Audio and video conferencing is the technology that lets people in different locations meet in real time by voice, video or both, usually with screen sharing and chat. Participants join from laptops, phones, desk phones or equipped meeting rooms, and a cloud service or on-premises system connects them. Today it is most often delivered as part of a collaboration suite or unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform rather than bought on its own.
At a glance
- Audio conferencing joins people by voice through dial-in numbers or apps; video conferencing adds live camera video, screen sharing and chat.
- Most organizations now get meetings as part of a collaboration suite or UCaaS platform, with dial-in, webinars and room systems as common add-ons.
- Call quality depends heavily on the network: bandwidth, latency, jitter and packet loss at each participant’s location.
- Hardware certified for your platform can simplify support and feature compatibility in meeting rooms, though standards-based, browser-based and BYOD setups may also work; verify supported features with each provider.
- Security settings, recording and retention rules, and external access policies need deliberate configuration.
What problem it solves
Teams, customers and partners are spread across offices, homes and countries, and travel for every meeting is slow and expensive. Phone calls alone make it hard to share a document, read a room or run a workshop. Audio and video conferencing gives distributed groups a shared, real-time meeting space with voice, faces and content, so decisions can be made without being in the same building.
For buyers, the problem has shifted from getting conferencing at all to managing it well. Many organizations pay for overlapping meeting tools, have rooms that only work with one of them, and field complaints about poor quality that turn out to be network problems.
How it works
Endpoints. People join from desktop or mobile apps, web browsers, desk phones, or dedicated room systems with cameras, microphones and displays. Browser joining often uses WebRTC, so guests don’t need to install anything.
Meeting service. A cloud platform, or in some organizations an on-premises system, handles scheduling, authentication and joining, and routes audio and video between participants, usually through media servers that mix or forward streams so each device receives what it can handle.
Audio dial-in. Phone numbers let people join by voice from an ordinary phone. This is often a separately licensed add-on, with toll and toll-free numbers billed differently.
Network transport. Audio and video travel over the internet or private networks as real-time packets. They are sensitive to latency, jitter and packet loss, which is why quality of service (QoS) settings and adequate upload bandwidth matter.
Features and controls. Screen sharing, chat, recording, transcription, captions, breakout rooms, waiting rooms and meeting passcodes are common. Administrators set policies for external participants, recording, retention and data storage.
When it matters for buyers
- When consolidating tools. Paying for two or three overlapping meeting platforms is common; consolidating can cut cost but requires checking room hardware, integrations and user habits.
- When renewing a collaboration suite or UCaaS contract. Meetings, dial-in, webinars and room licensing are often bundled differently, so compare like for like.
- When fitting out a new office. Room systems, displays, cabling and network capacity should be planned around one primary platform.
- When users complain about quality. Quality issues can originate in local networks, Wi-Fi or home internet, but also in endpoints, room hardware, VPNs, media routing or the provider itself; use client and provider telemetry to isolate the fault.
- When regulated content is discussed in meetings. Recording, transcription, retention and data location settings may need to meet industry or legal requirements; check with your compliance team.
See our unified communications as a service overview for how buyers compare meeting, calling and messaging bundles.
Questions to ask vendors
- Which meeting features, participant limits and webinar capabilities are included in each license tier?
- Is phone dial-in included, which countries are covered, and how are toll and toll-free minutes billed?
- Which room systems are certified for your platform, and can rooms join other platforms’ meetings?
- What encryption is used by default, is end-to-end encryption available, and which features does it disable?
- Where are recordings and transcripts stored, and how are retention and deletion controlled?
- What bandwidth do you require per participant, and what quality reporting can administrators see?
- How do external guests join, and what controls exist for them?
How it differs from UCaaS
Audio and video conferencing is one capability: real-time group meetings. UCaaS is a cloud service that bundles meetings with business phone calling, messaging, voicemail and presence under one provider and license. Unified communications (UC) is the broader idea of integrating all those channels, however it is delivered. Many organizations get conferencing through a UCaaS platform or a productivity suite and only buy a standalone conferencing service for specialized needs such as large events. Conferencing also sits within the wider family of collaboration tools that includes document sharing and team workspaces.
Problems this helps with
- Paying for several meeting tools that do the same thing
- Poor call quality and frozen video in important meetings
- Meeting rooms that don't work with the platform we use
- People outside the company struggle to join our meetings
