However, expense, management problems and perceived poor visual and audio quality still deter many potential users. A new breed of Internet datacentre hosts, known as video service providers, are now trying to improve the situation by offering hosted services. David Mills, commercial vice president for FutureLink Europe, said that the quality of these broadcasts has improved thanks to ISDN and faster lines. It forces great meeting discipline as participants have to wait for other people to finish before cutting in,' he said. Intel also recently said that it will offer video services from its Internet datacentre in Reading, Berkshire.
Customers have to sign up for a minimum period of three years.
Though reasonably priced services are available, many conservative firms are still wary of video conferencing and believe that physical meetings build better relationships. Once a relationship has been established, video conferencing can take over,' he said. A spokesman for PictureTel, a conferencing solutions provider, said that video and audio quality has been poor in the past, especially for transmissions to the US where there was a notable time lag. However, the technology has improved. PictureTel launched its 900 Series solution in July, and said quality is better because images are broken down and sent through a continuous scanning process.