Video conferencing set for a come-back

NEWS Video conferencing has long been promised as the next big communication tool, but has so far failed to catch the imagination of the business community. Graham Seabrook, founder and CEO of Ridgeway Systems and Software, believes that it is possible to resurrect it as the next wave in essential business technologies. In an interview with Silicon.com, Seabrook describes his plan to revitalise the video conferencing industry by repositioning it as a service rather than a technology. Ridgeway allows users to rent video conferencing technologies from familiar telecoms providers or ISPs so they don't have to be concerned with the implementation of complex new technology. "Video will become as common as telephony," Seabrook said, "as virtually every desktop has a PC, phone and ISDN, so every business has the potential for video conferencing." Seabrook maintains that video conferencing is destined to succeed as it is a communication enabler. He said: "The killer application is communication. Video enhances and improves communication." Ridgeway hopes to overcome past problems of business acceptance by making it simple to use. Mark Thompson, director of SME planning services for analyst house Yankee Group, agreed that ease of use is vital to growth in the sector. "There needs to be a comfort level to remove the complexity of technology from the user." The real jump in the market however will only occur, he said, when the necessary bandwidth becomes available as standard over the Internet or company intranet. You can see the full interview with Graham Seabrook on Silicon's Groupware channel (http://www.silicon.com/groupware ).