2. Why use videoconferences?

The usage of visual communications is valuable because it reduces travel costs. It saves time and money for companies, schools and other users. Another important advantage is that the technology offers extended flexibility, i.e. it lowers the threshold to arrange meetings and offer distance training modules.

Figure 1. Here we can see two course leaders in a company in the upper left corner, and 19 course participants located in three different places in Norway. This 7-hours course was one of many mandatory courses within project management. It was estimated that the company saved several thousands of Euros on this course alone, in addition to the human savings when travel is reduced.

It is important that people still meet physically, but as a supplement to physical meetings, the visual communications work alright.

Here is another example where video conferences have been discovered, namely oral exams.

Figure 2. This girl is candidate of an oral exam. Her teacher and the examination judge are situated more than 2000 kilometres away. Earlier she would have to travel all the way by plane for this 1-hour examination and perhaps stay away for two days. Now she can take the local bus down to the video conferencing room, and she will be back home only two hours after departure.

In Norway, the Health care has started using video conferences. Local small hospitals in the districts can get access to experts on the central hospitals for medical consultancy of patients by use of visual communications.

Project cooperation is another field where video conferences are useful. People may share applications and get a closer relationship with each other, despite a long distance between them. Video conferences between different countries work fine.

Schools and universities may have students placed in different companies for practise. It is very useful to be able to reach the students without having to travel around the country each time. Then the follow-up of these students will improve.