That’s because most video conferencing rooms are rectangular, with people sitting around a table at varying distances from the TV. The general rule of thumb is “ the bigger the room, the bigger the display.”įor a portal, however, size matters less than it does for your typical video conferencing set up. The main issue to consider when buying a TV for video conferencing is size. Even if you’re a bootstrapped company, you can put one together on the cheap and make your distributed company more efficient without breaking the bank. Set Up Your Company’s Always-On Video Conferencing Portalįoursquare uses fancy Cisco video conferencing equipment, but you don’t need to raise $166 million to be able to afford a portal. While the portal isn’t as useful for more heavyweight video conferencing that requires screen sharing or for meetings lasting longer than 20 minutes, it makes it so much easier for these lightweight and serendipitous conversations to occur. ![]() That creates the opportunity to stop and chat, just as you’d do if you worked in the same office. When you walk past the portal, you may bump into someone walking past the other side of the portal, even if you’re thousands of miles away. The upshot is that standups are more likely to start on time and get done quickly so that everyone can get back to work. This relieves the daily burden of requiring both sides to dial in. (via Foursquare Tries a Bicoastal Approach to Engineering)Īt Foursquare, they hold their daily standups in front of their portal. Instead, just walk over to the portal and you’re instantly connected. Before you know it, 5 to 10 minutes will have passed and you won’t have even talked yet. Inevitably, the audio won’t work and the participants will have to restart Chrome. One side has to, for example, go into Google Hangout, create the call, and invite the participants. Impromptu conversationsīecause impromptu conversations are by nature not prearranged, they don’t come with pre-created video calls. This makes the portal ideal for the following kinds of conversations. This is for fully remote teams using their laptops from home. Many-to-many: There’s an always-on call that everyone in the company is a part of.This makes sense if you have a main office that’s your home base plus people working remotely. One-way: One side has an always-on call running that anyone can easily join.This is what Foursquare has, and it’s ideal if you have a distributed company with two or more major offices. Two-way: Both sides are joined in an always-on call.There are three types of portals, each which saves at least one side of the call from having to connect: It’s already there-you just need to walk up to the screen. ![]() The great thing about having a portal is that you don’t have to set up the call. How to Save Time with an Always-On Video Conferencing Portal Here’s how you can set a portal up for your own distributed company or remote team. ![]() What you end up with is more than a video conference-it’s a gateway that gives you the ability to appear in the other office and work face-to-face just by walking up to the screen. At Foursquare, they use something that they call “ The Portal,” which is an always-on video conferencing platform that’s constantly running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with one end in New York City and the other end in San Francisco. That’s why distributed companies like Foursquare have created an alternative to the traditional video call. For each one, it takes at least 5 minutes to create the call, coordinate everyone to join the call, and get the audio and video working properly.Ī company of 10 where everyone does 5 video calls per week will lose over 200 hours of productivity per year due to setting up video calls. Video calls are the main way to get face-to-face time with your colleagues in other offices or working from home, so you may be doing multiple calls per day. One of the most painful aspects of having a distributed or remote team is something that’s incredibly basic: video conferencing.
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