An information and communications professor has implied that telepresence is revolutionising the way in which we have meetings.

Speaking to lifehacker.com.au, professor Leon Sterling, from the Swinbourne University of Technology, explained that it’s changing the traditional meeting.

“As soon as you start using telepresence you can have meetings in a way you didn’t have previously because of the quality,” professor Sterling said. Speaking from experience (he utilises it for many different activities within his work), the professor further explained why this may be.

“The body dynamics of people change,” he added. “We’re on a learning exposure of how you know how who you see and who you don’t see.”

He wasn’t the only person to comment on the increasingly popular technology either, as many others spoke to the website about their experiences with telepresence. For example broadband research specialist Chris Hancock said once a person has tried telepresence, other similar offerings just don’t seem good enough – particularly for the research sector, which requires “real-time collaboration”.

What’s more, Angus Gilfillan - the chief operating officer for ANZ Private Bank – gave an insight into how it’s benefited his own company. “It’s been a great win for the business: you have happier clients, you’re not spending as much on travel and you have better utilisation of your staff,” Gilfillan proclaimed.

Given that the telepresence market is on track to be worth $12.8 billion (£8bn) by 2018 (according to Telecomlead.com), these three may be joined by hoards of others heaping equal praise upon the technology.

The telepresence and videoconferencing market grew by 34 per cent in 2011, according to telecommunications market research company Infonetics.

The results showed that the market grew by $3 billion (£1.9 billion) over the course of a year, thanks to strong performances in the third and fourth quarters of 2011, where it experienced a 15 per cent increase, worth $882 million (£563 million).

Furthermore, cited by telecomlead.com, Infonetics believes a further $22 billion (£14 billion) will be spent on equipment between 2012 and 2016.

Although exceptional performances from all major regions contributed to the market’s growth, business in the Caribbean and Latin American region was particularly good, with sales for 2011 almost doubling.

A note by Matthias Machnowinski, a directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics stated that the market had “surged” in the past two years, before going on to list what factors he believed contributed to the growth.

Published by marketwatch.com, part of the note read: ”The video conferencing market is being fuelled by a confluence of factors, including the proliferation of video-capable equipment, demographic and communication trends that favour video, industry use cases like tele-learning and tele-medicine, and most importantly, customer demand.” 

Specifically, the research found that dedicated multi-purpose video systems made up for over half of the equipment sold and is expected to play another big role in 2012.

The worldwide telepresence market could reach a worth of $12.8 billion (£8.1 billion) by 2018, according to research released by ReportsnReports.

The research found that the telepresence market is set for growth over the coming years and a report from PR Newswire attributed this increase in use to the “consistency” telepresence provides those cultivating business relationships.

Telepresence meetings can also be booked in in advance, whilst its physical counterpart – literally travelling to a meeting and back – can prove “sporadic”. What’s more, conducting a virtual meeting via telepresence rather than via conference call, for example, can make all involved feel more “connected”.

The lead author behind the telepresence research, Susan Eustis, explained further the technological side of telepresence and why it may be proving so popular throughout the world. She stated: “Lowest total cost of ownership and accelerated return on investment are achieved through breakthrough bandwidth management.

“Telepresence products leverage industry-leading support of the standards-based H.264 and standards-based high profile capability. Standards adherence and compression technology can save up to 50 per cent of ongoing bandwidth consumption and cost.”

Considering that the global telepresence market was valued at $3.8 billion (£2.4 billion) in 2011, an estimated jump of just under $10 billion does demonstrate just how popular the service is becoming. If the ReportsnReports research is anything to go by – which can also be accessed at reportsnreports.com – its popularity will only increase as time goes on.

Councillors in Breckland say that video conferencing services will support business communications if a partnership with Great Yarmouth and South Holland councils is to go ahead.

EDP24.co.uk reports that an agreement to share services across all three councils has already been approved by officials at Great Yarmouth and South Holland.

Collectively it is believed that around £330,000 can be saved per year by sharing facilities and cutting staff costs.

Speaking of the motion, leader of Great Yarmouth council, Steve Ames, argued: “We will have an experienced management team which will be able to offer advice and guidance. It is services to residents that we want to protect.”

Breckland Council chief executive Terry Huggins explained that council management teams would look to technology to facilitate the move. This would not only save money in terms of business costs, but it would ensure that the councils are able to collaborate closely – even if hundreds of miles apart.

In a pre-meeting report, Mr Huggins said: “Working with a shared management team requires officers and members to be flexible in developing new ways of working. Use of video conferencing and other communications methods will be used to avoid unnecessary travelling.”

The merger is likely to ratified this evening when Breckland’s full council meet. Spalding Today writes that Mr Huggins is likely to head all three councils in an interim capacity until a permanent appointment can be made.

The demand for video conferencing and telepresence has increased significantly, with figures hitting $2.7billion last year according to researched by IDC.com.

A strong quarter at the end of last year contributed significantly to the large figure, during which the revenue for video conferencing shot up by a fifth.

Things have never been better for the business as it continues to benefit from a 24.6 per cent year-on-year growth in Q4 revenue, with numbers expect to increase further in coming years.

Talking to irpro.co.uk, Rich Costello, senior analyst at IDC’s Enterprise Communications Infrastructure division believes this was down to some good examples of presentations across a wide range of businesses, going onto state that he could see things picking up even more with the impact generated by innovations in technology.

Costello said: Growth has been spurred on by more well-defined video use cases among organisations across a range of vertical market segments, including healthcare, higher education, financial services, legal, law enforcement, manufacturing, and retail.”

“We also expect growth over the next several years to be bolstered by the impact of video integrated with vendors’ unified communications and collaboration portfolios, and increasing video usage among small workgroups, desktop users, and mobile device users.”

Chris Argent, financial services consultant at ICT consultancy Hudson & Yorke shared the same view and said that we was glad that businesses had wised up to the potential of the platform.

In a similar interview with ipro.co.uk, Argent said: “It is promising to see video conferencing revenues growing, as companies begin to recognise the business benefits that video conferencing can bring.”

Argent added: “Advances in technology and the falling cost of network bandwidth means the opportunity to embrace video conferencing and develop innovative uses exists now more than ever before.”

Over a third of businesses are planning to up their spend on video conferencing solutions this year, according to a new survey.

A poll by technology firm TechTarget has indicated that 34 per cent of businesses will raise their video conferencing budget and more than half of these will do so by more than 10 per cent. According to computerweekly.com, this is in spite of IT budgets as a whole remaining flat.

Reacting to the results, industry analyst Ira M. Weinstein predicted that it was only a matter of time before video conferencing became an essential service for businesses.

He told techtarget.com: “Technology-wise, we are there but we’re not there yet in terms of culture. We’ve built the stadium; we’re just waiting for people to come.”

Weinstein was also keen to add that video conferencing was likely to become a more popular service once it is integrated into other business services.   

“The actual destination for video conferencing is not [as] an [individual] application, but rather it belongs behind other applications,” he claimed.

The TechTarget survey questioned 445 IT professionals about their investment plans for their next 24 months.

Business video conferencing could replace up to 20 per cent of “ritual face-to-face” meetings within two years, according to Zibrant – a meetings and events experts.

Conference-News.co.uk reports that this trend will be encouraged by firms who wish to keep up a visual presence with their clientèle whilst deploying business-wide cost cutting measures.

Fay Sharpe, managing director of sales and marketing for Zibrant, also believes that training employees to use video conferencing facilities is going to be a must.

“The skill in making the most of remote meetings is subtle,” Sharpe said on Zibrant.com. “Many visual cues, for example, will at worst be missing altogether or at best much harder to read, so there needs to be greater awareness and sensitivity to how delegates are reacting to what it being said.

Sharpe added that even on the phone, “a lot of the nuances of vocal tone are also lost.”

Although Sharpe is confident in her convictions, the expert said that video conferencing is unlikely to replace meetings in the early stages of a business venture. This is because it can be hard to create “trust and rapport” online. Therefore, video solutions are more suitable for those who already have active projects set up.

“Once a degree of familiarity has been established, there are typically far fewer obstacles to routinely keeping on top of projects without the need for face to face,” she explained.

Video conferencing could prove vital for companies when it comes to their disaster recovery communications, according to a Wainhouse Research representative.

Speaking to Search Unified Communications, Ira Weinstein – the partner and senior analyst for the market research firm – explained why the benefits of video conferencing extend far beyond the replacement of business travel.

“Video collaboration is about immediate access to global resources for disaster recovery,” Weinstein added. It can help branches of a firm in different time zones keep in touch with developments in the situation and also keep a business going in the event of a disaster, as a company can “only put so many experts in the same place”.

The same can be said for many different industries, the article went on to say and in many different disaster situations. “Now, we can have HD-quality video conferences in an area that may not have towers or even running water,” Weinstein added.

Given that it is tremendously difficult to predict when a national or global disaster might occur, having the technology on hand can combat any difficulties faced in arranging transport to a particular area.

What’s more, combining these video conferencing abilities with a data backup on the cloud could prove to be the perfect disaster recovery combination. Utilising such backup services could help get “multitudes of systems up and running quickly,” Virtualizationreview.com revealed.

Manchester City Council is one of a number of local authorities planning to communicate using video conference services in the near future.  

Town hall bosses in Manchester are reportedly keen on an adaptation of the technology in order to cut travel costs and lower their carbon footprint.

The move is thought to be partly in response to a recent document released by the council detailing how they plan to cut CO2 levels in the city by 40 per cent in the next 10 years.

Nigel Murphy, who is the Manchester City Council’s executive member for the environment, claimed it was important for councillors to set the example in order for the city to achieve such a goal.

Speaking to The Manchester Evening News, he said: “Reducing the amount of carbon emissions the council produces is a key part of our plan to tackle climate change across Manchester.

“We’ve now become one of the first authorities to place this right at the heart of how we develop our services – and to monitor what each department is doing to cut carbon emissions.”

Publicservice.co.uk report that Essex County Council are in talks to initiate a similar carbon-saving scheme, whilst Bristol City Council are also hoping to introduce such measures.

Increasingly, business schools are adopting video conferencing not only to aid their teaching, but also to appeal to the latest generation of business professionals.

That’s according to a report from the Financial Times, which used the Boston University School of Management as a prime example.

It is turning to video conferencing and telepresence to help facilitate its teaching; not only in terms of learning, but also with regards to securing guest speakers for important engagements. Guest appearances from executives can prove “much easier to co-ordinate” with this technology, Tony O’Driscoll, a business professor, claimed.

“This technology allows us to get higher profile business people to participate more often,” O’Driscoll revealed in the report, which was also cited by Bu.edu.

Called the “future of management education” by the Financial Times, it seems this type of video technology is more popular than ever. It can help provide “deeper learning”, Professor Venkatraman of Boston University stated. He also implied that it can help improve engagement with business students eager to learn the craft.

Although the academics did admit that there can be bumps in the road in terms of technical glitches, overall they believe the use of video conferencing can benefit the latest generation of students – one which has been “weaned on Facebook” and other digital phenomena.