MARKET REPORT Conferencing
“A lot of consumer-based apps are having a positive effect in terms of increasing user adoption and awareness.
Microsoft covers all bases but something like FaceTime isn’t going to cut it in a business environment.”
EXPERIENCE
Ian Brindle Nimans’ Head of Sales, UC Devices
Why Video Conferencing (Courtesy of BlueJeans)
& support from SOS
01403 224450 www.soscommunications.co.uk
audio is still a play, so they need
to accommodate PSTN to allow
mobiles and landlines to join
meetings.
Customers mostly, for reasons
of compliance, the simplicity of
management and quality, prefer
one, max two, manufacturers. So,
with Cisco, you have high-quality
and secure audio, 1080p video,
WebRTC, meetings, endpoints,
collaboration, all on- or off-prem
and everything familiar to an IT
team used to a Cisco backbone.”
The reality check continues
as Ian Brindle Nimans’ Head of
Sales, UC Devices, says that for
him, the impact on the business
market isn’t that big just now.
“A lot of consumer-based apps
are having a positive effect in
terms of increasing user adoption
and awareness. Microsoft covers
all bases but something like
FaceTime isn’t going to cut it in
a business environment. What
it does do is enable people to
experience the benefits of visual
communication rather than
an email or a voice call. This
influences and shapes their
behaviour and expectations when
they arrive into work.”
What impact are the team
working apps having on the
conferencing market?
Ian Rowan at Wildix says
team applications are great and
bring real value to conferencing
especially in terms of Chat
Conferences.
“Even better is a solution
that not only supports team
working but also has those
video conferencing capabilities,
this allows people to share
information pre and post
conference without relying on
email chains that get out of date
as people exchange information.
Team members can have a chat
session in place and then turn to
video conference at the touch of
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a button, I don’t however see the
value in having one system for
chat and another for video.”
Simon Hughes at Trust
Distribution believes that team
apps are becoming used more
widely in everyday life and
businesses.
“Here at Trust Distribution
we’ve seen sales growth of USB
audio and video conference
phones. As integrating these
physical units with team working
apps allows high quality visual
and audio meetings to take place
whilst having the ability to share
documents and screens.”
Comstor’s Steven Ansell says
conferencing is central to teamworking,
or collaboration.
“From the major players,
especially Cisco, you get businessgrade
quality and choice. You’re
not limited in your options for
conferencing, meeting, messaging
or collaborating from anywhere
on any device. So, while Slack,
Trello and Monday excel in one
area or another, they can’t deliver
across the piece in the way Webex
does for almost every conceivable
use-case.”
Is Video taking the place
of audio-only solutions as
the rise of digital solutions
means it’s easy to add video
communication to devices and
spaces that were previously
audio-only?
Joel Price at ScanSource says the
rise of the huddle-space has been
a long time coming.
“The challenge has been
the lack of simple solutions to
enable them. The launch of
devices from Polycom, Lifesize,
Dolby, Yamaha (sometimes in
conjunction with some Cloud
solutions) now allows anyone
to walk into a room with their
laptop and have a professional
quality meeting with a single
USB cable or as a fixed solution
– the simplicity
of control has
helped remove
previous
perceived
obstacles. It
is clear that
huddle rooms
are now one
of the key
battlegrounds
for VC
hardware
manufacturers,
and we will
likely see some
real innovation
in this space
over the next
12-24 months
– not just in
hardware, but
in interface
and call
methodology.
Having said
this, some
people will
want to keep
using audio over
video, hence
the importance
of solutions
being available
that allow for high-quality audio
whilst delivering high-quality
video.”
It’s a big ‘Yes’ from Steven
Ansell at Comstor. “You see
the change with the number of
people walking around with a
phone stuck to their face! It’s the
same at work. Better bandwidth
and service providers bringing
5G on-stream enables easier and
better use of video. IP removes
the burden on PSTN, and
applications now deliver the easeof
use, choice and performance
users demand. Room systems,
huddles, endpoints or mobiles,
the option of video is welcomed
by many.”
On the other hand, Simon
Hughes at Trust Distribution,
says not.
“No, the audio market is still
very popular and widely used,
video conferencing is becoming
increasingly popular but if you
lose a video image during a
conference call the discussion
can still take place but if you
lose audio then that is the
meeting over.
Video conferencing has
undergone much development
recently to make it a simple and
effective form of communication,
however there is still a stigma
attached, as this was once an
area that was very technical and
difficult to set up. And although
this is no longer the case, video
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