Thanks to the introduction of the smartphone and the willingness of companies to integrate Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) into their workflows, employees have gained the freedom to work on the road, from home, or even from a remote office. In fact, the International Data Corporation, as published by Business Wire, forecast that by the year 2020, there will be 105.4 million (72.3% of the U.S workforce) mobile workers. Many employees enjoy the fact that they can simply “work from anywhere” instead of being physically present in the office, which in turn leads to higher employee satisfaction and also an increase in productivity, too. This is why a majority of companies are seeking to implement more mobile and more collaboration technologies into their businesses. These range from mobile applications, Unified Communications (UC), and team chat solutions. And most recently, there has been a resurgence in adding video conferencing and meeting room solutions to business workflows, too.
SourceForge recently spoke with Robert Ting, the Vice President of Marketing at Highfive, a California-based video conferencing company that combines cloud-based software with video conferencing hardware, about how video conferencing has changed and how Highfive is bringing video conferencing to the modern day meeting room.
The Inspiration Behind Creating Highfive
“Our company was founded on the basis that the video conferencing industry was broken…so we started thinking about a typical meeting and how you would want to use video in these meetings,” shared Ting.
Robert Ting, Highfive’s VP and Head of Marketing.
“We were also aware that the first fifteen minutes of a video conference were a constant pain: pin codes, passcodes, camera setup, etc. [Video conferencing] never worked way it was supposed to, which was the major problem. And we wanted to fix that, and wanted to see video conferencing put into every single meeting room.” Driven by this mission to create an easy-to-use, seamless video conferencing solution, Highfive created a video conferencing and meeting room solution that emulates the feel and flow of meeting rooms.
So what makes Highfive unique in the growing video conferencing and remote meetings market?
Redefining the Meeting Room with Highfive
While exploring and considering the current state of video conferencing and the meeting space, the employees at Highfive realized that video falls into two categories: video conferencing providers and web conference providers.
Video conferencing providers (like the popular Cisco and Polycom service providers) are companies who specifically build solutions to be set up in meetings and boardrooms. Most of the individuals who are familiar with these solutions have seen them in the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies. They often require an IT employee to monitor and set up the solution. Plus, these are static solutions, so scaling these to each and every meeting room would be difficult (and incredibly expensive).
Virtual brainstorming sessions flow naturally with Highfive video conference products.
On the other hand, web conference providers like Zoom, GoToMeeting, Skype, and Webex are used mainly for conversing, with a few other notable innovations (such as screen sharing) interspersed. But taking these solutions to meeting rooms conjures up feelings of a convoluted experience. So there needs to be a middle ground where a video solution can fit any meeting room, be both scalable and flexible, and also include all of the necessary communications features.
“That’s where Highfive shines: we built our solution for the meeting room and with the meeting in mind,” said Ting. “We found this neglected space that hasn’t made the concept of the meeting better and more productive, and so we are tackling that head-on.” Highfive’s solution aims to mimic how meetings naturally occur in meeting rooms, with free-flow conversation and exchange of information. Unlike most video solutions (where a select person serves as a moderator of the meeting), Highfive allows for anyone on the team to talk, screen share, and more. The audio quality also allows for the conversation to flow freely. With a firm belief that technology should not fix social problems, Highfive wants conference meetings to function like actual meeting rooms, where democracy is practiced and social norms are followed. These ideas helped shape Highfive’s conferencing solution. “The basic idea is that Highfive is an all-in-one solution that is easy to setup and easy to use: simply plug into the device and in five minutes you have conferencing; then install the camera on top of the TV and you can easily have video conferencing setup in the room, too,” Ting added.
The Advantages of Highfive’s Video Solution
Highfive ensured that their solution addressed the most important considerations in terms of creating a successful video solution. One of those factors is the ease of setup in a solution. Highfive believes easy to use products can transform the way people get their work done. Highfive tested a number of different solutions in the market before creating their own and found that it took them weeks to configure and set up the solutions just right. So they knew that ease of use and easy setup were important considerations. With Highfive, you simply put the solution in the room and everybody can access the software and use it at-will: there is no per-user license fee.
Another big factor that keeps users engaged and adopting a solution is audio quality. Conference participants would much rather tolerate a pixelated video stream than listen to a broken audio connection. So by working with Dolby, Highfive can deliver a ubiquitous high-quality audio experience. “Highfive’s partnership with Dolby Voice enables natural conversation and spatial audio for better audio capability overall,” mentioned Ting.
Highfive also cuts the woes of host license fees, which oftentimes pushes companies to settle with cheap alternatives or sharing licenses (thus decreasing adoption rates in the workplace). “Customers will not get the same quality or the same number of improvements as paid services if they choose a free alternative,” Ting explained. “And obviously, the audio quality is dramatically better in a paid solution than what you’d get in a free solution.”
Highfive’s New ‘Join by Browser’ Option
One of the biggest annoyances with video conferencing solutions has been the required download prior to being able to use the solution. For most options in the market, users need to either download a plug-in or some software in order to use a solution. So Highfive chose to opt out of software download by introducing a ‘Join by Browser’ option through the use of WebRTC. Beyond the benefits of added audio and video quality, WebRTC also helped initiate a one-click browser entry point for users to help eliminate the pain points of pin codes and logins. “[WebRTC] open source technology is supported by most of the major tech companies, and allows for real-time communication,” mentioned Ting.
Highfive’s new ‘Join by Browser’ functionality uses WebRTC for ease of use across all browsers.
“It is a standard supported by all browsers, which also allows us to build a service that doesn’t require a download by leveraging the code base.” Ting believes that WebRTC will eventually become the expectation (or standard) that all users will expect going forward. Ting also believes that integration will also grow in popularity, as users are requesting video solutions that easily pair with other tools that exist in the workplace, like G Suite, Slack, Outlook, etc. There are more flexible work environments and work situations, whether that be different work hours, working remotely, or even different office locations. “The challenge we are facing is how to make things easier to use,” said Ting in reference to the changing landscape of video conferencing.
Now celebrating five years of doing business, Highfive has helped companies take the leap to adopting scalable, readily-available video. The increase in remote meetings and mobile workers calls for the ideal meeting room and an ideal solution to facilitate collaboration. Plus, video makes collaboration and relationship-building easier and breaks down any distance barriers or even confusion that can come from text or chat-based conversations.
About Highfive
Highfive is a video conferencing company in Redwood City, California. With a combination of cloud-based software and proprietary in-room video conferencing hardware, Highfive gives businesses the technology and functionality to enjoy a video meeting room experience that facilitates easier and more democratic collaborations. Highfive caters to 2600 customers with big names like Warby Parker, Harry’s, Evernote, Expensify, Datto, Bankrate, Betterment, Compass, PaintNite, Girl Scouts of Northern California, University of Michigan Alumni, Rue La La, Oscar and more, with around one hundred new businesses signing up for their service per month. It now hosts 110,000 meetings and 12 million minutes of meetings per month. Highfive’s applications work on both personal computers and mobile devices, and utilize Bluetooth technology to initiate calls on available mobile devices or tablets (which can further be escalated or transferred to another device thanks to Highfive technology).