8 Video Conferencing Predictions in 2017

Video conferencing is taking place everywhere: from desktops at work,from conference rooms,from mobile devices,from universities,from home offices,and from coffee shops when we work remotely.

Enterprises that have moved away from expensive,room-based business video-conferencing systems in favor of easy-to-deploy desktop video tools and cloud-based services have a surprise coming.

As technology evolves and more business users embrace the value of online face-to-face interactions,we see the adoption of video moving forward even faster in the future – and being used in a broad array of new ways. Here are 8 video conferencing predictions in 2014.

1. More organizational buy-in

Very few technologies have enjoyed such rapid growth in the last decade as video conferencing – particularly as part of an overall Unified Communication platform. And 2014 will see more and more businesses jumping on the proverbial bandwagon and incorporating video conferencing into their strategy… which in turn will spur industry growth,enabling further advances in technology,like cloud services and interoperability. It’s a win-win.

2. Video-centric collaboration will overtake audio conferencing and web conferencing as the dominant solution for business meetings across distance by 2017.

Nothing is more powerful than face-to-face communication,and video makes that possible anytime and anywhere. In a recent survey we conducted,95% of business professionals said that face-to-face communication significantly enhance professional relationships and improves communications.

54% of business people say if you can’t meet in person,video conferencing is the most effective method of communication – over twice the percent who prefer phone calls and over six times the percent who prefer web conferencing. It’s inevitable that video will dominate business communication across distances.

3. Increased mobile telepresence

Can you think of anyone in your organization who doesn’t own a smartphone or a tablet (or both)? Neither can we. So it stands to reason that mobile video collaboration technology – which has already improved in leaps and bounds over the last three years – will continue to advance,providing employees with the opportunity to connect in much more flexible,convenient ways.

4. Over 50% of video conferencing participants will connect from mobile devices by 2015

Who doesn’t have a cell phone? New capabilities will continue to make it much faster and easier for end users to participant in a high quality video call from wherever they are.

5. Shared experiences with multiparty face-to-face video (movies,sporting events,talk shows,gaming) will permeate the living room by 2018.

6. More and more effective – remote employee collaboration

Whereas tight budgets may have made remote collaboration somewhat of a requirement in recent years,advances in video collaboration systems will have businesses choosing to rely on telepresence by choice rather than necessity. Simply put,video technology is the future of successful business.

7. The next wave of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in higher education will be two-way interactive events that combine video streaming and conferencing

MOOCs have had a profound impact in making learning accessible. Two-way interactive functionality will take that experience one step further and make MOOCs much more collaborative and effective.

8. 30% of workers will work from home at least 20% of the time by 2020

Video collaboration tools can allow professionals to be just as effective when working from the road and from home as when they work in the office – while providing much greater schedule flexibility. Video also provides and ideal solution for working in an increasingly global business environment,which involves many more meetings that take place outside the traditional 9AM to 6PM workday.

Now you can collaboration face-to-face from home and during off hours with colleagues,customers,distribution partners and suppliers located around the world.

What’s happening to video conferencing in 2014? We just wait and see.