Video conferencing dominates our workdays. Out of the pandemic and into a more flexible world, video conferencing is adapting and improving meeting experiences.
When was the last time you picked up a phone at work to call someone? Instead of an office phone, we grab a headset and initiate a video conferencing call! Solidifying its place in a modern working environment, video conferencing has become as vital as emails in our daily working lives.
Hybrid working is nothing new anymore, but businesses around the world are expanding their flexibility packages, supporting the growth of video conferencing. It is ever-evolving, addressing the needs of companies and employees. Thus, the following 5 video conferencing trends for 2023 should be on everyone’s radar!
AI-powered video conferencing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) adds a layer of sophistication to video conferencing. Optimising virtual meeting experiences, AI is responsible for noise reduction, enhanced presentation delivery, live transcriptions, meeting summaries and analytics.
Advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) allow people that are not native speakers or those with hearing difficulties to fully participate in virtual meetings. Live transcription is set to become even faster and more accurate.
With AI on the rise, video conferencing software and hardware are being integrated with smart features such as face recognition that help create meeting summaries with all participants, allowing the IT department to analyse meeting room spaces and how to optimise them further.
Interoperability
Most businesses use one of the following video conferencing platforms: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or Skype for Businesses. That’s hundreds of millions of users communicating across their respectful platforms every day. But what happens when a user from Zoom wants to connect with a user from Microsoft Teams?
The challenge of linking online meeting platforms for streamlined, frictionless meeting experiences is daunting. That’s where interoperability comes in.
Interoperability refers to simplified virtual meetings, regardless of a chosen platform and easy connectivity either through software or hardware. We have seen major UC&C players upgrading their devices to allow both Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings. Software providers are also addressing this issue, focusing on reliable cross-platform collaboration.
Meeting equality
While physical distances between employees, clients or partners are increasing with flexible working, this shift towards video conferencing shouldn’t impact the quality of communication and collaboration. Every remote participant should be able to share, be heard and be seen in a virtual meeting. Virtual spaces should also offer consistency in quality.
No longer the crackling audio and pixelated video are accepted in remote meetings. Poor set-up, at home or in the office, is not widely tolerated, considered unprofessional and ineffective.
Meeting equality focuses on inclusivity and technology that helps achieve the best possible results from virtual meetings without excluding remote or poorly equipped participants.
Microsoft Teams Rooms
To combat inefficiency and provide meeting equality, Microsoft Teams Rooms offer a complete solution for businesses – integrated software and hardware functionality for productive meetings.
Microsoft Teams Rooms refer to physical meeting spaces where video conferencing devices such as displays, cameras and audio are certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms and work in unison. This full solution provides users with easy access and meeting analytics.
For overall meeting equality, advanced Microsoft Teams Rooms now include Front Row – a meeting space solution that moves the gallery view to the bottom of the screen, so the remote meeting participants sit at eye level with their in-room colleagues. It promotes boundaryless collaboration – inclusive and engaging hybrid meetings.
Security and privacy
The rise of video conferencing and the shift to working together in virtual space have raised some questions about data security and individual privacy. The USA government and its National Security Agency (NSA) even consider the remote-working trend a national security issue.
A growing number of virtual meetings gave raise to “Zoom bombings” – remote meeting hijacking by internet trolls and hackers. It’s not limited to Zoom, even though carrying its name, it affects all video conferencing platforms and users. To avoid disruption caused by Zoom bombers, here are some tips for more secure meetings:
o Enable waiting rooms and verify attendees
o Add a meeting password
o Use virtual background
o Keep software up to date
o Never share meeting links publicly
Video conferencing still dominates our workdays and it shows no signs of slowing down this year. Out of the pandemic and into a more flexible world, video conferencing is continuously adapting and improving users’ remote meeting experiences.
