It’s a scientific fact that communication is more effective when you can see the person you’re talking to. Seeing the other person’s facial expressions, for example, makes it easy to tell a serious request from an offhand remark or a joke.
But you don’t have to brave airports and public spaces for an effective face-to-face meeting when video conferencing software and collaboration services are widely available. With a desktop webcam or a mobile device, you can meet one-on-one or with a group, no matter how dispersed the members of your team are. We’ve assembled the leading conferencing software platforms, all capable of providing high-quality video and full-featured collaboration tools. While many of these video conferencing platforms also offer live streaming and webinar capabilities, our focus here is primarily on virtual meetings.
After a successful IPO in 2019, Zoom solidified its status as one of the leaders in the video conferencing industry, although recent security and privacy concerns have tarnished that reputation somewhat. Its conferencing software allows simple one-to-one chat sessions that can escalate into group calls, training sessions and webinars for internal and external audiences, and global video meetings with up to 1,000 participants and as many as 49 HD videos on-screen simultaneously.
Zoom sessions can start from a web browser or in dedicated client apps for every desktop and mobile platform, with end-to-end encryption, role-based user security (including HIPAA compliance), and easy-to-use screen sharing and collaboration tools. Meeting invitations integrate smoothly with popular calendaring systems, and meetings can be recorded as local or cloud-based files, with searchable transcripts.
The free tier allows unlimited 1:1 meetings but limits group sessions to 40 minutes and 100 participants. Paid plans start at $15 per month per host and scale up to full-featured Business and Enterprise plans.
By Ed Bott | April 16, 2020
