Video Conferencing: Still not replacing the telephone

I’ve never been much of a fan of videoconferencing.

While shows like Star Trek have set the expectation in us that ‘in the future, this is how people will communicate’, I don’t see any signs that we’ll ever be replacing all phones (or travel) with video.

I have noted two problems with videoconferencing in the past, and my thoughts about that haven’t changed one whit.

Today, I read an article that I thought presented an interesting perspective. The thought is that the marketing efforts for video products is having to resort to FUD to pitch their technology. It’s an interesting perspective.

Last week I had a conference call with a customer, and they were showing off their new Lync deployment complete with videoconferencing. The video did not facilitate the discussion in any way, and in fact since not all of us were feeding video, those with cameras on them ended up looking rather awkward when they were not speaking, as they had to figure out what to do with their faces even though they were peripheral to that part of the discussion. It felt forced and awkward.

Even in Star Trek, the videoconferencing was mostly reserved for formal conversations in the main bridge area (and had full eye-to-eye contact with everyone dressed in their best uniform). Communications between shipmates was all done by voice only.