Chapter 4: ISDN Puts Video To Work

Putting Video To Work

ISDN gives range and diversity to meetings, large and small, and has begun to alter perceptions of what a meeting is:

Chase Manhattan Bank offers a typical example of how a major corporation uses ISDN video to not only improve communication, but save time and money in the process.

According to Isaac Yohanan, global videoconferencing manager, more than 30 Chase business units around the world are in almost constant contact for executive and project-group meetings, worldwide business gatherings, presentations, product introductions and more.

"We use primarily PictureTel room systems," notes Yohanan, "which means that any location can talk to any other. It also means that we can use a single BRI connection for good quality, or three connections for full-motion, full-color worldwide video."

At the Long Island headquarters of one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of perfumes, cosmetics and other women's fashion items, executives regularly hold quick video meetings with peers in six locations in the New York-Long Island area, as well as with European offices in Paris, Brussels and Rome.

"A video meeting is usually shorter, more to the point," notes the firm's executive director of video conferencing. "Executives are conscious of paying, so they seem to keep more closely to an agenda."

He notes that the firm uses video in many ways, including worldwide product launches in Europe and Asia, conferences with customers and vendors throughout the world, and interviews with job applicants from around the United States.

"What we appreciate most is that we don't have to spend hours traveling to a half-day meeting," he adds. "In a recent New Yorkopening, for example, we had eight executives from all over the world participating. We saved hundreds of hours of travel time and expenses, and the video connections added excitement and glamour to the event."

PictureTel, one of the country's leading manufacturers of video equipment, is itself one of the most avid users of ISDN-based video. For example, weekly staff meetings between the company's two major locations in Danvers and Andover, MA, are conducted through video connections linking the two sites. Often executives and engineers visiting other sites throughout the country also participate in the meetings through dialed ISDN connections.

Kevin Flanagan, PictureTel's manager of public relations, notes that he personally uses ISDN video links to discuss projects and strategies with his agency in New Hampshire, as well as with peers in the U.S., Europe and Pacific Rim.

The company also uses worldwide dialed video links for preliminary interviews with job applicants, for executive meetings with mutual fund managers and other investors in Boston, New York and other financial centers, and for training and update sessions for its nationwide staff of sales representatives.

Mullen Advertising, in Boston, uses video extensively to service its blue-chip nationwide list of clients - including Gitano, Money magazine, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Reebok and Dun & Bradstreet software. Video accelerates the production process, said agency owner James Mullen in an interview, by letting Mullen writers, artists and account executives meet with clients at a moment's notice. The quicker and more directly the agency's staff gets feedback, he noted, the quicker and better will be the ad it delivers.

Deutsche Telekom, Inc. uses video for frequent executive conferences from its New York sales office to Hamburg, Frankfurt and other parent-company locations throughout Germany, as well as to several sites in Paris. "ISDN gives us fast, easy video to any of our home offices," says Horst Schad, administrative support manager. "It lets us stay in touch around the world."

Lotus Development Corporation in Cambridge uses their PictureTel room and desktop video systems "all the time," says Jerry Audet, telecommunications analyst for the firm. Some meetings are conducted through mutliplexed lines at 384Kbps; others through the 128Kbps connections of a single BRI. Meetings range from regular staff meetings to product introductions and demos for the field sales force. Video is also used to link development teams in Cambridge and California, and for internal and customer briefings to sites around the world.

The New York VideoConference Center in midtown Manhattan is typical of many public video facilities. The center's facilities can be linked to virtually any H.320 system in the world through dialed ISDN connections. The center also offers nationwide video networking.