The advantages and disadvantages of the two most popular methods of virtual conferencing in business
Better to have an audio conference or a video conference with your team? You would have asked yourself this question hundreds of times and especially today when every good virtual conferencing tool (for example, TurboMeeting of R-HUB, http://www.rhubcom.com) gives you the option to choose between these two means of communication. Although the usage of video conferencing is decisively on the increase, the screen has not yet outplaced the more traditional audio conferences. Therefore, the answer depends on the practical situation you are. Let’s then have a quick look at the pros and cons of these two technologies in order to choose the one that suits our needs better.
- Conference calls are cheaper and easier to use and set up.
Conference calls are cheaper and easier to set up than video calls. This is the reason why they are preferred for quick communication and when it is not necessary to show documents, slides, or other visual materials. Another strong point of calls is that users do not need any computer, as a simple mobile or smartphone is enough to access. In other words, conference calls are destined to stay, despite the success of web conferencing. The fact that a good 75% of organization has adopted this mean of communication confirms our assumption (source: http://techcrunchies.com/conference-calls-statistics/).
The common issue with conference calls is voice crispness. On Skype, how many times have you had to withdraw on a textual chat because at a certain point you barely understood what the other speaker was saying?
- Video conferences are more engaging.
Nobody would think to give a webinar through a trivial phone conference call. There are occasions, like webinars, lectures, product presentations, administrator board meetings, when telepresence, visual and non-verbal communication become crucial. Today, products like R-HUB`s TurboMeeting allow users to enjoy an experience very close to a real meeting during a video conference, plus the possibility to utilize tools like polling, document and desktop sharing. TurboMeeting solves also the problem of the greater difficulty of setting up video conferences, as it makes the operation very similar to audio conferences.
The common issues with video conferences are that they are more expensive and less comfortable to configure. However, these problems have been partially addressed by the new generation of video conferencing solutions, as the example of R-HUB`s TurboMeeting well proves.
In conclusion, ordinary audio conferences are great for quick and ordinary daily communication, when there is no need to show visual materials. Video conferences are decisively more suitable for webinars and distant learning, product presentations, tele-selling, and, in general, any occasion when it is necessary to show visual materials or to recreate an environment as close as possible to a real meeting.