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MEETING FACE-TO-FACE, VIA VIDEOYou have your PC, fax, copier, and separate phone line, and you're hooked up to the Internet. What more can a telecommuter want? How about videoconferencing capability? Technology for videoconferencing has made great strides, and prices have fallen so that some systems now are within budget of many small businesses. You may want to go to the video if you're a telecommuter for whom meetings are a regular part of the workday. Take Debbie Deans, vice-president of Interstar Systems, a Houston security monitoring company. She relies on videoconferencing to make sales presentations to prospective clients in other states as well as to keep tabs on her staff at headquarters. "It saves me 70 miles round-trip every time something happens in the office," she says. To hold a videoconference, all you need is a fairly powerful computer. You can put together a Net-based videoconferencing system for as little as $250 -- the price of software plus a camera and mike to hook up to your PC. These days, users at both ends of the line usually no longer need to have the same videoconferencing system in order to communicate. CHOPPY DELIVERY. The most economical option for the home office is a software package, such as Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) NetMeeting or CU-SeeMe by White Pine Software Inc. (WPNE), that you install in your PC to communicate via the Net. NetMeeting can be downloaded free from the Net, and CU-SeeMe starts at $69. Programs such as NetMeeting and CU-SeeMe also facilitate data collaboration: You and a colleague at another location can simultaneously work on one spreadsheet or document. The sound and picture on Internet-based systems tend to be choppy, however, and are subject to delays because they depend on regular phone lines, which are too slow and traffic-laden to transmit quality video images. Net-based systems may suffice if you simply want to keep in touch with colleagues, but they might be too clunky for in-depth discussions. The next step up are the so-called desktop systems, which range in price from $800 to $2,500. Once you've bought the system, you need to install the hardware -- a board, much like an internal modem -- in your PC, a process companies are trying to simplify. Desktop systems offer clearer connections, but there's a hitch: These and the more expensive "group" systems need high-speed ISDN phone lines or faster and more expensive digital subscriber lines (DSL) -- which many telephone companies don't yet offer. If you live in an area that does have these lines, you can choose from the latest crop of desktops, which include Intel's (INTC) ProShare Video System 500, Zydacron's OnWan, and PictureTel's (PCTL) Livelan. The frame speed -- the pace at which the picture is transmitted -- of these machines is now generally 15 frames per second, a big improvement over older systems, whose speeds were as slow as 4 frames per second. TV-quality images, meanwhile, need at least 30 frames per second. Desktop system discussions do achieve the look of an in-person meeting, but the image is a bit fuzzy, and there's a slight video delay and the occasional glitch, such as picture freeze. GROUP GET-TOGETHERS. To get TV-quality images, you must opt for the "room-sized" or "group" systems, which run from $10,000 to $30,000 for a separate, large-screen monitor as well as software. Not cheap, but compared with prices of $60,000 to $80,000 five years ago, "group videoconferencing systems are migrating down" in cost, says Michael Begeman, manager of the 3M Meeting Network, an online information resource in Austin. Group systems also have a multipoint feature that allows users to connect with several people at different sites. The cost of the high-speed phone lines needed for these systems has dropped considerably in the past few years. In Washington, D.C., for example, installing an ISDN line in your home, plus wiring, costs roughly $200. Monthly charges run about $30 for 20 hours, and long-distance calls are billed separately. Videoconferencing systems are definitely more user-friendly than they used to be. They're not quite standard office equipment yet. But neither were PCs 20 years ago.
Michele Pullia Turk RELATED ITEMS
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Updated Oct. 1, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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