The Myth of Video Conferencing

I am writing this column with a sense of guilt. And, a bit of disillusionment

too.

In the past, several times, we have written about video-conferencing and the

great things it can do. And, also, given examples of its applications in real

life. In fact, Sam Pitroda delivered his acceptance speech for the DATAQUEST

Lifetime Achievement with the help of video-conferencing, and, recently,

President Abdul Kalam addressed NASSCOM using the same.

Recently, we tried to get a prominent speaker from IIM Ahmedabad to deliver

his 20-min keynote address over video-conference. And that is when our pains

began. We first contacted the hotel, asking if they could organize it. Their

response: we can only provide telecom links, but you need to get a service

provider for the end-to-end service. Then we contacted several service

providers. They said they'll get the links between Delhi and Ahmedabad

organized, but we need to organize the end-user video-conferencing equipment.

IBRAHIM AHMAD The co-ordination needed between various parties, that together provide video-conferencing, is too irritating and time consuming to handle. The costs too are prohibitive

On top of this confusion, everybody kept quoting different rates-from Rs

15,000 to Rs 75,000-for this 20-min service. If one wanted to know the

rationale behind this huge price, there was none. All we were told was that this

is a very special and a very costly service. Even at such exorbitant costs, when

we agreed to go ahead, we discovered that there is a huge amount of

co-ordination that needs to be done between all the parties-the location of

the speaker, the hotel where the speech and presentation would be delivered, the

telecom operator who will provide the link, the end-equipment vendor on which

all this will work, and the service provider who will put all this together.

Even though the professor at IIM was very understanding and accommodative, we

gave up.

For those who are pushing video-conferencing, this will not be a very nice

story. But I am sure they will take it as a constructive feedback. In fact,

after this experience I spoke to a couple of large companies, who use

video-conferencing, and they shared similar feelings.

One may want to know what the big fuss over video-conferencing is about.

Video-conferencing is being touted as a technology that will revolutionize

almost everything. Distance education, with the help of video conferencing, will

make thousands of villages across the country literate. Health and medical

services will be provided, again thanks to video-conferencing, to millions of

people in far-flung areas. Ministers will be able to keep in touch with the

masses with video-conferencing. Evangelists even talk of how the corporate world

will really be able to cut down on travel, thanks to video conferencing.

The moral of the story is simple. All stake holders in the video conferencing

business need to pull up their socks. They need to work out end to end

solutions, and offer them at costs which are viable. Current prices are simply

too high.

Finally, I would not wait for the industry to get the business of

video-conferencing in order. Considering the big e-Governance plans that the

Government of India has, so that it can deliver good governance to common people

and create 70 mn jobs, I would strongly urge the Government to promote it. There

should be special incentives to promote this service. There should be large

scale deployment plans to make it more cost-effective. And, finally, as someone

said, "The biggest benefit that I see of video-conferencing is that there

would be less people spending time on roads running from one office to another,

causing pollution and stress. And these people will spend more quality time at

offices and home."

The author is Editor of Dataquest Ibrahim

Ahmad