[After the success of IMTC 2025, held a few weeks ago, I've asked Kfir Pravda, the CEO of Pravda Media Group, the digital agency which organized the event, and VP marketing of IMTC, to share his thoughts on using video conferencing, and I am proud to publish them here.]
In the last 3-4 months I participated in a weekly video conferencing session with participants from across the globe. As the head of the IMTC 2025 steering committee, I decided to drink the poison we were pushing to our speakers.
At the beginning it was nothing less than annoying. Webcams produce an awful, unsaturated image. The camera angle always made my colleagues’ nose look much larger than they are in real life (at least I hope. Some of them I have never met in real life). And the ridiculous headset made everyone look as if they just left the set of a 70′s Sci-Fi B movie.
But after a while, NOT having visual communications with my peers made me feel uncomfortable. Talking to someone and being unable to see whether he is nodding his head, or looking at me with a look full of despair, made me feel detached. Not being able to show what I am holding (my iPad most of the time these days) made me feel limited in my ability to communicate.
Kfir Pravda showing off the SCOPIA Mobile app on his brand new iPad during IMTC 2025.
Visual Communication is The Future
Today I am certain in the value of visual communications, and have become a real fan. I am sure we’re going to use them for every IMTC meeting, as well as IMTC conferences, from now on.
And just because I value this technology, I think that there is a lot to be done in order to make it less awkward and more user-friendly:
- Improve camera quality – no one is going to win a cinematography academy award based on the pale webcam images. It’s time for vibrant, saturated color space en-par with today’s digital cameras. It is not the resolution; it’s the colors that kill the image.
- Improve audio capabilities – audio is more important than image, and in many cases it still lacks the depth of real life audio. And no, phone audio grade is not enough.
- Solve line of sight issues – with webcams positioned on top of computer screens, participants need to be aware that they need to look at the camera instead of looking at the other speaker. Of course that kills the ability to look someone in the eye – something that is key to human communications.
A virtual panel over SCOPIA Desktop from IMTC 2025.
Visual communication has been ‘the future’ for too long. The technology is there, though sometimes I feel that a lot is invested in infrastructure, and too little in user experience.
Now it’s the time to get visual.
