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The Best Video Conferencing Solution, Period

Video Conferencing

How and where we work, collaborate and conduct business has drastically changed since the outbreak of COVID-19. Although many enterprise companies already offered flexible work schedules allowing employees to work remotely a few times per week before the pandemic, the sudden shift to a fully remote workforce has left companies scrambling to figure out the best way to support and connect their distributed teams. As companies around the globe continue to have employees work from home, some organizations are preparing for a new challenge — transitioning into a “hybrid workplace” model, with a mix of in-office employees and remote workers.

Many company leaders know that video conferencing can help address these challenges and create better communication and collaboration across dispersed sites. This guide is intended to provide best practices, tips and advice to those accountable for selecting and implementing video conferencing and collaboration technologies for remote work and distributed teams.  

3 Types of Video Conferencing in 2020

Before we breakdown the guide, let’s take a look at the current video conferencing landscape.

1. Making Quick Calls on the Go

Cloud-based video conferencing makes it easy to instantly connect face to face with people inside and outside your organization. Use your laptop, tablet or mobile device to quickly invite meeting participants to an impromptu video call. Participants can join meetings from any device, anywhere, at any time by simply clicking on the meeting invite link — no apps or software to download. 

Use Lifesize Go for free, unlimited group video calls. No downloads required.

2. Set Up Your Team for Remote Working

Since working from home is the new normal for many employees, having a dedicated video conferencing solution everyone can access is the closest experience to being in the same room. With an enterprise-class video conferencing solution, employees can instantly connect face to face, collaborate and engage with their coworkers regardless of their physical location. Video conferencing has the unique ability to bring a human connection to every interaction so remote workers feel connected to the rest of their team. 

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3. Connect Remote Workers and Multiple Offices Using Hardware + Software

Many enterprise companies have a hybrid workforce comprised of traditional, in-office workers at one or more office locations, as well as dozens or hundreds of remote workers. These companies often rely on both dedicated video conferencing hardware in their meeting rooms and video conferencing software that every employee has on their work laptop and smart device. By using an integrated meeting room system purpose built to work with a cloud-based video conferencing service, you ensure every employee has a seamless video conferencing experience regardless of where they are joining the call. 

Find a video conferencing solution for every space.

5 Ways to Use Lifesize Video Conferencing for Your Distributed Team

1. Generate Leads and Connect with Customers Using Webinars

Webinars (a combination of the words “web” and “seminar”) are great for communicating, training and connecting with both customers and prospects, regardless of their location. You can also use webinars to livestream events to large audiences or broadcast important company news. In fact, Lifesize allows you to livestream with up to 10,000 concurrent viewers and simultaneously record the meeting for anyone who was not able to attend live. 

2. Company Town Hall and All-Hands Meetings

Town halls and all-hands video conferencing meetings are often held on a recurring basis as a means of keeping all employees up to date on important events and milestones in the company. This is especially important for organizations with a distributed workforce. Lifesize allows up to 500 participants to call into the meeting to ensure everyone is informed of companywide updates and working together toward the same common goals.

3. Weekly Team Meetings

Weekly team meetings are essential for keeping all team members in the loop, especially for distributed teams that have employees working in different geographical locations. Face-to-face team meetings let you connect with your team members on a deeper level and help create a collaborative and stimulating environment to ensure everyone on your team is being seen and heard while working together as one unit.  

4. 1:1 Meetings

Perhaps the most common and intimate way people use Lifesize is through one-on-one video meetings. This allows managers to effectively manage remote employees and have private one-on-one video chats. In addition, employees can use Lifesize to connect directly with coworkers via face-to-face video calls to brainstorm new ideas, talk through obstacles and collaborate on projects.

5. Impromptu Meetings

Many traditional in-office employees are used to having quick, impromptu meetings by walking over to their colleague’s desk or catching a coworker in the break room. For remote workers, Lifesize has made it remarkably simple to have virtual impromptu meetings. Just like calling or texting on your mobile device, with Lifesize you can simply call members of your team directly or invite them to a virtual meeting room to have a quick and informal working session — no need to schedule the meeting in advance.  

On more than a handful of occasions, we’ve been able to nip issues in the bud in our one-on-ones that could’ve (and in the past, would have) easily become larger problems for us.

When an employee says that something is really bothering them, they’ve probably been thinking about it for a while. But when negative feedback comes off-hand that something new that we’re doing or some new trend isn’t exciting for them, there’s a good chance that if the issue isn’t addressed, it’ll eventually turn into something that’s really bothering them.

– Alex Turnbull, Founder and CEO of Groov

Video Conferencing FAQs

What is a safe and secure business alternative to Zoom?

With the recent news reports concerning Zoom® data privacy and security issues, many companies have been seeking a secure, alternative video conferencing provider. Thankfully, there are a number of alternatives to choose from, Lifesize being one of them. Lifesize offers ‘always-on,’ enterprise-grade security, so you can rest assured no one will be eavesdropping on your video calls and all your data will be safe.

What are my options for video conferencing during the COVID-19 pandemic?

In response to the unprecedented outbreak, Lifesize is offering free, unlimited video conferencing to all global businesses for six months. We want all organizations struggling with these challenges to have the ability to keep working effectively without complexity or compromise. 

What are the best video conferencing solutions?

When it comes to video conferencing providers, you have a number of different options to choose from, like Lifesize, BlueJeans®, Skype®, Google Hangouts™ and Zoom. So how do you decide which one is best for your company? All businesses have different priorities when it comes to their communication and collaboration strategy and needs. For some organizations, cost is the primary consideration, while others focus on security, reliability and support. Of course, many fall somewhere in the middle, making it all that more important to understand the differences among video conferencing solutions. Check out this guide to Lifesize vs. others for a deeper look into how Lifesize compares.  

How does video conferencing work?

Today’s video conferencing solution comprises a central cloud-hosted infrastructure routing calls and transmitting video, presentation and audio feeds in real-time between personal device clients like laptops and mobile phones with embedded webcams and dedicated meeting room video conferencing device endpoints. 

What are the basic requirements for video conferencing?

The minimum requirements for video conferencing includes three things: a high-resolution camera, ample computer processing (minimum 2 GB of RAM) and a reliable internet connection (about 2 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up of internet bandwidth on both sides).

How do I set up video conferencing?

In the meeting room, simply connect your video conferencing system to your meeting display and pair it to your account. Outside the meeting room, just download your favorite video conferencing app to your personal device, select to use your embedded webcam and microphone and connect to your virtual meeting room. 

What is videotelephony?

“Videotelephony” describes any technology that can simultaneously receive and transmit audio-video communications. This technology typically includes a display screen, a microphone and a speaker component, and is used by people in different locations to interface in real time. 

Your Complete Guide to Video Conferencing

In this guide, we’ll break down the basics of video conferencing — from where it all started, reasons it’s worth the investment and some tips and tricks on choosing the right video conferencing solution for your business’s unique needs. 

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