Will desktop video conferencing replace room-based video conferencing?

Research shows that room-based video conferencing is much more common than its desktop counterpart.

According to the May 2011 InformationWeek Desktop Video Conferencing Survey, 34% of respondents had desktop video conferencing system deployed with an extra 10% saying they were planning to do the same over the following 12 months. The same poll showed that 78% of the respondents had already implemented a room-based video conferencing system, even though these are usually more expensive and difficult to use.

Still, desktop video conferencing adoption seems to be growing, and could, in a near future, take over room-based video conferencing.

Room-based video conferencing is tied to management and employee training. It’s great and very important to have a room where one can have a meeting with a possible partner or a client through video, or a place where employees can attend seminars without having to leave their office.

But desktop video conferencing, which can be deployed on every computer without the need of a specific space, can be very useful in a working environment and increase productivity substantially. By deploying and implementing a unified communications system, which includes desktop video conferencing, collaboration among employees and between employees and management will increase considerably.

When asked the question “Why is your company using or evaluating desktop video conferencing?” the top answer with the 38% of the responses was “to improve collaboration among employees”, followed by “to reduce travel costs” with 31% and “to improve collaboration with partners and customers.”

The main reason for the disparity between room-based and desktop video conferencing is because the latter was always considered to lack the video quality of the first, which is partially true. Today, this gap is closing especially due to technological developments. Solution vendors have realized that in order to sell video conferencing systems they need to prioritize image quality while maintaining connection speed.

New solutions available in the market, such as RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance, deliver a high quality service which can match any room-based video conferencing system, being easier to use and deploy while being cheaper to implement, requiring little to no maintenance.

As technology progresses and vendors come up with new solutions it is only expected that not only desktop video conferencing will catch up with room-based video conferencing, it will surpass it.