Web Conference vs. Video Conference With the popularity of video conferencing industry, people are always confused with the common term of web conference and video conference. Hence, I’d like to explain them in following 2 parts. Part 1: Definition of Web Conference and Video Conference ◆ Web Conferencing It is a handy umbrella term for several types of convenient online collaborative services to include webcasts, web seminars ("webinars") and peer-level web meetings. It is a conferencing form of real-time collaborative system in which two or more computer users, all with internet connected, see the same computer screen at any time in their web browsers. It may however be used in a narrower sense referring only to meetings of specific peer-level web context, in an effort to disambiguate its meaning and purpose from other collaborative session types. ◆ Video Conferencing Known also as video conferencing or video teleconferencing, it is facilitating a video conference through a set of appropriate telecommunication technologies that allows two or more computer locations to communicate simultaneously by two-way audio and video transmissions. This method has also been referred to as visual collaboration and is a certain type of groupware. Videoconferencing is designed to serve a conference or multiple locations rather than individuals. With the introduction in the 1990s of high capacity but low cost broadband telecommunication services, coupled with video compression techniques and powerful computing processors, videoconferencing has made important inroads in medicine, education, business, media and more. Part 2: Differences between Web Conference and Video Conference First of all, one of the identified leading drivers for web/video conference is the need to upgrade traditional voice-only conferences and calls as they both employ the multiway communication concept and attempt to establish a more productive and engaging experience. As to the differences, check the paragraphs below. ◆ Web Conferencing This technology was designed as a functionally-upgraded audio bridge completed with pictures which has made it possible to share presentations with other audio
participants located anywhere around the globe. What’s more, its features of presenting video and recording also support information dissemination from one to many. It’s quite useful for small-scale meeting, but on the whole, it lacks the essential features expected with collaboration tools by today's savvy users. ◆ Video Conferencing This technology, on the other hand, provides everyone a face and a seat at the meeting which is purposely designed around collaboration. The best solutions concentrate on facilitating communication in many different ways that people meet—instant or scheduled, in multiple languages or on any device. Unlimited rooms and conference rooms can be instantly set up with reliable EZTalks video system, which also enables you to easily connect to other conference rooms as well as various remote users on smartphones, tablets and laptops. In addition, participants can even share their screens with the group! Simply put, if what matters is the meeting itself and the importance of collaboration, you'll probably prefer the audio quality and high-definition image which can only be provided by video conferencing. On the contrary, web conferencing works best for broadcasting a simple speech made by a single speaker to a normally large audience. However, if dialogue, reliability and quality, are very important to you, nothing really beats video conferencing.