There’s an interesting little cottage industry popping up around the United States that’s worth noting. With the cost of gasoline and airline tickets soaring out of control, more businesses are turning to videoconferencing to hold meetings that once involved somewhat affordable travel. Now, community-based cable television-like services are getting in on the act by opening their studios to videoconferencing customers, but when you stop and do the math, do these services really make a lot of sense (i.e., cents and dollars)?

Take VIT for example. Billed as “Vermont’s largest public videoconferencing network,” VIT allows you to use one of their 15 statewide locations for holding videoconference meetings with people in different parts of the state or anywhere in the world where there’s a conforming connection available for your meeting. Sounds easy enough, right? And if money and time weren’t an object, services like those offered by VIT would be perfect.

Sadly, we do not work in a perfect world. The time, money and resources that are likely wasted using a drop-in service like VIT’s—when compared to renting or owning a new, technologically advanced and affordable high definition videoconferencing system of your own—can be astronomical. Tomorrow, in Part II of this post, we’ll explore the drop-in service phenomenon further, compare fixed costs, and take a deeper look at the convenience factor associated with drop-in videoconferencing centers versus having a videoconferencing system right in your own office or conference room.

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