Realisation of a Video Conference
- For inexperienced users, the realisation of a video conference requires somewhat of a settle-in period. The local picture may heavily distract the user from the remote sites. Furthermore it takes some time to get used to the fact that the self view picture is not mirror-inverted.
- The video conference provides the feeling of a direct contact, but shows only a small part of the remote sites and the people attending. The interaction is the most important aspect and greatest added value of the telepresence communication, but the technology introduces some limits.
- During the video conference, controlling the system should be familiar. Where appropriate, separate personnel should be considered, who take technical control of the meeting. Prior to the conference, telephone numbers should be exchanged between the sites (best by email), which should be available for the duration of the conference.
- For connections with foreign remote sides, you should check the components prior to the meeting. Based on the high number of possible communication routes.
- Because of the technically determined delay in video conferences (time to transmit between sites and required synchronisation of the channels), the concentration of the participants is more strained than in a presence meeting. This fact limits the time that can be reasonably used to about two hours, especially in open discussions. Surprising changes in the course of the meeting should be avoided as well.
- Video conferences are suitable for discussing appointments, dates and project outcomes or for longer speeches of a single speaker. They are only of limited use in project planning phases, because of the higher concentration/discussion requirements of these processes.
- While the video conference is running, all unnecessary sound sources should be suppressed or the microphone should be simply muted. In most if not all cases, the MCU will determine the loudest site as the main speaker, because it cannot separate noise from valid speech, and transmit its video after a short delay to all other sites as the biggest image.
- After the conclusion of the meeting and before an internal analysis of the meeting takes place, it should be standard practice to check if the connection is terminated correctly.