What is the difference between an AV company who do video conferencing and a specialist video conferencing service provider??

Most AV/event production/rental houses will claim to be able to do video conferencing and indeed many of them actually own their own equipment and know mostly how to make them work.  So if I buy a Ferrari, does that make me a Lewis Hamilton?

Setting up a big sound system not only requires a knowledge of power amplifiers, system controller and mixing desks but also requires a good ear if you want it to work well.  Similarly with video conferencing, a good working knowledge of the equipment is necessary but so is a knowledge of IT and networking, phone lines, ISDN, IP, H.323, H.239, H.264, CIF, QCIF, HD, 720P, dual stream, people & content, bandwidth, firewalls, NAT, port forwarding etc etc.  The list unfortunately goes on and on.  Once you’ve got that covered, you then of course have the local connectivity side of things; VGA, HDMI, DVI, SDI, HD-SDI, Composite, Component, S-video. And then there is the audio…

You get the picture.

Present Communications is a specialist video conference provider.  We offer the finest technical support along side our equipment and in many cases offer a ‘brand-free’ service to other production companies and act seamlessly as your video conferencing team.