Industry news

Videoconferencing shakes off 'lacklustre past'

The videoconferencing market is stronger than ever after shaking off the "lacklustre" performances of the last few years, industry analysts revealed today.

Frost & Sullivan say the falling price of bandwidth, technological advancements and the market success of high definition (HD) systems has made videoconferencing "the conference solution to beat in Europe".

The 'European videoconferencing endpoints market' analysis found the market was worth $252.5million (£127m) last year and expects it to grow to $1,178.9m by 2014.

Analyst Prarthana Somal said that despite the fact that some users' impatience and low tolerance is impeding the uptake in videoconferencing, the market is making a comeback in Europe.

"After displaying modest growth in the past few years, videoconferencing is catching up with the growth of other conferencing solutions.

"The increased growth of the market is driven by technological advancements and deeper market penetration of HD systems, coupled with rising awareness and increased affordability of videoconferencing endpoints," she concluded.

IT advisor Gartner recently advised businesses to ensure they have an "adequate bandwidth" and recommended an upgrade if necessary as the technology would increase use rates.