Necessary Audio Conferencing Equipment

For a web-based audio conference, you will need a computer with an Internet connection, a way to hear and be heard, a video camera for being seen; and the software chosen by the conference moderator.

Your Web browser must be Java-equipped, and your Internet connection must be 56 kbps or faster. Any cable or DSL hookup is good (never use dial-up for web conferencing.)

Audio Conferencing Phones

For your audio linkup, you can either use an Internet-based technology called VoIP, or a telephone, depending on the software your conference is using. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It is like a telephone, but instead of being sent analogically through the phone lines, audio is sent digitally via the Internet, at a cost much lower than traditional long distance. In either case, it is recommended that you utilize a comfortable headset with earphones and a microphone. That way, your hands will be free, you will be more comfortable, and your face will be seen by the web cam.

Audio Conferencing Cameras

To be seen by the other users in the web conference, you will need a web cam. Test out the angle and lighting in advance to make sure you are showing up well. Be sure to wear a suit, just as you would in the real world. Relax and smile.

Audio Conferencing Software

Your software can be any of a number of audio conferencing programs. Every user must have the same program or “interface” in order for it to work. Microsoft NetMeeting and GnomeMeeting are two such programs.

Audio Conferencing the Old Fashioned Way

The other way to do audio conferencing is in a group situation. There is a television, a speakerphone or some other communication device, and perhaps some collaborative software. As personal and office computers become more and more powerful, and now that employees or group members have access to such gadgets as web cameras and headsets, audio conferencing will continue to shift to this more economical way of conferencing.

Audio Conferencing Info provides detailed information about audio conferencing services, equipment, software, companies, plus online audio conferencing, and more. Audio Conferencing Info is affiliated with Original Content.

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Why Reservationless Audio Conferences Beat Pre-Booked

If you've know a bit about the audio conferencing industry you will almost certainly have come across the term 'reservationless audio conferencing' but what does it mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary there is no such word as reservationless but it seems to have worked its way into the jargon of teleconferencing.

Reservationless, as the name suggests, simply means that you do not have to reserve your place at the audio conference in advance of the call. The host simply invites the participants to join the conference call by dialling into the audio conference bridge access number at the time of their choosing and the system will automatically set up the call. This might not seem like a big deal to some, but being reservationless offers you huge benefits over the pre-booked conference calls as we will find out shortly.

Pre-booked or reserved audio conferences
Back in the early days of the internet, some ten years ago, the only way to host audio conferences was to call up your conference call provider in advance and pre-book a conference call. You would need to specify the date and time you wanted to book the conference call for and also the number of participants and duration of the call.

The problem with this system, apart from it being a massive inconvenience having to pre-book of course, was that if more people than you were expecting wanted to attend they couldn't and if your call over-ran then you risked being cut off. Moreover, you often had to pay for the number of participants you booked the call for even if they didn't actually turn up on the day.

If you are thinking this all sounds like it was a bit of a pain, you are right, it was. Surprisingly, some audio conferencing providers still use this model today! Even though there is absolutely no need to host your call in this manner.

Why the move to reservationless conferencing?
It is only in the last few years that that technology has advanced to the stage where hosting reservationless audio conferences has become possible. Prior to the emergence of high capacity reservationless conference bridges, capacity on the systems was very limited and it was therefore necessary to manage its allocation very carefully. If too many people tried to dial in at the same time, customers were likely to get the busy tone or, worse still, be connected to overlapping conferences.

The billing systems attached to conference call bridges were also quite rudimentary meaning that unless there was a manual record of who was dialling in when and from where, it was impossible to bill the customer.

With today's modern technology, pre-booked audio conferences are fast becoming a thing of the past with the vast majority now being reservationless. The one exception to this is a special kind of pre-booked conference call known as a managed event call. This is where human operators are used and therefore advance notice is still required. However, with the added use of an operator comes added cost.

Peter Bennett is CEO of Ozone Conferencing Limited. This article is taken from the resources section of the Ozone Conferencing website. Other recent articles include Cheap Conference Calls and Free Audio Conferencing.

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Tags: Audio, Conferences, Reservationless

Web Video Conferencing in the New Millennium

Are you in need of something that can boost your business by more than half and still be able to save on the cost of production? Do you want to be able to monitor your factories and met with your staff on a regular basis though you are miles away from corporate? Web videoconferencing allows you to work on these things without having to worry about cost and impact on the business.

All that you need to do is just a website away. The need for expensive equipment has also been taken away since all the equipment you would need is inside the Internet and all of it is waiting for you. So let's start web videoconferencing.

So how exactly does web videoconferencing works? Well, like the name suggests its videoconferencing through the web or the Internet. A participant needs a computer to start off and Internet access. Basically that's all you need. Other things that may or may not be necessary are web cams, web conferencing software and a website to conduct the virtual meeting. Usually websites may refer to URL's that act as the conference room for the meeting.

There are different kinds of web videoconferencing and different kinds of purposes. First one is the web meeting (web videoconferencing), this usual kind of web conference that let's participants interact in a controlled Internet environment. Usually CEO's and business executives have web meetings when they are out of town and on business. Not only can they visit their site often they can keep close tabs on people. Usually Web conferencing allow people on the go to keep up with the requirements of the office.

Live video is another kind of conferencing over the Internet or what young people call video chat. live video or video chat is just like text chatting only it's done through the web cam. Just like web video conferencing live video is more or less like it in purpose and setup. While web videoconferencing uses software to support the video format of the live video this is because of the limited number of formats that can be streamed over the web.

Another kind of web conferencing tool is VoIP or Voice over the Internet Phone. The concept of VoIP is no longer new to us. Some people have started using VoIP software and sites as their primary phone for business, personal and technology use. Because of it's virtual endless capacity to call inside and outside countries and not to mention computer call functionality.

That means even without a regular or mobile phone people can communicate anytime anywhere. Now if you apply that to whatever your web videoconferencing needs that you have, you are sure to get your money's worth.

And lastly a dedicated Internet website that would cater to all the web conferencing needs that you have. As the name mentions it is a dedicated server that acts as the conference room of your company and a gateway for all other video conferencing you will have even outside the company.

Since this is a new tool for your company to use in it's quest to become one of the best in the world, it would be wise to master all the requirements and the processes of web videoconferencing to reap the best results from it.

Magdi Mikhail Instant Video Recording/Conference Studio http://get-50000-free-guaranteed-visitors-today.info/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Magdi_Mikhail

Tags: Millennium, Conferencing, Web Video

Video Conferencing Solutions to Avoid a Business Communication Crisis

Today's corporate environment is defined by its ability to take advantage of innovation. Every day advancing technologies allow those businesses and interested social groups to stay in the forefront of their industry.

Video conferencing, while not a new idea is emerging as a viable and certainly more cost effective choice of keeping in touch with important clients when you're not able to meet with them face-to-face.

It has become the application of choice for businesses to meet with certain people and do it in a hurry. The following will outline some of the important key benefits to using video conferencing.

Increase Daily Production and Efficiency

For instance, using video technology for meetings and conferences can significantly increasing productivity, no matter where you work. If you work at a company, it can increase the productivity of your employees and associates as well. You are able to set up meetings faster, you will be able to share presentations, applications, and any number of other things from computer to computer, even if you are in Boston and the people participating in your meeting are in, for example, Pairs. You can make decisions faster, your products can get on the market faster, you can sell faster - and speed is what the business world is all about, right?

Decrease Travel Budget

You can also save enormous amounts of money. For instance, you will not have to spend money traveling to get to a conference. That means no exorbitant prices for gas, no outrageous plane or train tickets, and no high priced hotel rooms. Furthermore, when you use video conferences, you wipe out the cost of long distance phone calls inherent with phone meetings.

Increase Your Ability To Get More Done

Discover for yourself how video conferencing solutions can save substantial amounts of time at http://www.idealconferencecallingservices.com - Find out how not having to spend time setting up a face-to-face meeting, that might take weeks or months for all the necessary participants to be free on the same day is easily overcome.

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Tags: Video, Conferencing, Solutions, Business

How Should You Explain Video Conferencing

If you are one of those who are having a hard time how to explain video conferencing, you can start by studying the process on your own. You can research and get information by browsing the Internet, computer books, and Information Technology magazines.

Once you have done this, you can explain video conferencing easier. To make people understand what is this new technology and means of virtual communication, you must:

1. Explain the definition of video conferencing.

By definition, "video conferencing" refers to a relatively new means of communications technology that involves voice and video in connecting users that are the different places. Here, all the parties involved will be talking to each other face to face-as if they were all in the same room. People who will video conference need a personal computer, a web cam, a microphone, and a broadband Internet connection to be able to make the virtual communication work.

Here, the participants or users can hear and see one another in real time, thus, allowing normal conversations like that those of voice communications technology-only both parties can see and hear what they people is saying or doing at the same time. A good bandwidth is required for video conferencing to work and it's a must that the computer has high-fidelity streaming voice and video to be able to maximize its fullest potential.

2. Explain the need for video conferencing.

To be able encourage people to adapt and accept the new technology, it is a must to explain the need for video conferencing after explaining what it is and its technicalities. This will make the people-specifically the employees-realize the need for it. One of the foremost reasons that you can point out why you should use video conferencing is for practicality. Instead of going to meeting physically and travel to places, people can just use video conferencing to explain that needs explaining.

Although telephone calls or emailing would do, it is better to video conferencing because it adds more impact to the transaction or to the business at hand. For sales people, this is also beneficial since they can see the person involved when doing a business, video conferencing will open the doors to more opportunities and produce more results. And since your business set up needs a live conversation, the employees should understand that visual information is an integral factor of the entire conversation process.

3. Show how it works.

Although you have explained how it works when you explained what is video conferencing earlier. Some people might not get the hang of it right away. Aside from verbal explanation, it will be best to show them how it works and by re-explaining all the parts of the process. The first that you need to do is to explain is how people from different places can make conversation for a meeting or conference all at the same time.

So, what you can do is demonstrate it to them and show how it works. Set up a video conference with another person and invite at least five or ten people to witness it and participate in the conversation if possible. During the video conference, show how the visual and audio transmission of messages are done.

You can also show them how the process of sharing documents, displaying information in the computer or from the white boards.

Magdi Mikhail Instant Video Recording/Conference Studio http://get-50000-free-guaranteed-visitors-today.info/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Magdi_Mikhail

Tags: Explain, Video, Conferencing

Useful Tips For Selecting a Conference Call Provider

Conference calls provider companies have been dramatically increasing for the last few years as most businesses organizations, around the globe, prefer to use their services, because conference calls save their lot of money and efforts. Competition among different conference call provider companies these days is thus on peak. So, it becomes slightly difficult in the competitive environment to choose the right service provider company that leads an organization to real profits.

First of all an organization has to recognize or measure the frequency of using conference calls as per their communication needs. If the frequency of conference calls is very high, such as thrice or twice a week, then a negotiation can be initiated with a reputed conference call company with all facilities and most competitive price can be set with them. However, in case the utilization is on project basis, then it is less organized, but still yield in quantity of conference calls done every month.

The most organized way to measure the conference calls frequency is to look back and obtain a count of last six months and create a standard number of conference calls performed. This way an organization can choose appropriate provider as per their requirement.

Secondly, the business organization has to look as to what call type is useful for them. For example, you may have only requirement of verbal discussions, no need of data transfer or presentations etc. Some companies provide independent access system to their clients. If your business requires all modern facilities, such as video conferencing, visual presentation etc, then you will have to choose a conference call service of that level.

In this way the organization should accumulate appropriate lists of Conference Calls Providers according to their needs for now and may be in near future, and make sure that they have the facilities they want. This can be done by performing internet research as most conference call providers provide sufficient information on their websites to let them to get identified that they have potential to be a possible conference call provider.

Before selecting a good service provider company, you must request them for a free demonstration about their capability. This is not an extraordinary request for a probable customer to make. Conference call provider company may then ask some questions about your average volume of usage and frequency of conference calls. Provide the conference call provider with this basic information and request for a free demo.

Acquire the greatest benefits of Conference Calls Companies for your business and save lot of time and money. To find out appropriate conference call company please visit http://free-conference-call.info

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Tags: Tips, Conference, Selecting, Tips

Conferencing Hardware Installation

A videoconference is an alternative to actual meetings of partners, colleagues and clients of an organization. Video conferencing hardware and software are installed for two-way audio and video communication. They enable users to exchange live video and visuals, share documents and transfer files in the course of the conference. A computer, web camera, head set with microphone and an Internet connection are the basic requisites of a video conference. Video conferencing hardware aims to reduce complexities in user interface, improve performance to give a quality output, eliminate sound echo, ensure enhanced audio quality and also decrease background noise pickup.

Conferencing hardware installation requires careful planning. The main hardware requirements include cameras, projectors, multimedia monitors, electric drop down screens, audio system with quality microphones and headphones, DVD and VCR players and recorders, auxiliary audio-video sources, wireless remote control panels and podiums.

Before installing the video camera unit, the video software should be installed. For this, a camera is connected to the computer, the program CD is inserted into the CD drive and the install hardware link is clicked. A step-by-step installation procedure is available. As a major part of the software is uploaded to the camera unit when you start application, the camera unit should be turned on before the application begins. If the camera is installed correctly, the status indicator light blinks green. This indicates that the camera is ready to receive software upload. When the video application starts for the first time, it shows an out of box setup, with a series of user setup dialogue boxes, called wizards. Wizards help to install a video easily. Click the help button if necessary during the initial setup. An explanation for setup parameters on the screen will be seen. All the settings on the initial setup screen can be modified easily. Thus, there is no need to worry if something goes wrong during the initial installation.

To install the audio hardware, connect the headset to the microphone of the computer. This helps to receive telephone calls during the conference. The rest of the procedure is the same as in video hardware installation.

Conferencing provides detailed information on Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Audio Conferencing, Video Conferencing and more. Conferencing is affiliated with Online Conference Centers.

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Tags: Conferencing, Hardware, Installation