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Teleconferencing
Getting
People Together
Teleconferencing is a telephone or
video meeting.
It differs from telephone calls in the aspect that more
than two people can take part in the discussion.
The term is interchangeable with telemeeting.
The
participants can
be from more than two locations. In teleconferencing, the members of a
group can talk with agency staff as part of a planning process.
To
connect the voices of the members of the telephone conference, the
communications network technology can be used. In a majority of the
cases, conference calls between the participants are carried out by
speaker telephones.
Alternatively, a two way radio
system can also be
put to use. Along with voices, pictures can also be transmitted in
video
conferencing. This can be done by the use of video cameras
and
computer modems.
Video conferencing depends on the
potent capacities of
computers and telecommunication networks.
No distance
restrictions:
- Telemeetings
can take place in sparsely and largely populated
regions. It provides a chance for individuals in different regions to
participate in the discussion.
- People
can take part from home or a
local teleconferencing center. In Alaska for instance, severe winter
conditions and
long distances between municipalities can be hurdles to public
meetings.
- To overcome these
conditions, the State legislature has
formed an audio tele-conferencing system called as the LTN or
legislative telephone communication network. Using this, meetings can
be held
within electronic office hours.
An
important aspect
of telemeeting is that people at different locations get first
hand information at the same time. Also, participants can discuss
issues and concerns with the agency staff as well as one another.
People
that have disabilities or parents with childcare conflicts or
the elderly who cannot travel to the place of discussion can take part
in the discussion. The audio interaction results in a personal and
interesting dialogue.
Time savings:
- Tele-conferencing
results in a saving of agency time and costs of travel. Staff members
can have meetings without leaving their home or office.
- There
is no
need to arrange many meetings in different geographic locations. The
senior officials can contact their subordinates quickly, thereby
overcoming distance and schedule matters.
- More
people can be reached
than with a typical face-to-face meeting, thus resulted in the need
for lesser meetings.
- One
telephone conferencing session results in reaching
more people in one session as compared to many sessions held on the
field for many weeks.
- Generally,
on the field, two or three public
meetings can be planned considering staff commitments and their
schedules.
- On the other hand,
telemeeting connections to many remote
areas result in the saving of agency time and makes a fast track
schedule possible.
Advantages:
- Tele-conferencing
is
very useful in cases of issues that are region wide. It becomes
possible for practitioners in diverse locations to enrich their
knowledge from the experiences of others in the world.
- Those
people who
are unable to reach the location of discussion due to climate
conditions, poor transit access or for security reasons find
telephone conferencing very handy.
- Tele-conferencing
can
also be used for training.
- Training hours can be fixed and courses made
available to people that are otherwise not possible due to time
constraints and travel costs.
For
additional video
teleconference issues, such as the teleconferencing
topic here, please check out the
related sections: webinars, streaming video
conferencing, web
conferencing and web
meeting.
If
you are looking for a little more
hands-on
type information, take a peek at the online video sharing,
video
streaming
information, media
streaming, video
webcasting and how
to stream video.
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