Unifying your Unified Communications Recording - Part 3: Video

You have decided that you need to record your communications. This is a great first step. It may be for archival, legal, or regulatory purposes. Regardless, if you are only recording your voice conversations, you are not getting a complete picture of your interactions. Video is increasingly an important component of the communications taking place in an organization.

Video comes in many flavors. Ranging from a desktop video product like Microsoft Lync, Skype, or Cisco (News - Alert) Jabber, to smaller, room sized systems from vendors such as Cisco, Polycom, or LifeSize, video is a fully immersive form of communication available to any company. 

If you are looking to get a full picture of all of your communications, it is critical that your recording system handles video. In fact, even if you are not using video today, you should at least consider the potential use of video in the future. Prepare yourself by equipping a solution that is able to support future video interactions.

When comparing recording systems, it is important to look at how the video is captured. Some vendors tend to confuse the terms video with desktop capture. Sure, you can capture desktop video by recording the users’ screen, but this is not true video recording.

It certainly does not scale to room or telepresence units. Some of the video vendors offer an on-demand video recording experience. While this can be helpful, there are a number of drawbacks. 

First, on-demand recording does not satisfy the requirements of compliance. It relies on the users to initiate the recording. If they do not initiate recording, no record of the conference is created, thereby negating the potential benefits of the solution.

Second, these recordings are stored in its own system. As we discussed in my previous blog, this creates information silos. You need a central repository for all your unified communications. 

When selecting a recording vendor, you need to make sure video is captured at the network level so the full experience is recorded. This ensures that both on-demand and compliance based (always on) recording is supported. Take the time to select a vendor who understands the complexity of video, or you may be paying the unexpected price down the line – both in cost and frustration. 

There are many protocols, MCU’s, products, and architectures. Simply capturing a PC screen does not scale. Is your recording system future-proof? Let us know. 

ISI Telemanagement Solutions (News - Alert) Inc. is committed to providing solutions designed to increase organizations' efficiency, productivity and profitability, by providing reporting and recording tools for enhanced telecom management. We understand that each company's needs are unique and, therefore, we provide a robust set of tools to address every situation.

ISI's Solutions portfolio brings together time-proven technologies to report and record on your voice and video communications, including real-time wireless and landline Call Accounting & Reporting,Telecom Audit & Optimization, Voice & Video Call Recording, Invoice & Inventory Management, and Wireless Management. ISI's facilities, processes, and data security comply with ISO 9001:2008, SSAE 16, HIPAA, Safe Harbor and other important standards.