager of corporate environmental strategies at Hewlett-Packard, is keen to stress the number of air miles that could be saved through increased use of the technology. An executive in, say, London, would no longer need to catch the ‘red-eye’ to Tokyo for that crucial make-or-break meeting. By hooking up to a videoconferencing system, he or she could undertake as valuable an exchange on a virtual level without making a dent in the environment.

Hewlett-Packard’s product, known as Halo, was developed at the behest of animation company Dreamworks. Rolled-out in 2005, the system allowed animators in different parts of the world to scroll through the same drawings as they talked through film scenes. Frey explains that the product, which allows for a high level of precision, has also been used by engineers working on complex circuit boards.

The technology could also make a difference in the world of academia. But, as Reynolds points out, the potential of the technology is constrained by "teachers’ inexperience with the medium, insufficient training and unrealistic expectations".

Reynolds, who collaborated in the first use of videoconferencing for teaching purposes in Ireland in 1990, is reluctant to join in the hype. "The blackboard was the greatest and the latest not that long ago. It’s just a tool like any other. Teachers have to learn to use it and get the most out of it," she says.

At current prices, the technology is unlikely to take off as industry predicts. More elaborate systems can cost as much as €300,000 per room with steep monthly management fees on top. But in the age of globalisation, as the world gets smaller, videoconferencing technologies are set to get cheaper and bigger.

Videoconferencing has come a long way since it was first introduced at the 1964 World Fair in New York. In ensuing decades, perhaps because of its prohibitive cost, the technology was never really embraced by consumers or business. But with recent innovations and the advent of high-speed internet connections, the technology is now coming into its own.

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