HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEO MEETINGS FOR A MODERN COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE Produced by Sponsored by
Executive Summary The ability to support video meetings, whether for an audience of one or tens of thousands, is quickly becoming a business objective and competitive differentiator. A video culture encourages collaboration, spurs innovation, and facilitates efficiency and productivity. Too often, however, a divide stands between traditional videoconferencing infrastructure and webcasting platforms. Break down the barriers, scale to meet all of your audience needs, and you can open a world of new opportunity for live and on-demand knowledge sharing. HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEO MEETINGS FOR A MODERN COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE 2
The Modern Enterprise Video Experience With the ease-of-use and reduced complexity ushered in with today s generation of in-room videoconferencing systems and cloud-delivered video services, video meetings are becoming more and more commonplace within the enterprise. Use cases vary widely, as do the benefits. One of the most compelling use cases for videoconferencing remains the ability to hold corporate or departmental meetings among far-flung constituents. But from that starting point many companies have turned to video meetings for a wide variety of other purposes, even those deemed mission critical. For example, many Human Resource departments now consider the video interview invaluable in the recruitment process, especially when seeking fresh young talent to fill internship or full-time career opportunities. Video is second nature to many young job seekers, and a company that uses on-demand video meeting services can project a modern, cool-place-to-work vibe. Reduced travel expenses is nice on the budget, but cost reduction is far from the only driver. Many companies view the ability to host video meetings quickly and easily with internal and external participants as a competitive advantage. They use video meetings not only to suss out the best job candidates, but also to nurture the customer relationship, keep employees informed and engaged with the corporate mission, promote continued learning, and more. Being able to read participants body language and facial expressions makes for less guesswork about how a job candidate is reacting to corporate messaging or where a customer stands on an issue, for example. Is the customer visibly angry and irritated? Sales can do a quick redirection during a customer presentation. Meeting by video can help groups reach a consensus more quickly than they can if trying to hash out decisions by phone or in email threads. And video can be an equalizer of sorts, as well. Fire up a cloud video app and invite as many participants to a meeting as you d like. The more insight and input, the better. And video brings about increased transparency between corporate leadership and employees, creating an open and collaborative culture. Brainstorming on interactive digital whiteboards during video collaboration sessions can spur innovation, increase productivity, and improve efficiency all hallmarks of the modern meeting experience. HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEO MEETINGS FOR A MODERN COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE 3
Yet video has its challenges. Overcoming an ingrained audio-only mindset is a big one, as is getting users to forget their less-than-successful videoconferencing experiences. With connectivity challenges and suboptimal viewing experiences, videoconferences can too often be associated with lost time and wasted effort. Crucially important is that enterprise organizations do their due diligence in researching companies that can support superior video meeting experiences, and only invest in technology tools that boost transparency in their organizations. If Millennials in Marketing are the only users to embrace video, then a company will never truly realize the transformative potential of video collaboration. Creating a strong video culture must start with upper management and trickle down to every business user. The right technology choices are key. Knocking Down Technology Silos Depending on business need, different technologies have shaped the video business meeting experience. Webcasting: For large-scale meetings, often involving top corporate executives and live streamed to thousands or tens of thousands of employees, depending on company size; webcasts often involve the use of an off-site studio and professional production team. Video room systems: For traditional in-room point-to-multipoint, medium-sized meetings Video apps (UC or standalone): For one-to-one or small-group video calls But in looking to establish collaborative environments and make video meetings part and parcel of the corporate culture, leading enterprises are now rethinking this approach. Do the CEO and CFO really need to deliver each and every quarterly report from a remote studio assisted by a full-scale webcast production team? Or could they convene those same meetings merely by firing up their UC clients or stepping into the video-equipped boardroom down the hallway from their executive offices? By bringing together disparate videoconferencing infrastructure and webcasting environments, enterprises gain value in a variety of ways. From a budget perspective, improved total cost of ownership is one benefit. Enterprises can get more bang for their videoconferencing buck if they can scale their in-room hardware and software infrastructure and desktop video apps to support video meetings among larger audiences. Another bottom-line benefit is reduced expenditures on webcast production, a la that quarterly meeting scenario mentioned above. HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEO MEETINGS FOR A MODERN COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE 4
Being able to deliver a presentation to a large audience from the familiar videoconferencing room setting, or even from a remote location using a cloud video app, can increase presenters comfort level, and thus encourage continued video use. In addition, integrating different environments creates a seamless video meeting experience for all speakers and participants, whether they re sitting in a room or participating while on the road. When the approach to the CFO s quarterly webcast to financial and business analysts around the globe is no longer any different from the way a project manager conducts a weekly videoconference among a handful of team members, then the barriers to video meetings truly fall away. Identifying Technology Requirements The idea of using existing videoconferencing hardware and software to host broadcast video meetings might be new to you, but it s one worth exploring fully if your organization would like to get more out of its existing videoconferencing infrastructure. Videoconferencing gateways such as MediaPlatform s SmartBridge can enable integration between webcast platforms and SIP-compliant videoconferencing systems, and this means users can conduct webcasts using the videoconferencing hardware and software with which they re already comfortable. In simplistic terms, a gateway takes in video in one format from a videoconferencing unit or multipoint control unit, and converts it on the fly to another format so that it can stream across the webcasting infrastructure. The first factor to consider when evaluating videoconferencing gateways is whether or not the solution is interoperable across the range of video room systems, video software, and webcast platforms your organization has in place. Support for Pexip s video interoperability solution is essential in mixed environments, allowing the gateway to work equally as well in a multi-vendor deployment as it does when supporting a single-vendor implementation all Polycom, Cisco, or Microsoft, for example. HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEO MEETINGS FOR A MODERN COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE 5
Beyond integrating with your videoconferencing estate, other considerations include: Scalability -- When considering the scalability of a videoconferencing gateway look at the number of presenters you might have as well as the number of concurrent attendees. Look for a gateway that gives you the flexibility of presenting with speakers in different locations and the ability to deliver webcasts to your anticipated maximum audience size, and then some. Perhaps your organization has been using Skype Meeting Broadcast, but has bumped up against that 10,000-attendee cap. With the right videoconferencing gateway, audience size should not be a limiting factor, whether you re trying to reach all employees in a certain region or across the globe. Likewise on scalability, measure the number of video broadcast meetings your organization would likely host in a day, week, or month, if it had the capacity. Plenty of companies might already hold one or two webcasts quarterly, but would do more if they could bring down the cost, complexity, and comfort level. A large global enterprise might host a handful of departmental webcasts daily, plus an all-hands town hall every quarter and myriad other broadcast meetings at different intervals. The videoconferencing gateway needs to be able to accommodate whatever meeting frequency is demanded. WebRTC Support: If you have a mobile workforce (and what company doesn t these days), you ll want to make sure the videoconferencing gateway you select allows you to reach any viewer, on any type of device ios, Android, or Windows anywhere, with high-quality video. Additionally, speakers themselves should be able to present during videoconferences while they re on the road, whether they use their laptops, tablets, or even smartphones. Simplicity is key. Neither presenters nor attendees should need to download an app in order to participate in a video broadcast meeting remotely. Rather, they should be able to click directly into the experience from their Web browsers, and WebRTC support enables this. Recording and Archiving: On-demand viewing is a must-have, as of course not every attendee of a large audience is going to be able to listen live. Look for a videoconferencing gateway solution that will record and automatically archive your video broadcast meetings for immediate availability. Consider a solution that publishes the recordings to a secure video portal, for easy accessibility. The easier you make the ability to share video meeting content, the greater the knowledge transfer you ll enable and the stronger the collaborative culture you ll build. HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEO MEETINGS FOR A MODERN COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE 6
Optimizing the Experience In addition to basic technology requirements, be sure to consider how your solution of choice will help your broadcasts shine. Your attendees will not embrace video meetings if the quality is inconsistent or outright shoddy, or content less than engaging. You ll want a platform meant to support video webcasts at enterprise scale, relying on a rules-based delivery mechanism to assure quality video for every attendee. In your product evaluations, ask questions such as: 1. My video endpoints are widely dispersed, around the globe. How do you handle video distribution? 2. Do you use the same media stream for all attendees, or vary those by endpoint capabilities? 3. What happens if network performance dips? Do you automatically adjust delivery route? 4. What if a network path becomes unavailable? Can I set failover rules or are those automated? 5. Can I monitor performance in real time? 6. What kind of intelligence do you deliver for post-meeting analysis? Will I be able to tell attendee locations and devices in use, for example? And don t forget to consider capabilities that will spur attendee engagement. While being able to see speakers during video meetings goes a long way in promoting engagement, adding rich media and interactive components into a webcast can be even more compelling. Consider a solution that will allow your CEO to host a Q&A during the quarterly town hall, your project manager to chat with engineers during a webcast, or your VP of HR to post polls and surveys while webcasting about that new benefits plan. And you might want to give viewers some ownership as well, allowing them to rate a presentation as well as tag and share content with other viewers, internal or external. HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEO MEETINGS FOR A MODERN COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE 7
Conclusion Leading enterprises are realizing the power of video meetings in engendering a collaborative culture, and are recognizing the opportunity to get more out of existing videoconferencing infrastructure. While videoconferencing and webcasting have traditionally lived in separate domains, many enterprises are starting to realize the value of knocking down the silos and bringing those previously disparate worlds together. Smart bridging technology, combined with intelligent video distribution and real-time monitoring, can facilitate the convergence. For greatest benefit, solutions need to scale for audiences of all sizes, enable attendees to participate as easily from a hotel room using a smartphone as they do from within the corporate boardroom, and provide easy and immediate access to recordings for on-demand participation. The net result? The ability to create a video culture, which in turn thrives on collaboration and works efficiently and productively. About MediaPlatform MediaPlatform is the leading enterprise video platform enabling largescale live streaming and on-demand video for corporate communications, training and collaboration across all industries. With solutions for content creation, delivery and quality of service monitoring, MediaPlatform provides organizations that include Abbott Laboratories, FINRA, Phillips 66, Sprint and UL with the most feature-rich enterprise video product on the market. HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEO MEETINGS FOR A MODERN COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCE 8