Editor’s Note: As companies continue to slash travel budgets and look for efficiencies while keeping their businesses operating, organizations are increasingly turning to telepresence and video conferencing to get the job done. In its five-part series highlighting the industry segment, TMCnet looks at the various ways companies are deploying communication technology with BrightCom, a provider of integrated telepresence and video conferencing solutions. This week, TMCnet looks at how the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based company provides the unique and effective in-conference room collaborative experience for a California law firm to improve internal collaboration and client relations.

 

 

Easy-to-use telepresence and video conferencing solutions are helping numerous companies collaborate and accomplish action items without the stress of scheduling in-person meetings, configuring wires for media hook-ups and printing hundreds of pages of documents. The instant communication of these systems aids decision-making, brainstorming and relationship building critical to the success of any business.

 

For example, Red Hill Law Group, a Tustin, Calif.-based law firm, found a way to boost internal collaboration and client relations without the need to travel around the country from meeting to meeting or print large amount of documents for client and advisor meetings. The answer? BrightCom’s video conferencing solutions.  

The law firm, which handles estate, business, and tax planning issues, deployed BrightCom’s ClearView Conference Room 2000 by adding a third 52-inch LCD monitor to a customized conference room built for video conferencing. 

The in-conference room experience, shown at left, lets Red Hill's attorneys join together in their conference room, and from laptops instantly broadcast meeting materials to their ClearView 2052 system displaying documents, images and presentations for everyone in the room to collaborate on. High resolution video and audio helps them instantly connect with clients and professional advisors through an online interface. 

“Collaboration is central to our mission at Red Hill Law Group,” David Hiersekorn, a Red Hill Law Group partner, said in a statement. “We were looking for an innovative solution that could bring all of our clients and their professional advisers together in a simple, efficient, and cost-effective way.”

 

Red Hill Law Group lawyers can share information by posting images, documents and video in real time. Users log in to meetings through the Web via laptops, desktops and ClearView conferencing systems. Participants can also control the meeting floor, share and remotely manipulate desktops and mark up images, video, documents and other business materials such as Adobe PDF and Microsoft (News - Alert) PowerPoint presentations. 

In addition, users can share Web browser links and offer content across multiple screens. Meeting can also be recorded for replays and archives. This can all be achieved without connecting wires, using projectors or printing out materials and mailing them as preparation for the meeting.

 

Businesses like Red Hill Law Group use the in-conference experience to collaborate without having to ever leave the office. The effort speeds the efficiency of meetings between lawyers and coworkers and their clients. What’s more, users can set up spontaneous meetings, to accomplish more in less amount of time.

 

BrightCom’s in-conference experience, pictured at right, lets users accomplish a variety of tasks with groups for all sizes. For instance, the company’s Lumina Telepresence line is made up of multiple offerings that offer integrated telepresence and Web conferencing environments for any need or conference room size.

 

Specifically, the L37 is a multi-point, multi-camera, modular telepresence workstation comprised of a work desk, backdrop and optional private immersive enclosure. Ideal for two to six people, the solution helps businesses place the telepresence environment anywhere in the office or workspace, letting users instantly communicate and share materials. The L37 gives users the feeling of real-life, in-person conversation.

 

BrightCom isn’t the only player. As the industry grows and as other big-name vendors like Cisco and Tandberg bring telepresence and video conferencing to a wider audience with greater opportunity for multi-vendor interoperability, more and more businesses are considering implementing video conferencing and collaboration technology as a standard for communication in their offices and conference rooms.

 

Check back for the next segment on the use of BrightCom’s telepresence solution for sharing and collaborating with business data.