video conferencing

I'm looking into video conferencing for a small business.

I'd like to be able to conference into meetings. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this?

I see companies like Webex.com has some solution for $39.00 month, but what are you paying for?

Seems you could just setup a good webcam and mic and the software that comes with the camera and not pay a monthly fee, no?

Thoughts?

 

having multiple webcams on the same meeting takes a bridge - the high-end VC Cameras have 3-6 port bridges built-in. Standalone bridges scale up accordingly. Extras like calling out to setup the conference, scheduling, it's a pretty sophisticated field.

Setting up meeting rooms so lighting and sound works is also somewhat tricky - hence multi-mike setups in the boardrooms.

Start with a webcam on a pc and see if that works for you. But buy a decent webcam with some resolution to it. let me know how it goes - I've wondered about this as well, do people still really need a $10k Tandberg1000 for a personal VC session, I have my doubts. The 6000 series I can understand

Microsofts NetMeeting software should give you everything you need for 1:1 VC.

 

Thanks for the reply.......

What I need is, what I think, would be a pretty easy setup. One conference table with six people on one end of the conference and me at a computer on the other.

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a camera / audio (webcam)?

We have a T1 at the office and I'm on 15/2mb fibre from home so bandwidth should not be a problem.

 

Might have to try a few out before you get one that works for you. I'm not into webcams and the whole idea of a webcam on any computer in the house freaks me out (have daughter...). Just don't do the $2.99 with $3 mail-in rebate

Your T1 at work, depending on the size of your office might be an issue - but give it a try. Microsoft stuff isn't typically very bandwidth efficient but price and simplicity is compelling.

 

I don't know much about it, but we used www.gotomeeting.com and it was fine, but it was also $19.95 a month, I see now it's $39 a month.

 

Thanks

At this point I think hardware is what I'm focusing on.

Recommendations on a good web cam?

Maybe a seperate mic that can pickup a team at conference table.