Posts Tagged ‘Telecommunications Industry’

What is Teleconferencing?

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Like anyone else who has been in a technology business for a while you tend to develop your own language.  I am no different.  I have been in the telecommunications industry since 1981 and if any industry has its own language telecommunications certainly does.  The glossary for all the telecommunications acronyms being used would probably be 4 inches thick.  It really is its own language.  Teleconferencing as an off shoot of telecommunications is certainly guilty of this too but certainly not so bad.  But for those novices to teleconferencing, otherwise known as conference calls, I thought it might be helpful to explain a few of the main terms used in the industry to help you better understand what you are dealing with.

  • Access Code (Also known as the Pass Code) -  
    The personal access code that allows you to join a conference call. There are both Host and Guest codes used to access a conference call.
  • Access Phone Number – The telephone number used to reach the teleconferencing equipment where you input your Access Code to enter your conference call.
  • Bridge - The piece of equipment that performs the act of connecting multiple callers on a singe conference call.
  • CSP- This is the acronym for Conference Service Provider.  It refer to the companies that provide conference call services.
  • Digital Record and Playback –  A service offered by conference call service companies that allows you to record your conference call and play it back at a later time.
  • Host – The leader or Moderator of the conference call.
  • Mute- The Mute function on a conference call allows the participants to turn off the ability to be heard during the conference call.  The Host also has the abilitiy to Mute all participants.
  • Reservationless - Reservationless means that no scheduling, reservation or advanced notification is required for this type of conference call.  Once you have the Access number and Pass Code you can hold a conference call whenever you want.
  • Teleconferencing - Otherwise known as conference calling or audio conferencing, it refers to a telephone call where 3 or more people are connected and able to talk to each other at the same time.

This is by no means a complete list of terms used in the conference call service, or teleconferencing industry but this sampling should get you well on your way to being fluent in teleconferencing speak.

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Conference Calling goes Mainstream

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

I have had the fortune to be involved in a few industries as they have gone from the early adoption phase to the accepted norm stage.  I was in the telecommunications industry shortly after the divestiture of AT&T.  I was in the paging industry as it grew wildly and then died just as quickly with the adoption of the cell phone.  And then I joined the conference call industry and over the past 14+ years I have seen the conference call service industry go from a niche application mostly used by the legal industry to a widely used business tool.  Conference calling has truly reached the level of mainstream acceptance.

I am not sure how an expert would judge whether conference calling has reached mainstream acceptance, but I am sure the growth of the industry is certainly one of the factors.  And no one can deny that the conference calling industry has been fortunate to realize exponential growth over the past 14 years.  One of the biggest factors for the growth in the conference calling industry is the change to a reservationless system where you don’t need an operator or schedule a conference call with anyone.  The ease of use of conference call technology has also contributed to the growth.

When I started in the conference calling industry we received many calls from people at businesses who were trying to understand how to get multiple parties on the conference call and they really were not familiar with the technology.  Now we receive calls from people who have inevitably been on a conference call but maybe they have never hosted a conference call before, but now plan to use the service.  The method of conference calling has become somewhat standardized and everyone seems to know what the experience will be like on a conference call.  So, now we spend a lot more time telling customers about the benefits of our service over others and educating them on the small differences between conference call service companies instead of educating them on how a conference call works. 

But probably one of the biggest indicators I have seen in the past few years that conference calling has hit the mainstream is the use of conference calls for personal use.  Because so many people have been exposed at work to conference calls, they are now finding applications in their personal lives to use conference calling.  The wide availability and lower costs of conference calling have really helped this new area of applications.  We have had people use conference calling for wedding and event planning like family reunions where the participants are not able to meet physically.  Recently we even had a family use a conference call so that the missing family members could attend a grave side service because they all could not attend the service in person.  I think that the conference call industry will continue to grow with the advent of new applications as more and more people think up new ways that they can use conference calling to their benefit.

www.zipconferencing.com

 that is widely used

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