By Natasha Lomas, 6 February 2009 15:37
NEWS
Airlines could be hit hard as workers ditch face-to-face meetings in favour of cheaper virtual link-ups.
The worldwide economic downturn will boost videoconferencing tech, according to analyst house Gartner that predicts virtual meetings will replace more than two million airline seats per year by 2012.
Telepresence systems - such as Cisco's TelePresence and HP's Halo - use high definition video, stereo audio and purpose built videoconference suites to help make participants feel as if they are meeting in the same room as each other.
The analyst reckons telepresence tech will replace 2.1 million airline seats annually, costing the travel and hospitality industry $3.5bn per year - but giving tech kit makers a boost. Online worlds such as Second Life could also see increased usage as companies seek alternatives to air travel.
Gartner fellow Steve Prentice said every organisation needs to reconsider whether face-to-face meetings are essential.
"Companies should put aside previous prejudices and bad memories of older videoconferencing services and seriously investigate these new technologies," he said in a statement.
Comments
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1. Ralph
Cisco's Telepresecence, is certainly impressive. The demonstration I saw, was cleverly done and gave the impression of siting at one end of an oval table. Don't know if it'll replace quite as many seats as that but there's no doubt that as we get more used to 'virtual' meetings, face-to-face meetings will lessen.
Oh no, I've actually written a serious comment on here, for the first time ever.
2. anonymous
The company that I worked for in the eighties used Video Conferencing - not wonderful quality but effective. Saved lots of time and money. But the resistance and the reasons given to avoid the use in favour of actual face-to-face meetings was enormouse. Eventually the service was closed down as a result.
I trust that those who promote these services will remember that many people look upon global travel as a normal part of their job - if not actually necessary.
We used our service over private wires, both intra Britain and across the 'Pond' so bandwidth was within our own control.
3. Charles Smith
Timezones can be a problem with Video Conferencing. I once had a 6 month stint of weekly video conference meetings with a team in California. They used to start their meeting at 2pm their local time (10pm UK).
Because of the costs of the links I had to go into the office - after a normal day's work. The team manager insisted on video link rather than plain voice conferencing.
They then had the cheek to complain when I claimed double rate overtime.
4. Simon Allen
This topic was discussed on R4 'The Bottom Line' on Saturday. General view was, "If I want someone's business - I have to talk to them face to face. If I know them well, I can use this for some meetings."
That echoes my 20 years of audio and video conf experience - both providing and using. I, also, saw the big push in the late 80s and saw that it did not go as far as people expected. In the recession of 89/92 it STILL did not become the big biz that everyone expected it.
Human beings want to travel and they want to see others face to face. In this recession when trust is key - vid conf is NOT going to be the big biz they think.
5. Chris Tolmie
Both Cisco and Nortel play in this space.
6. Paul Spencer
The Travel Management Sector is even beginning to put Teleconferencing into the workflow process for "travel approval" - large blue-chips beginning to suggest that internal meetings - by default - move to adopt remote solutions. As a travel consultant, FYI, I always design solutions to ensure travel is warranted and justifiable. Improvements in technology (once the price point reaches the SME sector) are welcomed if they get people to think about whether they need to travel at all.
7. anonymous
Please, SL as a serious meeting environment, I don’t believe so.