What can I use video for besides real-time collaboration?

There are other ways people can take advantage of video besides just real-time collaboration, says Irwin Lazar, vice president of Nemertes Research.

What are some other things organizations can do with video beyond just real-time collaboration?

We live in the YouTube generation: a time when millions of people are recording videos and sharing them. It's natural to wonder how you can apply this to the enterprise. The first way people usually take advantage of their access to video cameras is by recording meetings. A common scenario is when someone is unable to attend a meeting, but they want to listen or watch at a later time. It would be ideal for this person to download a video recording of the meeting and then catch up on what they missed at their own convenience. Another instance would be if someone wanted to record and share a message they had for their team. For example, rather than type a two-page email to update someone on a project, it would be more beneficial if this person recorded a video clip or created a short presentation.

There is a lot of interest in using video to support learning efforts -- by recording classroom lectures, for example. Digital signage is also coming into play. More organizations have video monitors scattered around company premises. These monitors might be showing the local news and weather reports, or perhaps they are projecting some corporate training or announcements regarding benefits or service opportunities.

Surveillance and monitoring are other ways organizations are using video. It is common to see cameras serving the purpose of physical security or process control. If you want to tie in these abilities to your video applications, you can make it so people can access recorded video from the context of meetings or even set up video access from their desktops.

The perfect case study would be if there was an incident at a factory and you pulled together a meeting of people who need to address the situation in terms of going over what happened, why it happened, etc. Within the context of that video conference, you could turn one of those monitors into a video playback.

This will allow you to pull in the feed that the camera recorded in the facility and watch and control what is being viewed. Everyone would then have the luxury of being able to watch and discuss what they see.

This was first published in April 2013

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