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When a face-to-face meeting is not practicable because team members are in different locations and/or countries you can agree to set up a videoconference session. The person initiating the videoconference session usually acts as the Chair and sends an ‘invitation’ by email inviting team members to take part. The email will give details of the time and date for the call and a note of the subject(s) for discussion.

• Preparing for the Videoconference
• Running a Videoconference
• Room-to-room Videoconferencing
• Structuring Communication
• Multi-way Videoconferencing
   

Preparing for the videoconference

•   Time
•   Contact numbers 
•   Check software
•   Monitor settings
•   Check firewalls
•   Check permissions
•   Distribute documents before the session

Time

Take time zones into account: ensure that the date and time are convenient for all participants, especially if team members are in different countries. Some UK service departments require all booking information in GMT, not local time (which can be confusing during the summer). Time zone information is available on the time and date site.

Contact numbers

If you are using ISDN you will need the telephone number for the lead ISDN line. If you are using IP-based systems you will need your contact’s IP address. If you are using iVisit you will need to have clarified which room you will be in, and have distributed the password for the room. It is always useful to have your contact’s/contacts’ telephone number(s) in case the connection fails to work.

• Check software

If you are using NetMeeting or MSN make sure that all the participants have the same version.

• Monitor settings

If you are planning to link desktops, make sure that monitors are set to the same desktop area (e.g. 800 x 600 pixels).

• Check firewalls

If you are using IP addresses to connect, check that you can access each other through your own and their firewalls. If you can’t, identify whose firewall is creating the problem by both calling a third party. Your (and/or their) IT department can create a ‘hole’ in the firewall between your IP address and their IP address. For this both ends will need a static or fixed IP address. Even if access is possible, a wrongly configured firewall or router can reduce the bandwidth for the videoconference.

• Check permissions

Sometimes firewalls are set up to allow high data transfer from staff machines only. If you are using a laptop it is possible that its IP address is not registered as a staff machine. If you have problems delivering a videostream to a web-mediated videoconference (such as iVisit) this may be the reason. This will be resolved by requesting your IT services to change the permissions of your laptop’s IP address.

• Distribute documents before the session

If you are using a room-based videoconferencing system rather than a desktop-based one you may not have access to a method to show PowerPoint presentations or other applications across the link. Even if documents can be shared during the videoconference, you may find that it is useful for the participants to have a handout to refer to, or a video to view, during the session. Large media files are better distributed before the session than attempting to run them by sharing applications. Unzipping them during the session can also waste time. If possible set up a website beforehand containing all of the resources.

Running a videoconference

Communicating via videoconferencing is more problematic than face-to-face and therefore good practice becomes more important. Video and television are usually passive media, and the resemblance of videoconferencing to these tends to encourage passivity. Engaging participants is far more difficult with videoconferencing because of the lack of physical presence. It is sometimes harder to concentrate on an image on a screen.

The following points should be considered:

•  Audio echo
•  Voice-activation
•  Time delay and disabled duplex
•  Camera position
•  Presentation
•  Use the technology
•  Interruptions

Audio echo

If the person at the other end uses speakers and a microphone then you will hear your own voice relayed back to you a short time later. This echo makes it very difficult to continue talking. Solutions are:

• Ask the person at the other end to wear a headsets

OR

• Disable the duplex option. This will switch off your speakers when you are talking.

Voice-activation

Some software uses voice-activation to select who can be heard at any one time (sometimes called hands-free). It’s important that the person who isn’t talking deactivates the hands-free, otherwise any slight sound will cut off the speaker. When you hand over to the other person to speak, you will need to click off the hands-free to ensure they can be heard without interruption.

• Ensure you have deactivated hands-free when you are not talking
• Try to limit non-essential sounds

Time delay and disabled duplex

A very short delay between one person talking and the person at the other end being able to hear what has been said can be experienced with some videoconferencing technologies. If you have disabled the duplex, there may also be a short delay as the system switches between a person stopping talking and being able to hear the other person. In face-to-face communication we leave small gaps for the other person to take up the conversation if they want to, if they don’t we tend to carry on. In a videoconference the delay interrupts this subconscious exchange. The videoconferenced conversation can therefore often lapse into hesitations and interruptions. It can create a more stilted conversation and slow down the pace of the exchange. This is particularly important if you have the duplex disabled, since it’s possible for the other person to entirely miss the first second or so of what you are saying.

You may also find that your speakers may cut out if you say anything. If the time delay due to the duplex being disabled is particularly long, then you might find that even a simple ‘yes’ will halt the flow of the speaker at the other end for a second or more. You may consider a non-verbal gesture instead, however, nodding and shaking of heads will not be picked up unless the frame rate is very high. Use thumbs up or down instead, since a single frame can convey this.

• If you find you have created confusion by talking over each other, it is worth spending some time clarifying what has been said before moving on.
• Explicitly hand over to another person when you have finished talking.
• Leave longer pauses when handing over to another person than you would in face-to-face conversations,
• Wait until the other person has responded and clearly finished before continuing.
• Make static non-verbal gestures, not moving ones.
• Leave the verbal response until the person has finished talking, otherwise it will cut out the other person.
• If you have been talking over each other, reiterate the key points to ensure clarity.

Camera position 

One of the constraints to effective communication across videoconferencing is the inability to make eye contact, since the camera will always be in a different position to the screen. However, reducing the difference as much as possible will increase participants’ feeling of contact with the person at the other end.

• Improve sightlines as much as possible.

Presentation

• All the technologies offer the opportunity to view your own image, either as picture-in-picture or as a separate image. Some equipment is also not too adaptive to variations in volume.
• Keep an eye on the image you are sending and ensure that you’re always in shot.
• Speak clearly.
  

Use the technology

Videoconferencing isn’t just a substitute for face-to-face meetings, it can also provide additional features that will enrich the sessions, such as: using chat, the whiteboard or screen recording software to record particularly important parts of the session. It is particularly useful to type proper names and references into the chat window. Your participants may find it difficult to record these if they are on a shared PC, so it saves time to cut and paste the chat window into a word file and email it to them after the session. If you are planning on looking at a video file, use the file transfer function to ftp the file to the participants. Better yet, send it before the videoconference so that they can pre-install it on their PC.

• Share applications and documents
• Use additional software for student exercises
• Use the chat window for proper names, references, or tasks
• Cut and paste the chat window to a word file and email it later
• Don’t try and share video applications, use file transfer to send the video file.

Interruptions

An inevitable part of working from home or the office is interruptions from other people, the phone etc. Feedback indicates that these are not a problem, a short interruption and a bit of light relief usually have a beneficial effect, as long as the interruption is dealt with quickly. Breakdowns in the link are more problematic. Once the link is restored, reiterate what was being said before the break, to ensure that nothing has been missed, or check at what point the break occurred.

• Don’t worry about interruptions, but deal with them quickly.
• Make sure you re-cap after a break, so that nothing is missed.

Room-to-room

Room-to-room videoconferencing is much more difficult to carry out effectively than desktop-to-desktop. There are the problems with obtaining feedback from large groups at a distance, and also because room-based videoconferencing is mainly used for lectures and software demonstrations which are often passive.

Guidelines for room-to-room videoconferencing:

• Presentation skills such as modulating tone of voice, developing good questioning skills and building in activities to the session are even more important in order to compensate for the lack of physical presence.
  
• Keep it lively
• Encourage participation
• Break often.
  

Structuring communication

Feedback must be more highly structured than a face-to-face situation. Questions can also be submitted via a chat session running in parallel to the videoconference, or by mobile phone text messaging.

• Check frequently for understanding
• Wait for responses (even if it is just to confirm that there are no questions)
• If time allows, ask for responses in canon, i.e. go round each participant in turn inviting a comment
• Consider running other technologies in parallel to assist feedback, such as a chat session or CMS messaging
• If possible, have a facilitator at the far end.

Multi-way videoconferencing

It is possible to link up to more than one other site at once. To do this will require a Multipoint Control Unit or MCU, often called a bridge. If all of the participants are connected via SuperJANET then UKERNA offer a service go to http://www.jvcs.video.ja.net/ They can support multi-point ISDN, IP and mixed videoconferences. If one or more of the participants are not on SuperJANET, then BT can provide an MCU.

The MCU provider will also need to know if you require permanent presence or voice-activated. Permanent presence displays all of the participants at the same time, but in a fraction of the screen. This has the disadvantage of not being able to see any of the participants particularly clearly, but they can all be seen at the same time. Voice-activated means that only the site that has someone speaking can be seen at any one time, this has the advantage that they can then be seen clearly, but the reactions of the listeners cannot be seen.

Multi-way conferences need to be managed more strictly than one-to-ones. Interrupting another speaker is quite disruptive, because not only does this break into the flow of the person speaking, it also (if voice-activated has been selected) means that the image is also appropriated by the interrupter. For this reason, the chair needs to create spaces in the meeting for the participants to raise questions, and also formally delegate who is next to speak if more than one person wishes to.

The instruction to switch of voice-activation when you are not talking is even more crucial in a multi-way videoconference. If it cannot be switched off then anyone not speaking must be very careful not to make extraneous sounds.

Also with voice activation selected it’s not always possible to see if one of the participants has become disconnected. It is worth distributing the phone number of the technical co-ordinator (i.e. the person responsible for ringing up everyone) so that they can inform him/her of the disconnection.

• Contact UKERNA to arrange the bridge.
• Select permanent presence or voice-activated depending on your own preference.
• Be very structured about who is to speak, but ensure that everyone has a turn.
• Make sure everyone turns off their microphones when they are not speaking, if this is possible, or does not make any extraneous sound if this is not.
• Ensure that participants all have the number of the person making the link, to inform him/her if they become disconnected.