Video conferencing is a crucial technology for businesses, especially now. Although, while it has the benefits of accessibility, it certainly is a different animal than your run-of-the-mill in-person meeting. Because it has a challenge that an in-person meeting does not – lag. A video lag is a noticeable delay or stutter in a video playback making it freeze or skip frames. Let’s go over this challenge, and how to overcome it.
The Biggest Challenge in Video Conferencing is Lag.
Unfortunately, there’s a big disadvantage to video conferencing and that’s the inherent lag that so commonly takes place during meetings. While this may not sound like much, it matters a lot.
Based on the length of time that we’ve spent communicating face-to-face and communicating remotely, the latter is barely a blip on the timeline. We’ve had telephony, the first form of voice-based telecommunications, for about 100 years. Conversations, on the other hand, have taken place for 70,000 (give or take). As our brains developed, they adjusted to make these conversations as efficient as possible.
This meant that, while we wouldn’t talk over one another by default, we would leave as little pause after the other person finished speaking to respond as possible. We’ve all experienced what an awkward silence is like. This precedent is what makes that moment of quiet so uncomfortable.
Video conferencing isn’t instantaneous, which makes these pauses an inescapable reality. Even if they are miniscule delays, conversations can still devolve into the pauses and interruptions that so many workplace jokes have capitalized on.
Despite this, however, implementing remote conferencing still offers far more benefits than drawbacks, even with the lag time. As your team adjusts, their productivity and collaborative success will rise. It’s a matter of practice and patience. Just like any new technology, once people are comfortable with the rhythm of video calls, they’ll be able to communicate more smoothly and effectively, despite the occasional delay.
