Online Videoconferencing

You can’t say we don’t provide you with the most pertinent posts out there. Odds are you’re reading this all cooped up, got the kid in the next room banging down the walls, the wife/husband/partner/roommate wondering when you’re going to clean the kitchen, and all you want to do is play online pool in your PJs. You’re not alone, this whole quarantine thing is rough on everyone. But the one area that has been booming is online videoconference platforms.

What do you do when you can’t leave your house and have to take a meeting, negotiate a contract, figure out the launch date of a marketing campaign, talk with multiple folks in the finance department about how to preserve the business over the short-term? You could set up a conference phone call, but there is something inherently comforting when you can see the person you are talking to. Facial expressions are critical in how we communicate with each other, non-verbal gestures and other small but important things that a face-to-face discussion brings that you cannot replicate over the phone.

Videoconferencing is currently booming. There are a plethora of options in the larger videoconference world and we’re going to run down a handful for you today. First up is GoToMeeting. A standalone service provided by LogMeIn, a popular feature with GoToMeeting is its mobile friendliness. A conference can be initiated from your smartphone, which is surprisingly not all that easy for every provider. In terms of costs, a basic tier is available at $14 per month with a limit of 150 participants. A business plan will run you $19 per month and the number of allowable participants bumps to 250.

CyberLink U Meeting is a provider with a terribly long name. But all the kids just call it Link, and you can too. Link was founded way back in 1996, old by videoconferencing standards. The basic plan is free and you can throw in 25 participants for a limit of 30 minutes per meeting. The reason the kids like Link is an odd feature called “PerfectCam” where the user can add computer generated makeup to participant faces. You get to create what Link refers to as a “truly professional look.” We have to say however that chat rooms do not agree with this. They mock it more than anything, but Link is trying and they’re still maintaining market share, so that’s nothing to sneeze at (uff, sorry, sneeze isn’t a good word nowadays. Perhaps nothing to cough at, Ok, we’ll stop).

Finally, we’ve saved a personal favorite for last – Zoom. You’ve likely heard quite a bit about Zoom in these times. The reason why is you don’t need to know anything about videoconference platforms to use Zoom. It is by far the user-friendliest application out there and can support up to 1,000 participants all at the same time. In fact, your loyal scribe’s son is currently in a Zoom room with his buddies playing a game. In these times (those with kids can attest to this), the social kids have it the worst. Those that are super sporty and active as well. Not being able to interact with your friends is rather brutal and while the “screen” is what we’re all trying to get our kids away from, if the pressure is on, get a Zoom room together and let your kid play online.

We have a feeling videoconferencing is not going away anytime soon. It’s a new world order, log on your computer and put on a nice shirt or blouse. The good news is you don’t need to worry about what’s on underneath over video.