Video teleconferencing also called tele video conferencing has been just another term for video conferencing, The most common three types of video conferencing are telepresence videoconferencing system, room-based videoconferencing system, and desktop videoconferencing system.

Video teleconferencing technology has progressed in recent years and video teleconferencing has helped businesses save time, money and effort. For instance, an effective video teleconferencing system like ezTalks Meetings can be used to connect people remotely, so you might have cancelled some prohibitive business travels to meetings and conferences.

Videoconferencing (or video conference) means to conduct a conference between two or more participants at different sites by using computer networks to transmit audio and video data. For example, a point-to-point (two-person) video conferencing system works much like a video telephone. Each participant has a video camera, microphone, and speakers mounted on his or her computer. As the two participants speak to one another, their voices are carried over the network and delivered to the other's speakers, and whatever images appear in front of the video camera appear in a window on the other participant's monitor.

Multipoint videoconferencing allows three or more participants to sit in a virtual conference room and communicate as if they were sitting right next to each other. Until the mid 90s, the hardware costs made videoconferencing prohibitively expensive for most organizations, but that situation is changing rapidly. Many analysts believe that videoconferencing will be one of the fastest-growing segments of the computer industry in the latter half of the decade.

There are seven important steps to successful videoconferencing:

• needs assessment
• system design
• system management
• internal promotions
• user training
• usage tracking
• system expansion.

1. Needs Assessment

Begin by conducting a needs assessment to determine how potential users of the system presently conduct business. A needs assessment will provide data needed to develop an economic justification showing what the system will cost and what its rate of return will be for the organization in terms of dollars and other, less quantifiable benefits. It provides input into the system design phase by identifying key locations and functions to be served and the specific equipment to meet the needs. A thorough needs assessment assures that once a system is installed, it will be used effectively because it is designed to meet the requirements of the organization. A needs assessment also provides input into long-range plans for eventual system expansion.

Consider what happens when a needs assessment is not conducted. A high tech firm decided to install several videoconferencing rooms at the suggestion of its management. When the rooms were not being used, a study was conducted to find out why. The study showed that users needed extensive graphic capabilities, not existing in the videoconferencing room. Video was nice to have, but didn't meet