Everything you Need to Know about Web Conferencing v/s Video Conferencing

Author: Alice Fowell

In this shrinking digital world, technology has reached new heights when it comes to connecting someone or accessing something from anyplace in the world to anyplace in the world. This is possible with tools such as web conferencing and video conferencing. Both have different meaning and uses, advantages and disadvantages. Let us start by first understanding the concepts of Web Conferencing and Video Conferencing and then know where they differentiate:

Web conferencing:

Web conferencing is a collective term used for various types of online alliance services including webinars, webcasts, and peer-level web meetings. It is made possible by web related technologies on TCP/IP connections. Web conferencing allows users real time and point to point communications and interactions. It also allows communicating from one sender to multiple receivers. Streams of data from text chats, voice and video chats can be shared continuously from locations all around the globe. Web conferencing is useful for small meetings, training events, lectures or presentations from one web-connected a computer to another web-connected a computer.

There are several other features of web conferencing as follows:

  • Slide show presentation engages the audience while the presenter discusses the slide content
  • Multimedia files are pushed to the audience via live or streaming videos.
  • Use of VoIP.
  • Meeting recordings for later use or distribution.
  • Screen and desktop sharing applications allow the participants to view in presenter’s mode of view.

Now let us also take a look at video conferencing and its features:

Video Conferencing can be thought as a telephonic conversation with pictures. The only difference is that video conferencing serves the purpose of connecting multiple places instead of individuals. Video conferencing is starting a conference with the help of telecommunication technologies that support communications between two or more locations by two-way audio-video transmissions that work simultaneously. It is a relatively low-cost tool as compared to web conferencing. This technology is particularly convenient for business users in different cities and even countries because it saves the time, expense and the hassle associated with business travel. Other uses of video conferencing include holding routine meetings, negotiating business deals and interviewing job candidates.

Video or web: What would it be?

Surveys conducted by Live Streaming Australia services with both web conference users and video conference users state that video conferencing is the need of the hour tool for increasing efficiency and productivity, having engaging conversations, making decisions faster and reduction in travel cost making the tool highly cost efficient. To understand it easily, if you want to be associated with high definition video and audio clarity then video conferencing is the way to go. If the number of audiences is large with a single presenter, and where no simultaneous interaction is active, web conferencing is much acceptable. Video conferencing becomes important when a simultaneous give and take of dialogues and data is in progress. It also allows participants to share their screens with their fellow participants increasing efficiency, intractability, and understanding the viewpoints of others.

All said and done, the prognosis is very much obvious. Video conferencing Melbourne is the tool that is taking over the globe by the storm with its enigmatic but efficient features.