Despite dramatic improvements in quality and affordability, most businesses still aren't using videoconferencing. The reasons why might surprise you.
Videoconferencing's perfect storm has arrived. Consider: skyrocketing energy prices have jacked up the cost of driving, and made air travel expensive and unpleasant. Equally important, dramatic technological improvements in high-definition audio and video and cheaper bandwidth have made videoconferencing -- and its big brother "telepresence" -- a much better and less expensive alternative.
Companies are taking notice. Frost & Sullivan estimates videoconferencing was a $1.1B market in 2007, up 29% from the year before. And according to TeleSpan, videoconferencing sales have risen from 115,000 systems in 2004 to 176,000 in 2007, while the number of telepresence systems leaped from none in 2004 and 50 in 2005 to 1,000 in 2007.
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But even though I work with colleagues, contacts, and customers spread across the nation and around the world, I'm not using videoconferencing -- and I'm betting that you aren't, either. The real reasons for that aren't just technological or economic; they're also emotional and psychological.
People simply aren't comfortable with videoconferencing. They don't know how to behave on camera, so they tend to shy away from meeting via videoconference for fear of embarrassing themselves. This classic YouTube video demonstrates the situation perfectly -- and hilariously:
To get the bottom of this conundrum, I've been checking out videoconferencing and telepresence systems and talking with people close to the business. The results have been revealing.
Next Page: Videoconferencing Raises Emotional Issues
