
1. Always give and take during conversations, listen and talk, no one wants to be talked at and try to give a name of the person you are talking directly to if there are several people listening as it can be difficult to tell.
2. Make use of your mute button. This can block you out if there is something you need to discuss privately, and make sure you give your recipients a few seconds to reply because they may be removing their mute button.
3. In large video conference meetings, try to keep your questions simple because generating consensus can be difficult, so more specific answers can sometimes be gained if you ask the minority e.g who doesn't understand instead of who does.
4. Never shout down the microphone because the people on the other end will only hear you shouting. The systems are built for you to talk normally into.
5. If you worry about people not being able to hear you, have a test run or sound check before hand to prevent this being an issue when it comes to an important call.
6. Even though you are talking to the people on screen, try to look through the camera lens instead of the screen because this will give more eye contact.
7. Make some necessary preparations like getting used to how much you can move in front of the camera before you go out of the picture, before it comes to your conference call.
8. Try not to move too much in front of the screen because depending on both your internet bandwidth restrictions and hardware and software, fast movements may blur up the screen on either end of the conversation.
9. Consider your attire when you are planning on using Video Conferencing. The recipients can see your clothes for a start, and some colours can make your skin tone look funny or blend into the background.
10. Just like your clothes give an impression of you and your business, so do your surroundings. Make sure you are in a place you don't mind potential customers and such seeing and that it is clean, tidy and presentable.
When you purchase a video conferencing system, a LifeSize High Definition Communication device can be the key to making your calls realistic and only needing your existing business broadband connection for it to run on.
Video conferencing is the future of business communications. Whereas business travel can be expensive, time consuming, environmentally unfriendly and prone to mishaps and disaster, video conferencing is quick, easy and risk free. To really get ahead in business, a video conferencing system is fast becoming an essential tool.
Independent communications firm TAXI has announced that it has chosen a video conferencing solution from LifeSize. TAXI is hoping that the LifeSize solution will help enhance productivity, reduce the need to travel and improve communication between colleagues and customers.
The ability of LifeSize video conferencing to allow real time interaction with high quality telepresence images enables workers to collaborate without the need for expensive travel which also leaves a huge carbon footprint.
Like Verizon and Cisco, Avaya has entered into partnership with LifeSize Communications. Like a high school disco, everybody seems to be grabbing a partner and heading for the floor.
In the new partnership, LifeSize Communication’s HD video conferencing solution will be made interoperable with Avaya’s Aura, the unified communications platform that is immensely popular. LifeSize HD video conferencing will be available for large or small group conferencing and with Avaya’s Aura businesses have centralised management and control as well as the ability to procure audio and visual over a single network.
Logitech, supplier and manufacturer of computer peripherals particularly mice, have announced that they are to buy LifeSize, video conferencing solutions company. After much speculation regarding Polycom after Cisco’s offer for Tandberg, many people are surprised that LifeSize is the next to be bought. Logitech are paying $405 million (around £244 million) for LifeSize and the deal should be finalised in December – it makes one extravagant Christmas present!
Logitech CEO Gerald Quindlen said of the acquisition, “Together we can make life-like, HD-quality video communication as mainstream and seamless as a telephone, for meeting participants in the boardroom, at their office desk, in a remote-location meeting room, telecommuting from home or on the go with a laptop.”
Corporate Express in Australia has recently started a pilot period of video conferencing from LifeSize, a market vendor of video conferencing solutions. According to Chief Information Officer at Corporate Express, Garry Whatley, in 2008 the company generated 1275 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions through business travel and untold expenses. Corporate Express hope to cut down on costs and the effect on the environment by using LifeSize solutions instead – good for them!
LifeSize Communications, leading video conferencing solutions manufacturer, is to release the new LifeSize Passport later this year. LifeSize Passport will be a third of the weight, price and size of any other video conferencing or ‘telepresence’ solution of its class.
To enhance the new LifeSize Passport, LifeSize have paired up with Skype which enables them to offer VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). So as well as a life-like telepresence, customers of LifeSize Passport will be able to make cheap calls to landlines and mobiles and they will also be able to make free calls to 480 million Skype users – a definite bonus for any SMEs (Small to Medium sized Enterprises) who want to cut costs!
The Soft Side of Technology
LifeSize Video Conferencing is a video conferencing system that uses your existing broadband network. It allows you to communicate with colleagues from anywhere in the world. LifeSize is the perfect tool for business conferencing and meetings.
However, LifeSize isn’t just for telecommunications businesses, as many people seem to think. As it happens, the charity Children’s Hospice South West has invested in a LifeSize Video System for terminally ill children. Care Team members can now communicate and discuss care policies with ease and terminally ill children can connect with other children and families to share experiences and play. Video Conferencing it seems isn’t all wires and switches. It has a human heart.