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Team-to-Many: The New Hybrid Video Conferencing Solutions

Hybrid system that combines video conferencing with video streaming are enabling high-quality two-way conferencing without limitations.

Traditionally, video conferencing and live streaming have been separate platforms. Vern Hanzlik, president and chief operating officer at video-meeting broadcasting service Qumu, says the combination of the two services is pushing video conferencing to a new level.

His company runs video-streaming broadcasts over IPs for large corporations, serving up to 30,000 passive customers at one time. Clients include major banks and healthcare corporations.

Streamed video meetings are private, secure - and recorded, in case someone misses the event. The technology allows you to leverage the feed from one production by broadcasting it to multiple locations. “That’s one-to-many broadcasting,” he says.

The use of live video is growing within large corporations. For example, Vodaphone now conducts more than 300 managed conferences each year. Last month, the company ran 2,600 events from its cloud-based platform.

His point is that video is the new voice. Just as voice replaced text as the most prominent method of communications among business professionals, he says video is poised to take over the communications game.

The combination of streaming video with on-line meeting management is driving the next wave of video conferencing. Video represents the new, dominant communications tool, he says. Tenets that are driving video to become the new text include:

• Majority of data in the enterprise will be managed autonomously;
• Industries will continue to shift their production workforces to the cloud;
• Enterprise cloud apps will feature integrated capabilities.

Even telephone communications have moved away from voice capabilities. Hanzlik says it’s a rare day when he fields more than just a few voice calls on his smartphone. “It’s just internet now,” he says.

The video meeting business has evolved from one-on-one communications to conferences where multiple people are involved on each end of the conversation.

For instance, team-to-many video solutions can target customers ranging from self-service webcasting users, active participants and passive participants. The service can be accessed from the desktop, or from a centralized meeting room.

Companies that want an enterprise-wide always-on video resource need to consider security concerns, management tactics, and the extensibility of the service. The goal is to deliver a seamless end-user experience, “which is not an easy problem to solve,” Hanzlik says.