THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180420
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 94 lines
You need a face-to-face meeting with your largest client, but your jam-packed schedule won't spare you a whole day out of the office so you can fly out to see her.
Or maybe there's a new product you'd like to demonstrate to your Midwest sales team, but flying all of them in would cost more than you're willing to spend.
What's a businessperson to do?
WHRO thinks it has an option.
The public broadcasting affiliate has opened what it is billing as Hampton Roads' first public videoconferencing suite. For an hourly fee that starts at just under $500, WHRO will link you and people elsewhere in a phone call that lets you see each other.
And for the multimedia-minded, you also can transmit computer images or live photos of documents or products.
It's an unusual initiative for an organization whose main mission is education.
But Sheila A. Wisherd, WHRO's vice president-telecommunications services, said it fits the public broadcaster's aim ``to be leading edge in terms of training and technology.''
She said WHRO decided to launch the enterprise, in which it has invested about $60,000 for equipment, because no company in Hampton Roads has stepped up to do it.
That's in spite of the fact that the videoconferencing industry grew by an estimated 50 percent last year to revenues of more than $4.3 billion, according to the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif.
Wisherd said public videoconferencing suites like WHRO's have multiplied in recent years, and Hampton Roads was one of the last large metro areas in the country without one. Kinko's, the copy company, operates one in Richmond, for example. It announced plans in 1993 to build a similar facility in Virginia Beach, but has indefinitely postponed that decision because the local market potential is uncertain, a spokesman said.
One reason for Hampton Roads' lateness to the videoconferencing party may be its paucity of big-company headquarters - and the fact that several of the handful of big companies here, like Norfolk Southern Corp. and insurance giant USAA, already have their own in-house facilities.
But Wisherd said that two mid-sized companies - a financial-services business and an auto dealer - are talking with WHRO about signing a long-term contract to use its facility. Those two deals will have more than covered WHRO's investment in the first year alone, she said.
Videoconferencing is nothing new for WHRO. The station is considered one of the leading-edge public broadcast affiliates in staging satellite-based videoconferences. Under Wisherd's direction, it will stage from 10 to 12 such conferences this year. Clients have ranged from the tax service Jackson Hewitt Inc. to NASA. The conferences have been profitable for WHRO.
But satellite-based conferences are costly. A two-way satellite feed alone costs $2,000 an hour. With costs for other services thrown in - studio rental, videotape, graphics - the total price can easily double. That puts such conferences out of reach for all but the largest companies.
The new phone-based system - which uses a high-speed connection via Bell Atlantic Corp. to the Integrated Services Digital Network - costs much less. A two-way videoconference between Norfolk and Richmond using this setup would run about $485 an hour.
Even a conference with multiple phone links would run far less than a satellite-based conference. A ``multipoint'' phone-based videoconference linking Norfolk, Chicago, San Francisco and Tampa, for example, would run about $1,400 an hour.
The picture quality isn't quite broadcast standard, but it's close. And Wisherd said a conference is fairly easy to coordinate. A moderator uses a hand-held device to control cameras, videotape and laptop computer.
Wisherd said WHRO plans soon to add a connection for the suite to the global Internet computer network. It is also considering the addition of a feature known as ``whiteboarding'' that would let computer users on each end collaborate to make changes to a document or a drawing in real time.
Whether all of this effort pays off remains to be seen.
Robert H. Mercer, general manager of the Founders Inn & Conference Center in Virginia Beach, isn't convinced.
The Founders Inn can arrange satellite-based videoconferences via its owner, Christian Broadcasting Network. But that service hasn't been heavily utilized, Mercer said.
``I think most companies have found that they benefit most by one-on-one, face-to-face contact,'' he said.
But Wisherd said that with WHRO's phone-based setup, some potential clients think they may actually be able to increase the frequency of their face-to-face meetings among managers or with distant clients.
It just takes expanding the definition of face-to-face.
``We think we've found a niche that nobody else has filled,'' Wisherd said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
ABOVE: Public broadcasting affiliate WHRO has opened what it is
billing as Hampton Roads' first public videoconferencing suite. TOP:
A demonstration of the phone-based system. From left are Holly
O'Neil, Christina Carr and Sheila A. Wisherd, WHRO's vice
president-telecommunications services. by CNB