What is VoIP Video Telephony and How it Helps Businesses?
Video Conferencing vs Video Telephony
The way enterprises operate today requires solutions that are user-friendly, available at the click of a button, multi-device (laptop/desktop/tablet/smartphone) friendly, and one that can be easily integrated with the day-to-day workflow. This is where video telephony comes in, what differentiates video telephony from group videoconferencing is the way it works. Let’s understand both the technologies and how they differ.
- Video Conferencing
You would have often heard of corporate events where they book a hotel room that has video-conferencing infrastructure. Offices have dedicated meeting rooms, with a complete set-up in place with cameras and other high-end equipment to conduct video conferences. When we use the term ‘video conferencing’ it implies a scenario where participants congregate in a specially equipped video conference room at a time scheduled well in advance. There is a huge expense involved in building a group video conferencing environment, with special attention on the microphone and speaker placement, lighting, camera locations, etc., precisely the reason why not all conference rooms are outfitted with video conferencing infrastructure.
A majority of video conferences are still done using ISDN which is billed per-minute basis, which means the more an organization uses ISDN video conferencing, the more it costs. Video conferencing is not a financially viable option, neither does it offer the flexibility and ease of use benefits that are important more so in today’s hybrid and remote work environment.
- Video Telephony
The delivery and functioning of video telephony is a complete departure from the way video conferencing works. It is user-friendly, available on-demand, cost-effective when compared to video conferencing, and is as easy as placing a phone call. The video devices are tied to the hosted PBX like a telephone handset is. Videotelephony revolves around a user’s individual workspace. The video is displayed on an individual’s computer screen, or on a video-enabled mobile phone or tablet. The technology is designed in a way that people can use it without any assistance from technicians to place video calls.
How Video Telephony works
- The users need to dial an extension, just like dialing any office telephone. The SIP servers in the network cloud translate the digits dialed to an IP address and the audio and video are routed to the called party’s video device.
- Videotelephony works on a hosted PBX, providing desktop video device users access to all the call control features they are familiar with for audio calls including video hold, video transfer, video mute, and multiparty conference.
- Being integrated into the voice telephony infrastructure and network, placing a video call using video telephony is as easy and reliable as making a phone call.
Equipment Required for Video Telephony
As we said, video telephony does not require an elaborate infrastructure or technical assistance, or expertise, it runs on a user’s personal device. But in order to do a video call, you do need a basic setup. You will need a device (computer or smartphone or tablet) on which you can install the software to make and receive video calls, a computer with an in-built camera or a web-cam, video conferencing software/app, operating system, and browser to support the software, and high-speed internet connection with good bandwidth. Accessories such as a microphone, headphones or earphones, etc.
