To ensure that your videoconference goes to plan, here are five tips that will assist you to get the best outcome.
1) Venue selection. When you are planning a videoconference, choose a venue that can cater for all your technical needs. This will save you time and money. For a good quality videoconference you ideally need at least 3 x 128K ISDN lines (384kB in total). You can use fewer lines, however the video quality will be significantly compromised. If the venue cannot provide this facility you may incur additional costs and time in arranging installation. Internet based solutions are an emerging technology and can be considered for permanent installations. However, due to issues with firewalls at venues and client sites, internet solutions are not currently recommended for events.
2) Setting the room. The style of conference and number of presenters involved will affect the layout of the room. Consider the following as a guide: Keep the meeting room or stage environment uncluttered as untidiness is exaggerated when viewed from other sites. A single-colour background is the most effective (for example, light blue), together with a logo to identify your organisation.
3) Lighting. Lighting should be correctly positioned on the faces of everyone participating in the videoconference to ensure a good picture to the receiving sites. Presenters lit with only front lights can look two dimensional and cast shadows. To eliminate unsightly shadows consider front, side and back lighting. Also, reduce or control the natural light entering the room. Sunlight can cause glare as well as unwanted heat. If the venue has lots of windows, make sure they have black-out drapes or have them provided. Ensure that you factor this into your budget. If you have an audience that needs to participate, you will need to ensure that they are lit too. Consider assigning a Q&A position where audience members can walk to the microphone - for some events where the audience is involved the entire room may need to be lit to cater for additional cameras used for filming audience members.
4) Present in style. Looking your best during a presentation is an important element in effective communication. Keep gestures and movement to a minimum. Due to the relatively low bandwidth on some videoconference lines, movement may come across as fragmented and jittery at the receiving end. Secondly, dress conservatively. Bright or high contrast clothing can look garish and overly distracting on video. Plain fabrics in muted colours work best.
5) Contingency plan. To ensure you achieve your communication objectives and for your own peace of mind, always have a contingency plan for your videoconference. While ISDN lines are stable, they are still part of the public telephone network and therefore subject to variances in line quality. In the event of this happening you may lose direct contact with your venues. A simple and easy plan is to have back-up audio sent via telephone line to all participating sites. This means audio contact is always maintained independent of the ISDN connection. A third telephone handset and line should be available at all sites to allow the technical teams to communicate. For larger events, it is common practice to run a full second videoconference system. You should also have any video or PowerPoint presentations sent to the remote sites as backup. These can be sent ahead of time on CD or a USB key or if last minute changes need to be made, you can arrange for them to be emailed or placed on a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site for downloading on the day of the event.
With an effective contingency plan, even in the rare event of loss of ISDN contact, your important videoconference can continue to plan. The best back-up support is to use a technical event services provider with the experience and skills in videoconferencing.
Sean Grech is a business development executive with Haycom Sydney. He has worked in sales and marketing roles in the audiovisual events industry for over 11 years. Haycom specialise in helping organisations achieve best practice and better outcomes through quality driven technical event management solutions. To find out how you can get your message across more effectively, either contact Sean by phone (02) 9667 4633 or by email sean.grech@haycomstaging.com.au or contact your local Haycom office on 1800 555 244. For a free weekly series of tips and strategies to a assist with your events simply email ask@haycomstaging.com.au with Image Improver in the subject line.
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