The increasing signs of a worldwide economic recession and the rising price of aviation fuel have forced many businesses to review the cost of business travel, writes Tony Dennis. Videoconferencing is being promoted as one way of cutting costs but it first has to overcome consumer resistance.

Video technology has improved tremendously since the very early days when it was necessary to have a purpose-built videoconferencing suite and dedicated fixed lines using integrated services digital network (ISDN). Now, thanks to Skype and 3G video mobile phones, almost anyone can participate in a videoconference. At the top end of the scale, “telepresence” systems from vendors such as Teliris make it look like participants are actually in the room with you.

Videoconferencing systems have moved from the hard sell to a must-have, according to Barry Cross, MD with specialist Touchline Video. There are three main reasons why chief financial officers (CFOs) are considering the videoconferencing option, he says. These are to reduce travel cost and therefore the company's carbon (CO2) footprint. This raises the business' green credentials and also helps to save on time.

As Cross says, using Skype in conjunction with a webcam is fine for catching up with friends and families—but businesses cannot tolerate dropped calls and the loss of the audio channel. The next step up, therefore, is to licence a professional coder-decoder (codec) such as the Mirial Softphone for a small licensing fee. Codec is installed on a PC in conjunction with a high definition (HD) camera from the likes of Logitech.

With broadband speed more than capable of supporting videoconferencing, it's feasible to install a professional videoconferencing system from the likes of Lifesize  for around £3,500 (INR 300,000, $700). The company says it can offer HD videos at 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 frames per second as low as 1Mbit/s, typical broadband speed. It can offer DVD quality at 512 Kbit/s, speed of entry level broadband, and cable TV quality at 384 Kbit/s, the same as ISDN and 3G. Such a system has built-in microphones as well as the additional option to share data.

The videoconferencing industry used to be plagued by incompatible formats but that is no longer the case. The very latest standard for video is H.264, which for the technically-minded equates to MPEG-4. Earlier systems were built to the H.263 standard used by ISDN video-suites and there's also H.324, which is employed by 3G video phones. The reality is that most equipment vendors offer equipment that is capable of “bridging” between all of these various video formats.

A good example here is Polycom , which is a long-standing video systems supplier. According to Polycom director, Ray McGroarty, the consumer space still has a few “nonstandard” video applications. 'With open videoconferencing standards, however, organisations will benefit from being able to call any colleague or customer or supplier regardless of the videoconferencing manufacturer that they each have chosen.' Polycom's own bridging technology, 'Allows ISDN video, IP video, standard voice-only telephones, IP phones, and mobile phones, all to participate in the same conference as our bridging technology is able to translate between all these types of devices.'

Polycom is famous for its audio conferencing phones but has now integrated these phones with its own video systems. So customers can now make a phone call first and then, if the right Polycom kit is in place, they can add video with the press of a single key. It can be that easy.

With any videoconferencing system there will always be the issue of “consumer resistance”. Employee resentment at the loss of the perks derived from business travel, such as air miles, is very real and has to be overcome by management. Barry Cross claims that the best argument in videoconferencing's favour is that business travel is so time consuming. A four-hour business meeting can normally consume three whole days of an employee's time.

One of the old banes of consumer resistance to videoconferencing was people not wanting to appear on camera. However, Victoria Kemp, a VP with videoconferencing providers, BCS Global says, 'The younger generation of employees are used to social networking, instant chats, and video messaging at home and are now demanding the same tools to be available in the workplace. Previously people participating in audio conference call were easily distracted by their emails and Blackberrys. With video conferencing, participants can be seen, which has pushed colleagues into actively listening to each other. One of our customers—the supermarket chain, Sainsbury's Logistics—has seen meetings that used to take three hours reduced to two.'

Videoconferencing isn't all smoke and mirrors, either. One specialist supplier, Dan Somer of Vc-net, claims his company's hardware revenue has doubled within the last 12 months. 'The company has recently acquired three new customers in the finance sector where the effects of the credit crunch are being felt most. Additionally network revenues and managed services (i.e., outsourcing) have grown even more,' he maintained.

One videoconferencing specialist, Broadview, has even done the maths. It compared a live conference requiring delegates to fly to attend and stay overnight, with a webcast of the same event, and found that the carbon footprint was reduced by 17,222 times. That alone should be ample justification for installing videoconferencing. X