1 – Awesome Events

As you may know we have just released conference recording and streaming. This opens up huge opportunities for our customers to bring people from all over the world into the conversation, record and then share it out with their audience. We want to support our clients in creating awesome events that they can record and share with their audience. Lets us know if you have any ideas for your first streaming event, we are excited about helping you create something amazing.

2 – Unlimited Plans

We are going to work really hard over the next 4 months to see if we can deliver our customers an ‘unlimited hours’ plan. We think that is going to make life a lot easier for everyone.

3 – Super Service

We have recently release a whole bunch of new services like phone conferencing, streaming, traditional video conferencing connectivity and mobile conferencing. So we are going to focus on reaching out to our customers and helping them to make the most out of these new services.

That’s our focus for the next 4 months what do you think?

1 – What are your needs?

What devices?

What devices will your users be conferencing with now and in the future? This may include PC, Mac, Smartphones, older video conferencing systems and telephones. Once users get comfortable using video conferencing they will want to use it on other devices.

Why does your business need video conferencing?

• Is it to enable time poor executives to meet ‘face to face’ more frequently to resolve issues? In which case quality and ease of use is worth paying for.
• Is it for very involved ‘face to face’ training with lots of questions and discussion? In which case quality HD conferencing is required to enable a natural interaction.
• Or do you just need a tool present a powerpoint to 50+ people with an audio conference facility? In this scenario a low cost web conferencing tool might do the trick.
• Most of these technologies provide a free trial, so its a great way to get feedback from the people who would be using video conferencing in your business without investing.This post might also be a helpful read.

2 – DIY or Outsource?

The next question is do you outsource all your video conferencing to someone else?

The key benefits of outsourcing video conferencing are:

• You do not have to invest heavily in video conferencing servers that will often become outdated within the next 3-5 years
• You get access to the expert support team of the video conferencing service provider, who are very well attuned to fixing video conferencing.
• You don’t have to increase the workload of your IT staff, with a niche technology like video conferencing that they may not be very familiar with.
• Normally you can get a free trial and/or have an option to discontinue the service if it doesn’t work out rather than being stuck with equipment that nobody in your business is using. It is great way to minimise investment risk.

3 – Provider track record

Here are a few questions to ask potential providers:

a) Does the provider have at least 10 years experience in deploying video conferencing and supporting businesses as they adopt the video conferencing?

b) Can they provide references from real clients?

c) How are their sales team motivated? Are they focused on selling you a system and installing it and moving on to the next sale or are they focused on helping you get setup and helping your people use the technology well so that you will be a ongoing client in the long-term? Do you get an account manager to help you over the course of your business relationship?

We hope this has helped you a little bit with your search for a video conferencing provider. We provide a HD video conferencing service in Adelaide and across Australia, so if you are interested make sure you sign-up for our FREE TRIAL here.

We often hear the question “what will the NBN mean for video conferencing in rural Australia”

If you look at video conferencing in regional Australia over the past 5 years the answer is clear.

5 years ago video conferencing across ISDN cost around $105/hr (384k) and required about $10k of equipment per location. This put it out of the price range of most members of the local community.

Now we are seeing high quality conferences across ADSL2 connections with a PC, webcam and speakerphone ($2000 setup budget) and no cost per minute. This opens up opportunities for great stories like this one and this one.

We think that NBN in rural Australia will mean easy access to services via HD video conferencing. Bringing the world to the door steps of rural communities.

We can’t wait!

• What are the specific services (government, commercial, not for profits) that you would benefit your community most?
• How would these services contribute to your community?
• What are some of the issues getting in the way of accessing these resources/services?

We are hoping that this forum will bring to light the areas where video conferencing can contribute to WA local communities most and we can work together to make it happen.

Please share your thoughts and ideas by leaving a comment/reply to this post below. Look forward to hearing from you

Not so long ago, a group of people in the Williams area of Western Australia embarked on a campaign to explore the question of using GM crops in their area after the WA State Government lifted a ban on genetically modified.

On the one side of the fence, quite literally, was the pro GM team. Their arguments received much media attention; they had the funding to commission key international lobbyists; and endeavour to influence decision makers.

On the other side there was concern and strong feeling that the genetically modified crops would contaminate local farmland and produce that many in the area had spent a lifetime cultivating, growing and nurturing. However they did not have the financial clout to be able to fund experts to participate in the local debate.

David and Goliath battle.

In conjunction with the Williams CRC (Community Resource Centre) the community was able to facilitate a balanced discussion on the matter using the BeingThere video conferencing service. The community and various representatives gathered at the CRC to hear from both sides.

Using our video conferencing service and support the GM campaigners concerned about the local impact introduced topic expert Jochen Koester by his joining into the discussion from his office in Switzerland. Jochen was able to provide a fully interactive presentation from the other side of the world – the quality of the audio and vision made this incredible geographic separation hard to believe.

Gerry Murphy from BeingThere said the service was ideal for this sort of scenario.

“For a tiny fraction of the cost of an airfare from Switzerland to WA, the local group was able to access some of the best and brightest talent in the world to enable a more balanced discussion,” he said.

“We’re thrilled that we can provide seamless connections of excellent quality to experts around the world.

We challenge you to think about how you could use a guest expert to champion your cause or improve your success if distance and location were no issue?

Please CLICK HERE to share your ideas on how CRC video conferencing can be used to benefit you local community. Look forward to hearing what you have to say.

In some cases, to access specialists, medical or other services, individuals need to travel for hours or even days to their closest regional centre.

Added to this geographic isolation are the unpredictable weather patterns of the state where severe rain or flooding can block the only access roads in and out of communities for significant amounts of time.

As problematic as this scenario seems, there is a solution that is changing this remote landscape. Through utilising the Community Resource Centres network of local facilities on the BeingThere video conferencing network, isolated communities can now access specialist advice and services at the touch of a button.

Just recently we helped the a family in Wellstead access speech pathology services in Albany which would have ordinarily been difficult because of the extensive travel cost and time involved. Wellstead to Albany is a 200Km round trip.

The children aged 9 and 7 needed regular consultation with a speech pathologist in Albany. Through the BeingThere video conference network the children were able work with a leading practitioner in the field once a week. After school the children would head to the local Wellstead CRC where they would have their consultation via BeingThere video conferencing.

The children’s mum said the both the speech pathologist and the children were incredibly pleased with the arrangement.

“The speech pathologist in Albany was able to achieve the same results via BeingThere that she could achieve by having the children sitting with her in her consultancy room – the sessions were seamless and the family didn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on travel expenses and cope with the stresses and impracticalities of uprooting the children for their treatment once per

One of the key benefits was that the children’s primary teacher was able to join in the session with the speech pathologist and then apply the strategies in the class room consistent with the speech pathologist practice.

Amazing stuff with amazing results! According to the children’s Mum the children have improved their speech remarkably and are a perfect example of how living in regional and remote communities doesn’t have to mean second rate access to important services.

Do you know anyone who can’t access the services they need to because of their geographic situation?

Please CLICK HERE to share your ideas on how CRC video conferencing can be used to benefit you local community. Look forward to hearing what you have to say.

A catch up over coffee with a colleague seems stock-standard enough right?

But what happens when the colleague you need to catch up with is sitting thousands of kilometres away from you?

Denise Sutherland, Regional Coordinator at Dowerin Community Resource Centre, does exactly this on a regular basis. Denise’s region of responsibility covers more than half a million square kilometres which means coffee catch ups in person are not the most practical business meeting solution!

“I use Being There’s services to allow me to go to committee meetings that distance would otherwise prevent me from attending. Using video conferencing I can cheaply and easily join my colleagues and feel like I’m sitting there beside them,” she said.

Manager of the Bridgetown Community Resource Centre, John Nicholas has used our evolving technology to conduct and attend meetings where participants are geographically dispersed,  participate in training courses and help community members attend meetings outside the local area.

“People who live in remote areas can often make the incorrect assumption that if events are held in Perth or other major cities, it rules them out from participating. This conferencing technology is as its namesake implies – it’s like you’re actually there!” he said.

Natika Hawes-Wright, Manager of the Kununurra Community Resource Centre has also experienced first-hand the benefits that quality video conferencing can provide.

“I’m located a long way from anywhere and through this technology I have been able to up skill and participate in training programs that I would otherwise not have been able to attend because of the sheer distance and cost involved in traveling.  I was able to attend and participate in a Mac computer course virtually which has been so helpful as there is no one in my local area with this type of knowledge or skill – so instead of missing out, I jump on a video conference and bring the experts to me!” she said.

We’re always on the lookout for creative ways to bring the world to your doorstep. Natika has set the challenge of doing a video conference Pilates class – a great idea!

We’re keen to know what you would like to bring to your doorstep! How can the CRC/BeingThere services be used to help you in your everyday life? We’d love to hear from you – let us know your thoughts (and remember nothing is impossible)! Please CLICK HERE to share your ideas.

Below is a 2 minute exercise that I hope is of use to you in contemplating the relevance and opportunities ubiquitous laptop video conferencing presents to your business:

1) Make list on a piece of paper of your key relationships that make your business tick (i.e. top 3 clients, suppliers, staff and contractors)

2) Next to each relationship describe how important meeting ‘face to face’ is to the relationship and also why you meet face to face (e.g. selling, building trust, managing, brainstorming, coaching/counseling etc).

3) Next consider how being able to run regular quality ‘face to face’ meetings via video conference with the person(s) involved would benefit each relationship (especially the people you can only see every 3 months). Some examples might be:

- Increased trust leads to increase in sales

- Increase of geographic reach leads to increased size of addressable market

- Reduced travel costs results in reduced cost of service delivery

- Clarity of communication leads to a reduction in error related costs

- Zero travel time fast-tracks meeting and decision making cycles for global teams

If you have found are some exciting possibilities in the above exercise and would like to find out more, please contact us to discuss what is possible .

For businesses planning growth strategies and how they can capture emerging business opportunities with the inevitable shortage of time and staff, it is worth noting advancements in video conferencing which offers the resource industry a more cost and time effective way of managing your business.

The technology now enables businesses to host high definition ‘face to face’ meetings with remote offices and staff, external suppliers and clients regardless of where they are located for around the cost of a telephone conference . All you need is a PC, webcam and a good internet connection.

So how does video conferencing add value to business?

Outstanding Customer Service

The recent improvements in quality and reduction in entry costs makes video conferencing more accessible than ever, opening up exciting opportunities for business to provide outstanding service to their clients. An example of this might be making technical experts available for ‘face to face’ video meetings with the clients regardless of where they are located.

Save Time

An issue which plagued businesses during the last resource boom was achieving more with limited staff resources, which boiled down to making the most efficient use of staff time. With reduced costs and ease of setup, it is worth considering how much unproductive travel time could be saved if 1 in every 3 meetings could be run via video conferencing.

Time poor Executives and Regional Managers are now able to participate in quality ‘face to face’ project, board, client and on-site meetings directly from their office.

Train and coach your staff on-site

Video conferencing provides a very time efficient method of delivering ongoing training and coaching to staff without taking them off site – everything from daily one on one session’s to weekly group sessions. Not being bound by travel means that training can be delivered a series of short weekly sessions which more closely matches adult learning patterns delivering better results.

Given the significant improvements in video conferencing, it is well worth considering the opportunities it presents to business’ in the resource industry that are looking to do more with less, in light of the impending time and skills shortage of the resources boom.

All we do here at beingthere is video conferencing, so we are always getting asked about Skype, WebEx, GoToMeeting etc. all of which are great technologies and have their own applications. We realised that these days selecting a conferencing service can be a daunting task…..so we thought we would share our thoughts on the different technologies available so you can figure out which one is best for your application. We hope you find this useful – Enjoy!

The first step is to figure out what you need:

1) Is body language and high definition facial expressions important to your online meetings?

2) Do you only need to share documents and seeing the people involved is not very important?

3) Do you need to connect multiple locations together in one conference?

4) Do you need to be able to connect people from their desktop computer and boardroom participants?

Now you have some idea of what you need the next step is to look at the technologies:

Skype video conferencing:

• Cost: Free
• Quality: low-ok
• Multiple location video calling: in beta testing
• Full screen video: yes
• Screen Sharing: limited
• Support: self help and online forums

WebEx & GoToMeeting:

• Cost: ~$50/month
• Desktop sharing only (postage stamp video)
• Full screen Video: no
• Multiple locations: yes
• Support: Phone support

BeingThere video conferencing:

• Cost: ~$500-$1500/month (depending on your package)
• High definition video conferencing
• Full screen Video: Yes
• Multiple locations: 8+ location in a call at on time
• Support: Phone and video support.

Our advice

All of these services offer free trials, so the best way is to try before you buy. We recommend trying Skype and WebEx first as they are low cost options and will give you a good idea if it is worth paying more for quality and support for you application.

If you have any queries or would like further information about video conferencing please do not hesitate to contact us.