Tube talk: Videoconferencing has become simpler and cheaper.

• Author: Moore, Charles
• Position: Meetings & Conventions - Brief Article

When a corporation sponsored a global scientific conference at University Place last spring, the firm wanted head quarters staff to attend. The practical solution was videoconferencing.

When University Place Conference Center & Hotel opened 15 years ago equipped with cutting-edge technology, that would have meant renting time on satellite dishes, handling complex logistics and tallying a five-figure price tag. Today a camera and a speaker at one end a monitor at the other and a high-speed data connection will do the trick at a very low four-figure price.

Videoconferencing's promise of making the whole world a meeting place and its threat of replacing face-to-face meetings have evolved instead into enhancement of in-person meetings, whether global conferences or regional study sessions.

Today's videoconference is likely to involve a corporate vice president stranded in Seattle speaking through a 25-inch television and little black box to regional sales managers. The black box is a codec that breaks down audio and visual information into digital signals. The Polycom Viewstation is a popular one that can be linked to any place with access to a high-speed data connection, a camera and speaker, available in many corporate headquarters as well as commercial videoconferencing facilities.

One of the advantages is that in an emergency it can be put in place quickly. In the weeks after September 11, there was talk of virtual meetings replacing the real thing. Coincidentally, this was about the time facilities such as University Place were investing in equipment like the Polycom Viewstation. Most calls for videoconferencing as a result of interrupted travel were to solve stranded-speaker emergencies.

However, the rethinking of corporate travel has put added emphasis on drive-to regional meetings. Videoconferencing enhances smaller sessions by linking several together or bringing national speakers to several smaller sessions. For example, University Place hosts bimonthly videoconference meetings involving Indiana University President Myles Brand and leaders of the university's...