Capturing the imagination

Video is not all about connecting with people from a sterile, office environment. Organisations of all types are using online, face-to-face communications in more creative ways.

Eircom is currently running an innovative pilot project in music education as Enda Doyle, director of business development and innovation for eircom Business Solutions explains.

“The College of Music at NUI, Galway is using video to teach music. Instead of having to send the teacher around the country, he or she can monitor dozens of people from different locations in one evening session. The quality of the technology is so good you can zoom in and watch the movement of students’ fingers on the instruments to make sure that’s they’re doing it correctly. The initial reaction to the pilot has been very positive and as it comes on stream, more people will join.”

On a recent trip to Munich, Liam O’Brien, head of business product management with Vodafone stumbled upon an imaginative use of video, of which Discover Ireland would be proud.

“In the airport terminal, there was video booth to handle tourist queries. The engineer in me had to test it out so I pressed the button to connect and it was almost a real, life-sized video experience. It brought home to me how efficient video is. That could be a person sitting in an office in Berlin or Bonn, working across 20 airports at the same time. It’s a great example of an airport authority doing something really smart,” he said.

Liz Edwards, unified communications propositions manager with BT has observed a leading, high-end fashion house, using video communications as a virtual fitting room.

“With factories in Asia and headquarters in the Netherlands, this fashion house uses high-end video to show staff the type of stitching to be used for particular styles. So instead of physically travelling to and from the various countries, it’s all done on the screen at a much lower cost,” she said.