Although video conferencing was in the workplace before 2020, the pandemic cemented its position as an essential corporate tool. Video conferencing gave companies the connection they desperately needed when employees were separated, and no one could meet as normal. But even though the threat of the pandemic is essentially over, new workplace paradigms appear to be here to stay – meaning that remote and flextime employees are working from alternate locations not because they have to but because companies have accepted new ways of operating. This means that the video conferencing that carried business during the pandemic is evolving to replace many traditional business models.
The forced adoption of video conferencing actually showed many companies that the practice was entirely workable and even preferable. Video conferencing saves a lot of time and money and even facilitates greater collaboration with global colleagues and partners. Here are the most relevant video conferencing trends to watch in 2022:
- Standardized Virtual Meetings: Before the pandemic, virtual meetings were few and far between – it was a standard operating procedure to meet for sales calls and travel for meetings. Videoconferencing was occasional at best, meaning that they didn’t need to integrate much into the user experience. Industry innovators like RingCentral, Microsoft, Zoom, and others had to work quickly to improve ease of use and built-in features as hundreds of millions of users started hosting virtual meetings.
- Live Video Editing: Real-time editing allows the presenter to display special effects and animations in the video while broadcasting. A common example of live video editing is computer-generated content laid over live sports broadcasts. Businesses are beginning to use live video editing during business presentations, and these innovations are likely to grow in popularity as real-time video editing can help create immersive and appealing presentations, usurping the place that PowerPoint (yawn) held for so long.
- Screen Sharing During Meetings: During a presentation, screen sharing shows the contents of your screen to your colleagues, helping teams collaborate more productively. Although screen sharing is nothing new, its acceptance significantly increased over the last two years. Whether it’s an internal team meeting or a national sales meeting, screen sharing allows everyone to see the same information and express their ideas in real time. Most organizations already use Skype or Slack to collaborate with their teams, and screen-sharing tools can be easily integrated. This trend is expected to continue as screen sharing can now take place on any device, and viewers can remotely control the screen (located anywhere in the world). It is important to note that screen sharing options allow users to identify private zones to blur or hide confidential information.
- Metaverse Meetings: The Metaverse is the newest innovation in the business world, and some leading-edge companies are beginning to capitalize on the technology by hosting meetings in this 3D virtual world. As the Metaverse is still in its early phases, there are very few real-life applications for businesses, but meetings seem a natural fit. Immersive company meetings that mimic “everyone being in the same room” is expected to continue to grow in popularity, and videoconferencing will play a huge role in this evolution.
- Zoom’s Dominance: Zoom quickly took the lion’s share of the videoconferencing market, and in 2022 it is estimated they will hold more than half of the market share. More than 350 million users host meetings on the platform every single day, and significant growth is continuing month-over-month and year-over-year – generating over $2.6 billion in revenue in 2021. Zoom moved easily from corporate environments to the public sector (schools, governments, and nonprofits). Most nonprofit institutions use Zoom for all of their virtual meetings, making Zoom the clear leader in the space, a trend we expect to continue for quite some time. Fast Fact: Over 3.5 trillion minutes of virtual meetings were held on Zoom in 2021, in addition to more than 485 million mobile app downloads.
Are you interested in setting your organization up for video conferencing but unsure where to begin? Call Alliance IT today to discuss how we can help you to incorporate these and other innovative technologies.
