Video conferencing bridge services are great to use if you do not have the budget for your own bridging hardware or firmware and you don’t have the required bandwidth on your network. Most video conferencing bridging services offer additional services like: recording; scheduling; mobile device and PC connections; standard telephone and cell phone connections; meeting coordination; etc. Some services require an annual contract, others require no contract and you can rent bridge time by the minute or by the month. Also, bridge service companies are using their bandwidth for conferences, not yours, so you don’t have to worry about video and audio quality.
Here are two suggestions when shopping for a video conferencing service. First, test the service – Most reputable companies will allow you to test the connections at no cost to see the quality first hand. Second, look at what they can connect to – for example: older legacy video conferencing systems; mobile devices; cell phones; PC’s; MAC’s, etc. Additionally, find out if they are affiliated with an International network of public video conferencing rooms? This could be a tremendous help if you need to connect to a location overseas and there is no in-house video conferencing at that location.
Currently, there is a growing demand for connecting to mobile devices like iPads; iPhones; Droids, etc. Many video conferencing services have ways to seamlessly connect to these devices without the need for any special software on the device other than a free app download. You can certainly test the video conferencing bridging services with mobile devices. Make sure it is simple and completely intuitive for participants connecting to your conference on a PC or mobile device. After they download a free app it should be no more than entering their name and a password or other meeting credential.
Video conferencing bridge services are also great to use if you are video conferencing once every month or quarter. Pricing is very reasonable with most services, especially if you need bridging less frequently.
J.W. Hornyak Videoconferencing & Telecommunications
Instant Access
