By Mike Archer
CEO PresentPLUS, Inc.
Web conferencing has grown to become a popular means of corporate communication. It’s a visual upgrade from a teleconference, but not as demanding as a video conference.
What’s involved in hosting a web conference? What services are available?
This article will discuss the matrix of web conferencing possibilities and their respective advantages and disadvantages. The prospective web conference host must be able to clearly define his or her specific wants and needs, the issues involved therein, and make an efficient evaluation of the many web conferencing vendors available.
Here are the types of virtual conferencing with basic pros and cons. There exist also hybrids and convergent of technologies.
 Teleconferencing
It’s the oldest, most stable and least expensive conferencing format. Reservationless teleconferencing has dropped from an average of $0.25 connection/minute to less than $0.10 a connection/minute in the past couple of years. But at the lower end, caveat emptor, the telco server may be in a Bucharest suburb! Teleconferencing lacks visual impact, one of the big draws of both video and web conferencing.
Video Conferencing
Internet video streaming is impressive. But it still requires set up at the presenter location and the proper bandwidth for the attendee; i.e., lots of it. Right now, appropriate only for specific audiences.
As one wag puts it, “How much do I want to pay for talking lips?”
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