It all started just a mere 47 years ago in the 1960’s as a vision from American Telephone and Telegraph (AT & T) through its Picturephone device – the birth of teleconferencing. At that time, travel was cheap and many people simply didn’t understand that the Picturephone would be a workplace changing technology. It’s taken 47 years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on fuel consumption for the idea that grew out of Picturephone to become a real-world every day application embraced by millions worldwide.
There are three kinds of teleconferencing devices:
- Audio for verbal communication using the telephone.
- Video conferencing which uses the telephone for voice and video combined with the computer.
- Computer conferencing allowing printed media conferencing via computer terminal.
The uniqueness of teleconferencing is that participants can be widely spread over the globe and yet meet in a virtual office space for a rapid exchange of ideas at anytime.
The key benefits of teleconferencing are:
- Reduction of communication costs. As much as a 30% decrease in travel expenses is the norm for businesses which use teleconferencing regularl
y.
- Availability of meeting information for people who could not attend a meeting. Our teleconferencing application allows for the recording of calls so all can benefit from the exchange of information even if they can not attend the meeting.
- Spontaneity of meetings. Due to limited cost for teleconferencing follow-up meetings can be held more frequently and on a more spontaneous basis allowing for a more collaborative approach in many areas.
