Audio Web Conferencing

Audio web conferencing is the latest technology to hit the corporate scene. Serving as a powerful tool for company meetings, audio web conferencing is the preferred low cost telecommunication tool preferred by many companies today. Different from the typical conference call, audio and web conferencing offers a full-featured solution for conducting on-demand meetings anywhere in the world at any time. With audio and web conferencing, you can now affordably exchange ideas and get valuable real-time input anytime you want without having to spend inordinately high costs nor go through all the hassles of travel.

Some people point to the events of September 11 as a catalyst for the significant reduction of air travel as more and more people felt unsafe traveling by plane. Businesses were also trying to find ways of conducting important corporate meetings without having to leave the comfort, safety, and security of the office. They found the solution in audio web conferencing.

What is audio and web conferencing?
In the early days of the Internet, the term “conferencing” meant a particular form of discussion between individuals where an exchange of ideas took place inside a virtual and often web-based environment. Communication was facilitated via posted text messages. As the Internet evolved and technology developed, conferencing came to mean something more than just “posted texts.”

Conferencing in today’s sense refers more to audio web conferencing and data teleconferencing. Now, when you say web conferencing, it means that the whole system is hosted or conducted on a web environment, most specifically a web server or application.

Basically, an audio and web conferencing system behaves much like a telephone system. The most basic feature of web conferencing is audio, and web conferencing generally uses a VoIP (Voice over IP) system that transmits voice messages via the Internet or other IP-network. Peripheral devices such as speakers, headphones, microphones, etc., are added to the computer in order to facilitate voice communication between participants of the conference.

The visual component of the event is shared with the participants via a web browser. Presentations, video sharing, and software demonstrations are only a few of the many uses of audio web conferencing.

Businesses, big or small, are particularly attracted to audio web conferencing because it presents a more affordable alternative to offsite meetings.

Before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, companies were spending as much as $470 billion dollars annually for business travel alone. But the slowed economy and the insecurity that people felt about air travel immediately after the bombings left businesses with no choice but to cut back on costs and turn to audio web conferencing instead. Now, as more businesses reduce travel, many companies are considering audio web conferencing as a viable alternative to face-to-face meetings.

Today, more than 70 per cent of the $3-billion conferencing market is comprised of audio web conferencing. What’s more, this figure is expected to grow rapidly over the next five years, outpacing even traditional audio conferencing in growth, as demand for audio web conferencing that relies on multimedia increases.

The Benefits of Audio Web Conferencing
Aside from the obvious cost saving aspects derived from the ability of web conferencing to replace travel with virtual meetings, audio web conferencing actually has several other benefits. There is actually a lot more to online business meetings than just saving an airfare.

Audio web conferencing allows conference attendees to share presentations, collaborate over whiteboards, and even hold sub-meetings while the main meeting is in progress. Never has technology been more flexible and never has the Internet been more powerful before the emergence of audio web conferencing. And what’s more, audio web conferencing has yet to reach its full potential as developers continue to improve on its many aspects, creating better, more powerful applications that are ultimately going to phase out offsite meetings all together.

For example, one application of web conference technology called the Virtual Open House is specifically geared towards allowing real estate agents to show and sell more homes on the Internet.

One phenomenon experienced with web conferencing is that when you’re a participant, you become so focused with what’s going on right in front of you that you may fail to appreciate the many aspects of web conferencing that can make online meetings truly more powerful than a physical one.

Customized to Each Participant
This is perhaps the best part of web conferencing. Each participant has their own personal presentation screen which they can customize to their heart’s content. No more leaning in or squinting of eyes straining to see a display screen too far away. Because the meeting room is virtual, each participant sits at their own computer at the office or at home for the complete presentation, allowing them to focus not on their physical discomfort (since there’s virtually none) but on the topic at hand. Thus, audio web conferencing and data teleconferencing allows for both customization and personalization without compromising your professionalism.

Total Focus
With web conferencing, there’s little problem when it comes to attention and focus. The personalized feel of the presentation allows you to focus totally on what’s in front of you regardless of whether you are a participant or a presenter. Although it’s true that the skill of communicating and presenting ideas effectively is an asset that transcends technology, the addition of audio web conferencing and data teleconferencing may actually complement that asset, thus increasing your overall efficacy and efficiency as a presenter. And if you’re good at it, technology can actually boost your communication talent.

Total Privacy
With audio web conferencing, you can be assured of total privacy. Since there’s no actual face-to-face encounter with the other participants, you don’t need to worry about menial things, like your outfit or what you eat. Audio web conferencing allows you to dress as you like, sit as you like, drink, and if you like, smoke throughout.

Audio Web Conference Solutions
Vendors for audio web conferencing products are not equal, resulting in a wide disparity among solutions available to the general market. In order to get the best in audio web conferencing options, companies need to carefully evaluate products. There are countless thing to consider but the most important are the following:

• Capability to deliver fully integrated voice and data conferences
• Provide multiple security levels
• Offer intuitive user interfaces
• Attractive pricing

With these factors in consideration, your choices for audio web conferencing can be narrowed down a bit to make it easier for you to select the product that best suits your company’s need.

Audio and web conferencing tools are pretty easy to set up. Most of them are intuitive and the interfaces are user-oriented. With a simple mouse-click you can launch meetings when you need them on demand.

More about Web Conferencing

About Web Conferencing
It should be noted that web conferencing doesn’t just mean a real-time online discussion between individuals on the web. It has come to mean more than that as technology continues to expand.

Benefits of a Web Conferencing System
Advances in technology and the Internet have brought about the rapid increase in development of web conferencing systems. So much so that web conferencing systems are fast replacing email lists in disseminating information through the web.

How Web Conferencing Works
During web conferencing, each participant of the meeting sits at his own computer that is connected to others' computers via the Internet. The Internet therefore serves as the matrix by which the whole web conferencing network relies on.

Cheap Web Conferencing
Now, not only do you have the industry giants, such as Microsoft, Macromedia, and WebEx dominating the market, but you also have such companies as Hot Conference, offering their own two cents to the more affordable web conferencing solutions.

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