By Gary Kayye, CTS

I have long been a videoconferencing pundit.  I have never used a system that worked, perfectly, and have, literally, never talked to a customer of VTC technology that was completely satisfied with their installation.  And, it’s not that I didn’t try.  I have asked over and over in seminars, articles and at trade shows for dealers to pass on the name and phone number of clients they did VTC installs for that were satisfied with their system and used it regularly. 

Oh, sure, I got names to call.  And, I called them.  But, each and every time I called them I would eventually find out that, in fact, they weren’t totally satisfied with their VTC system and that they were more than frustrated with many aspects of their installs – most of the time connection issues.

I remember one time even being referred to a giant company (Motorola) who I was told loved their VTC system.  Well, I called and spoke to the department who headed up Motorola’s VTC installs and not only did I find that they weren’t at all happy with the 70 or so systems they had at the time but that their customers (Motorola employees) weren’t even really using the systems any more.  In fact, one Motorola employee actually told me a story about how he tried to use the system a few times but every single time he did it was like he had to, “have a meeting with IT to make sure they system worked in time for the meeting with the client”.  He even cited the fact that with VTC technology, he didn’t accrue frequent flier miles – something he did get when he just went ahead and flew over to Asia even once in a while.

I even have a desktop VTC system in my office.  I use it all the time.  I wont tell you the brand or model, but it’s one of the top two brands and is arguably the largest selling model out there.  It works, some of the time.  But, it doesn’t work, most of the time. One thing is for use, I don’t dare schedule a VTC session and just jump on the call without testing the connection a time or two before the assigned meeting time.

In all fairness, in researching the plethora of problems we have, it all seems to come down to the connection issues – quality, consistency, bandwidth, etc.

In short, it’s not the hardware’s fault.  Something Tandberg, Polycom and the like have been saying for years.  And, they are right!

But, lately I’ve been trying out myself and speaking to customers of HD videoconferencing systems and the story is all different now. 

It works!  It really works!  And, works consistently well.

I am totally blown away.  This is the all-new, re-engineered version of videoconferencing and it’s totally different than before.  It’s what VTC salespeople have been saying VTC technology will do for their customers for years. 

And, the new HD VTC systems have it and do it all.

Oh, sure, the quality’s better.  But, that’s not what I am impressed with.  I am impressed with the fact that virtually 100% of the customers I spoke to who were using it were satisfied.  Ironically enough, I am not alone.   In my discussions with the users, almost none of them cited picture quality as a major satisfaction factor in their new HD VTC system – it was simpler than that – it worked.

The user experience was satisfying simply because they finally had a system that did what it was supposed to do – dial-up, connect and perform.

So, have you switched yet?

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Reprinted with permission from Sound & Communications.  Founded in 1955, Sound & Communications is the premiere magazine for AV systems integrators, contractors and consultants. To subscribe or read sample articles, go tohttp://www.soundandcommunications.com.