Just a
quick sum up on the differences here before we dive into this article… VoIP
refers to calls that take place over the Web through your computer and Internet
connection. It’s built into the software. To participate in a VoIP call you
will need working speakers and a microphone on your computer.
Don’t have a working microphone or speakers? Or perhaps one of your
participants doesn’t? Then this is where teleconferencing comes into play. This
is when you host and participate in a conference call via your standard phone.
It could be your desk phone or your cell phone.
In the past few years, corporations have gotten bigger and more spread out.
Many American employees -- more than 44 million in 2004 -- also do at least
some of their work from home. Since
offices and employees can be thousands of miles apart, getting everyone into
the same room for meetings and training has become decidedly impractical for a
lot of companies.
That's why teleconferencing -- the real-time
exchange of information between people who are not in the same physical space
-- has become such a big industry. The American audio conferencing industry
alone reported $2.25 billion in revenue in 2004 Through teleconferencing,
companies can conduct meetings, customer briefs, training, demonstrations and
workshops by phone or online instead of in person.
The simplest phone
teleconference is a three-way call, available in many homes as a service from
the telephone company. Another very simple (but not necessarily effective)
method is to have two groups of people talk to one another via speakerphone.
The limits of three-way calling and the sound quality of speakerphones make
both of these options impractical for most businesses.
Conference calls let
groups of people -- from a few to hundreds -- communicate by phone. Banks and brokerages often
use conference calls to give status reports to large numbers of listeners.
Other businesses use conference calls to help coworkers communicate, plan and
brainstorm. To connect to the call, attendees call a designated number (Meet Me
conferencing), or an operator or moderator calls each participant (ad hoc
conferencing).
Conference calls
connect people through a conference bridge, which is
essentially a server that acts like a telephone and can answer multiple calls
simultaneously. Software plays a large role in the bridge's capabilities beyond
simply connecting multiple callers.
A company can have
its own bridge or can contract with a service provider for conference call
hosting. Providers frequently offer add-on features for conference calls, such
as:
·
Attendee polling
·
Call recording
·
In-call operators or attendants
Companies using Voice over IP (VoIP) telephones can also host conference calls themselves if
the VoIP software supports them.
Many phone
conferencing systems require a login and personal identification number (PIN)
to access the system. This helps protect confidential and proprietary
information during the call.
Video phones can add
a visual element to conference calls, but businesses often need to share other
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