It wasn’t until the 90s, with enhancements in IP technology, internet and video compression that video collaboration via desktop could become possible. Much has definitely changed since then !

The mid-2000’s saw a steady growth of video conferencing being used outside enterprises. Courts, law firms and military needs for video conferencing came into play. The biggest players using video conferencing those days were the education and health sectors. VC enabled higher education distance learning and telehealth. 2003 witnessed the first transatlantic “telesurgery” which gave rise to an increased interest in the possibilities of video technology in healthcare. In September 2001, this technology was responsible for the first successful telesurgery where the surgeon in New York controlled a ZEUS robot in Strasbourg, France to perform a successful gall bladder surgery (laparoscopic cholecystectomy). It was also the year to witness significant achievement in conferencing technology high-speed internet made available at low cost by service providers. This made the technology easily accessible to most users. Then came the first HD video conferencing system in 2005, the usage of which spread like wildfire among professionals 2010 onwards. After that, everyone got onto the bandwagon of organising virtual meetings.

Of course things spruced up, cloud and web-based video conferencing open source programs kicked in, and VC went on cloud. This was a game changer because now you could VC from your phones, tablets or IPads. The application became light and compressed enough to be downloaded on any device. In fact by 2025, statistics suggest that the global market of web conferencing software will touch USD 16.60 billion. Add to that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the forecast is that 2020 itself will witness a substantial growth. Several enhancements and add-on features have elevated video conferencing solutions that are available in the market today. The pandemic has led to the emergence of web conferencing and meetings. Being online, it is easier to attend without having to account for travel time and cost. Organisations nowadays, are busy hosting webinars with a new webinar coming online every 1.5 weeks, on an average. A significant change is also quite vigilant in the arena of job interviews. 66% of job candidates have opted for the video-enabled-interviews instead of wasting their time to visit the interviewer personally to attend the interview meetings. Companies are also now prone to hiring remote teams and employees. VCs are giving a leverage in saving cost, time and resource. Virtual chat tools and video conferencing solutions have made it easier for remote workers to feel as a part of the team.

According to reports, IT decision makers use video conferencing to conduct 45% of their meetings. Video conferencing helps keep participants more engaged throughout the meeting, and drive better outcomes than audio. VCs build better relationships with customers allowing a face-to-face interaction and adding a personal touch to one-on-one meetings. Globalisation of teams is leading to larger conference rooms with video capabilities. Video conferencing allows us to use technology while giving us a better perspective on a crucial part of organisational collaboration. Video conferencing is a core component of any modern organisation. The ability to engage with geographically dispersed employees over video helps build teamwork, nurture relationships and increase employee satisfaction to improving meeting productivity and efficiency. If current trends persist, by 2021, video traffic will amount to 82% of the total internet traffic with live video sharing or video conferencing accounting for 13% of the entire video traffic.

The new era of communication is highly dependent on digitisation. With newer technologies, it has become cost effective to adapt to a virtual world of meetings and conferences. Digitisation and visual data sharing technologies have significantly decline the cost of video conferencing leading to its large-scale deployment across different organisations. This was earlier not possible because of high installation costs. The advent of many applications and the evolution of others have led to an essential collaboration of workspaces. Immense popularity among business users has risen exponentially due the seamless communications through systems between people. Now it is possible to save on your bandwidth costs with your increasing video conferencing needs with breakthrough high definition solutions. All you need is the right IT solutions partner to execute a complete, end-to-end, unified communications solution for better business productivity at low costs. Now that video conference systems are in homes for working, learning, and communicating, it is imperative to protect your home environment. There is a need to make sure that your VC solutions are safe. With the rise in use of technology for work from home, the right solutions enable you to protect data and information related to your business, employees, and customers. With children around the world on an online education system, it is essential to make sure they are protected, too.

There are many VC applications available in the world today but with meetings being hijacked and unsafe security settings putting users at risk, it would bode well to have your IT solutions partner have you covered with an easy-to-use, reliable, secure and trusted solution. You need to ensure that your security and privacy is well covered across all areas, from the network to endpoints, to the data center and cloud services. The right VC solution will not only keep your data secure, your reputation intact but help you achieve secure collaborations.