The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Videoconferencing finds more users

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Videoconferencing finds more users

Staff Reporter

Human resource departments use the novel technology up to 90 per cent

BANGALORE: The telecom revolution of the 1990s has been one of the most striking developments in recent times bringing in its wake sweeping changes into people's lives and modes of communication. New technologies in communication are the most sought after.

The rapidity with which they are being integrated into people's lives with novel uses is astounding. One such technology in recent times is that of videoconferencing. Started three years ago, videoconferencing is finding increasing takers.

Ninety per cent use of videoconferencing is by human resource departments. An important use it is being put to is that of recruitment. Companies such as Progen, a sister concern of Infosys, use this facility in a big way.

Long-drawn procedures that involved having numerous test centres in different locations, collation of results, and thereafter, arranging to bring all the short-listed candidates to one city for interviews would take nearly a month. Now with videoconferencing, the tests are simultaneously conducted, the results are quickly tabulated and the interviews are conducted through videoconferencing, reducing the entire exercise to just six hours.

Another significant utilisation is for employee training.

It is a common practice among corporates to have regular training programmes, be it quarterly or annually, to equip product managers with information and knowledge about the latest innovations, technologies, practices, line extensions, product features and so on. Videoconferencing allows this in a much more easily coordinated and convenient method. Now, all employees, whichever location they may be in, can be connected at the same time and trained.

This also enables cost cutting to a large extent.

Reliance WebWorld, for instance, is a big player in videoconferencing.

It has been successfully providing this service to several big customers for their recruitment and training needs.

A novel use of it was made in October 2005 when awareness about an innovation in Lasik surgery was created by conducting the Lasik surgery in the Reliance Video Conferencing room and broadcasting it to ophthalmologists all over the country.

Two types

Prashanth Sambaragi, franchisee, Reliance WebWorld at Jayanagar 4th Block and content provider for all telecom players, elaborates how channels such as NDTV use the "DENG" facility for broadcasting news, an illustration of how closely videoconferencing can play a role in people's lives without their realising it.

The technical norm for the best broadcast quality of videoconferencing is 512 kbps. There are two types of videoconferencing, point to point and ISDN line.

The first can be used between two people, in fixed, known locations having matching bandwidths. The ISDN line can be used by one person to connect to many others simultaneously and can support over 100 people at a time. The differing bandwidth values are equalised and adjusted using the "bridge" facility.

Today, security concerns loom large, especially with new methods of hacking and interference being invented.

How secure is this facility, especially as it can offer wide access to people anywhere? "It is secure," says Mr. Sambaragi.

"As it uses the Code Divide Multiple Access or CDMA technology, it is safe; no one can interfere between two people communicating.

When the signal goes out, it is encrypted, so unauthorised people do not have access to it.

You must remember that CDMA technology was developed by the American Military in the 1960s so that no one could interfere with their communication."

However, recording of a conversation on request can be done, as per client requirements.

The "Death of Distance" is the standard refrain in these times. Anytime connectivity with anyone at any place at accessible rates is creating a mega global network.

And videoconferencing is definitely contributing to it in a big way.

As Mr. Sambaragi says, "In the days to come, people will have Internet Protocol (IP) numbers on their visiting cards." A day certainly not far off.

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