Video conferencing systems in comparison
Published: 11.10.2023 | Reading time: 10 minutes
This text is machine translated.
Video conferencing, internet telephony and group calls are tried and tested ways of carrying out office work remotely. Video conferencing systems allow employees to take part in face-to-face meetings regardless of their location. They can see and hear each other as if they were sitting in the same room.
This makes spontaneous meetings across all sectors possible, no matter where in the world the conversation partners happen to be.
Cloud-based solutions offer a wide range of functions that make round tables and in-person meetings superfluous: Hold discussions with video and audio on a personal level, coordinate within the team via chats, hold training courses and presentations, share the screen at the touch of a button and send files to the group. Video and audio recordings of meetings and automatically generated chat protocols bring colleagues up to date who are unable or unwilling to attend. All of this streamlines workflows, saves time, increases productivity, reduces bureaucracy and cuts costs, for example for travel or conference rooms. What's more, video calls are always more personal than a chat message, email or phone call.
The corona pandemic underlines the importance of business tools for video telephony for efficient collaboration with participants in the home office. Covid-19 has temporarily forced many employees to work from home.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other experts expect that the pandemic has triggered a profound shift towards working outside the office.
It can be assumed that many employees will continue to carry out their business tasks at home even after the end of the crisis.
This is also triggering a rethink in companies that were previously less open to video meetings.
Customer processes can also be optimized via video conferencing. This increases the degree of freedom on both sides and makes agreements with customers more flexible. Consultants, field staff or support technicians can decide together with customers whether the time set aside for an on-site meeting, including travel to and from the site, would not be better invested in a video conference.
The rapid demand for video chats during the coronavirus crisis has boosted up-and-comers such as Zoom and the classic Skype. Video calling solutions such as WhatsApp and Apple Facetime, which are primarily tailored to the needs of private use, lack B2B functions for team communication. In everyday business life, they are suitable at best for one-to-one calls and occasional mini-conferences. Skype has firmly established itself as the standard for video calls and conferences with up to 50 participants. The professional version Skype for Business is now being replaced by Microsoft Teams.
Facebook is taking a middle course in terms of business orientation with Messenger Rooms, with which the social network wants to get involved in the video conferencing provider market. In Rooms video conferencing, up to 50 people can take part in a video call, including screen sharing. The virtual room required for this is set up by the initiator in Messenger. It can be for a fixed group of participants only or public. The invitation to the web conference is sent via a link that other participants can use to join the conference on their smartphone or in their browser. A Facebook account is not required. Rooms is also set to become part of WhatsApp.
Professional video conferencing systems offer more than just video calls in small and large groups.
They are characterized by functions for team communication and team management.
The cloud-based services turn laptops, PCs, smartphones and tablets into a digital workplace, promote mobility, improve teamwork, strengthen team spirit and drive digitalization.
Business conferences in virtual team rooms with live video and audio transmission are just one pillar; others include collaboration, data sharing, remote access to screens, whiteboarding and rights management.
Cisco WebEx: conferencing and collaboration solution
WebEx (Cisco Webex Meetings) is the constantly evolving oldie among video conferencing tools. This gives the service a considerable wealth of sophisticated team and security functions as well as integration options for stationary and mobile communication. In many large companies, “WebEx” is still synonymous with online meetings and online training.
Meetings can be scheduled in the personal conference room via a planning module, streams can be recorded and shared, and storage space is available in the cloud. Users can use audio and presentation sharing to make their desktop visible to all meeting participants. Active Directory synchronization is relevant for large organizations.
Participation in video conferences for up to 200 users is possible in the browser, on mobile devices, via SIP and audio dial-in. The administrator can influence or ensure the quality of the video and audio signal in a variety of ways. Invitations to a WebEx meeting are sent by email and no client software needs to be downloaded.
The system's speaker tracking function, which focuses on the active participant, is exemplary. Integrated noise suppression improves voice quality and intelligibility in Cisco Webex meetings.
Google Meet: video conferencing with G-Suite
Google Meet is the successor to Google Hangouts and Google's counterpart to Microsoft Teams. Meet is the professional video conferencing solution for companies in the context of Google's business version of the online office software G-Suite.
To start a video meeting, you set an appointment in Google Calendar and share the link. Participation of up to 100 people on a PC or laptop takes place in the browser and does not require any special software. For mobile users, Google offers the Meet app for Android and iOS. The host controls the conference process as the moderator. They can admit or remove participants from the meeting. Recording the meeting is as easy as pressing a button.
Users without internet access can join meetings via audio access. Interactive whiteboards are available for note-taking, brainstorming and training. Google Drive is used to provide and jointly edit content. Hardware-based conference solutions based on Skype for Business, SIP and H.323 can be integrated.
LogMeIn GoTo-Meeting: PDF slide export including
With GoToMeeting, you can hold online meetings via a web app in your browser, PC software or mobile app. A meeting can be held as a pure audio conference or live video conference with up to 250 participants. At the same time, participants can chat with each other and broadcast the content of their screen.
A calendar is integrated for meeting planning, the participant list can be synchronized via Active Directory and automatic recording of the meeting via cloud recording saves the need to keep minutes. Users are managed in the Admin Center, where you can also view diagnostic areas relevant to the meeting process, such as utilization and latency. Personalization enables adaptation to the corporate design.
A data-saving "commuter option" is designed to limit the amount of data used by mobile users and still ensure smooth participation in video chats.
Microsoft Teams: On board for free with Microsoft 365
Teams is Microsoft's successor to Skype for Business and part of Microsoft 365. Anyone who has licensed the office and collaboration solution automatically receives Teams, which keeps the entry barrier low. The integration into Microsoft's Office environment gives Teams a wide range of collaboration functions in addition to individual and group video calls, which go beyond video conferences and chats. As with its role model Slack, team chats form the application core to which the other functions are docked. These include teamwork via Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook as online applications, shared storage space, team scheduling and screen sharing. Additional functions can be added thanks to the modular structure.
The organizational structure can be mapped in teams that have different channels and can participate in video conferences. Channels can be documents from Word or Excel, but also YouTube videos or file links. Live conferences for up to 250 users are possible in HD. Each team also has a wiki.
A practical conference function to avoid speaker interruptions and ensure meetings run smoothly is “Show”. This allows participants to virtually raise their hand to take the floor. Another practical feature is the export of a list of participants with a recorded time of joining and leaving the conference.
Slack: video conferencing as a sideshow
The collaboration classic Slack brings team members together wherever they are. The software for larger organizations focuses on the powerful chat function with rooms, history function, document sharing and its own store.
Slack is limited for video conferences in workgroups. Although video calls can be made, they are limited to 15 participants, as are screen-sharing conferences. For video conferences in larger groups, a separate workspace must be set up as a shared location, which leads to an accumulation of different workspaces if used intensively. The restrictions regarding video calls can be circumvented by linking Slack with Webex, GoToMeeting or Zoom.
Zoom Meetings: Cloud video conferencing with ease of use
Zoom Video Communications is a coronavirus crisis winner with its Zoom Meeting video conferencing solution. Zoom is a web-based video meeting service for encrypted video conferencing and video streaming. The service streams the live image including audio signal to the participants in the chat room, offers a whiteboard for interactive notes and allows the display to be shared.
One of the reasons for Zoom's popularity is its ease of use. The software is easy to set up and control, even for less experienced users. No special client software, Zoom account or paid subscription is required to join a video meeting. All you need to do is click on the meeting link sent by the moderator and start the conference player in your browser to join the online conference.
The lax handling of data protection brought Zoom a lot of criticism. In the meantime, improvements have been made to the security settings and privacy protection.
In addition to those mentioned, there are other providers of video conferencing services for use in companies. These include Amazon Chime, Bitrix24, BlueJeans, Jitsi Meet, Lifesize, Mikogo, Remobo, Tinychat and Vsee.
Laptop or notebook
A PC or mobile device and an internet connection are all you need to conduct work meetings digitally. If you don't want to attract attention with a poor picture and sound during web meetings, you need sensible hardware equipment.
Halfway up-to-date laptops and notebooks are normally equipped for video and voice conferences as standard. There is then nothing technically standing in the way of online meetings with colleagues or customers.
Webcam and headset
If you want to be present at a desktop PC, you need a webcam with a USB connection that has a resolution of at least Full HD. The USB cameras for desktop systems have built-in microphones and, depending on the model, can also be used with existing audio systems for external communication, hands-free devices or headsets.
Video cameras for meeting rooms
When several people take part in a conference in one room, the range of functions of the integrated cameras and microphones or single-user webcams is often not sufficient. Special video cameras for small meeting rooms (huddle rooms) and large conference rooms are characterized by high resolution for a sharp image, room-encompassing field of view, pan, tilt and zoom function, depth sensor, speaker tracking, hardware encoding and remote control options. These models are suitable not only for small rooms for group meetings but also for larger conference and training rooms as well as lecture halls.
Integrated all-in-one solutions
Alternatives to webcams and conference cameras for team rooms are hardware solutions (video endpoints) with an integrated encoder for attachment to a flat screen. They are offered by Avaya, Cisco and Polycom, for example. Flatscreen boards such as the Microsoft Surface Hub or the Cisco Webex Board work as an integrated all-in-one solution.
Prepare the meeting
Appoint an organizer and moderator in advance. This person decides on the agenda, coordinates the time and length of the meeting and moderates the conference.
Check communication
Check communication before important calls by making a test call to a colleague. Set the camera and microphone so that you can be seen and heard clearly. If no colleague is available, use the integrated tests in the video conferencing software.
Optimize Wi-Fi
Your picture in the home office should not be blurry or jerky. However, due to the distance to the router and structural conditions, wireless networks sometimes do not achieve the signal strength required for interference-free transmission of HD videos. A Wi-Fi repeater, powerline or switching to a mesh wireless network are simple ways to optimize the reception and thus the transmission of videos and simplify the sharing of large files.
The right background
Make sure you have an appropriate background for business calls from your home office. Think about how much of your private life you want to be visible. Video conferencing systems such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom offer options for blurring or changing the background.
Ensure silence
Cell phone ringing, music, traffic noise from open windows and other noises should not disturb the conference.
Optimal position
Position yourself as centrally as possible in front of the camera at eye level with your screen so that you are clearly visible and cover a large part of the shooting area. Make sure you have friendly, shadow-free light. Direct sunlight in the background is harsh and disturbs other conference participants.