Video conferencing - different levels

[DavePa]

I've been asked to look into setting up a room to video conference between ourselves and external clients - some of which may be using dedicated videoconferencing rooms with almost professional quality equipment. Some of course will be using the cheapest option available to them but we want to be able to teleconference with them all.

 

A couple of years back we had a demo of a 'pro' system which was in excess of £10k+ and required something like £250/month on an ongoing basis. I've already been told that is not an option but what can I get for...

 

 

• Free - Skype for business? Is that compatible with, and good enough to deal with, the other parties' semi-pro (or even pro) setup?
  
• Less than £1000 - will there be quality issues?
  
• More than £1000 - are there 'standards' for videoconferencing that I need to be aware of?
  

 

We currently have a 100m connection but later in the year are upgrading to a 1gb connection so hopefully bandwidth won't be a problem. Given that this may involve a couple of people at each end rather than being individual to individual I suspect that using a laptop webcam and mic is not likely to be practical but I would be interested in hearing others' experiences

[JATSO]

We spent £6000 on videcon kit several years back and it was a white elephant and was only used a few times.

 

Skype is the preferred choice now for those that use it around here.

[tekins]

We bought one of these for our conference room:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-ConferenceCam-CC3000e-Conferencing-Camera/dp/B00I3GHR9K?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

Worked well the other week with a 3 way Skype for Business conference, nice zoom on the camera to focus on a single person or the whole room.

[DavePa]

We spent £6000 on videcon kit several years back and it was a white elephant and was only used a few times.

 

Skype is the preferred choice now for those that use it around here.

 

That's one of my concerns as well, also getting something that turns out to be incompatible with other systems is a bit of a worry.

[DavePa]

We bought one of these for our conference room:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-ConferenceCam-CC3000e-Conferencing-Camera/dp/B00I3GHR9K?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

Worked well the other week with a 3 way Skype for Business conference, nice zoom on the camera to focus on a single person or the whole room.

 

Now *that* looks interesting and isn't too expensive either. Thanks

[ITGURU]

We bought a Radvision XT1000 several years ago, Cost £5000+ from what I remember.

used to use it with Leicester space centre and now it's pretty much a door stop!

[steve]

We bought one of these for our conference room:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-ConferenceCam-CC3000e-Conferencing-Camera/dp/B00I3GHR9K?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

Worked well the other week with a 3 way Skype for Business conference, nice zoom on the camera to focus on a single person or the whole room.

 

Yep, we have one of these too. Very good for Skype, quality is as good as a "proper" system.

 

Used proprietary stuff in the past. As others have said, it just becomes an expensive door stop.

 

You could look at getting some H.323 software (IP video conference standard) something like polycom and using the same camera.

[Michaeljf]

Again, we have the same Logitech Skype cam and its good quality.. It gets used much more often than our Polycom VC unit.

 

Michael

[JATSO]

We also had the polycom software with logitech webcams which has fallen by the wayside in favour of skype.