Videoconferencing hailed as key business tool

NEWS IT directors lack understanding of visual communications which are going to be key business tools in the future, according to a spokesman for video company, Tektronix. Stephen King, vice president of Tektronix's video and networking division, explained the problem. "It's a chicken and egg situation because videoconferencing technology has been so shaky up till now," he said. Brian Collins, IS manager at Royal College of Surgeons of England, is sceptical about the state of the technology. "The quality of videoconferencing products hasn't been high enough for me to investigate. I'm not going to waste my time or my users' money with systems that don't yet appear workable," he said. King agreed: "Why would you expensively upgrade your networks for jerky video." But he claimed Tektronix's products have solved all the original problems. "They run faster and allow effective videoconferencing across WANs." Tektronix reformed its video division this week and will launch a videoconferencing product on Friday at the Internet Business Conference in Amsterdam. The company is aiming to make it easier for IT directors to deploy videoconferencing across networks. The newly launched division is called VideoTele.com and the company is currently in talks with several service providers, including Germany's Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica in Spain, to roll it out across Europe.