High Definition Leads to High Quality
Posted by Campbell Williams | 07 Feb 2011
Category: Industries
It's a high definition world, whether we like it or not. If I'm watching Sky Sports HD on my big telly at home, it's great. Sure, there are outbreaks of casual sexism but at least you can see very clearly quite how leathery the skins of the misogynist dinosaurs are. But let's step away from that particular can of worms...
User fears of seeing themselves in full HD video glory were discussed in the comments on my previous video blog, and they are still valid. However, we're seeing increasing interest and demand from companies responsible for output production - manufacturing, design, print, anything "physical" - to use video conferencing technologies to assist that process.
If you go for a video demo - and I'd encourage anybody who hasn't done so for a while to book one in, especially since it can mean a trip to the Gherkin - you'll be confronted with what looks, at first, like a tray of crap. To be more precise, it's an eclectic mix of items like a Hornby train engine, a circuit board and a piece of material. Then you realise that the tray looks more like an overhead projector, and you wonder if it's 1995.
The "OHP" is actually a precision camera mounted on a viewing platform to facilitate ultra-close inspection of anything you put under its glare. You can read the tiniest font on a printed circuit board, look at every stitch on an item of clothing, spot every wrongly-coloured item on a child's toy, whatever you wish. It really does allow you to be there without going there.
The manufacturing sector in particular is interested in harnessing this technology. They're in the position of being one of the more buoyant sectors of the UK economy: they're willing to make investments for improvement but they do want them to pay for themselves too. Almost all of these companies have multiple sites and an international footprint. Video can help them to reach out to distribution partners and end-user customers without unnecessary travel. It can also help to drive quality throughout the production process by allowing internal reviews to be more frequent, bordering on instantaneous.
I'm pretty normal and I've got 2 HD televisions, an HD camera, HD on my mobile, a Blu Ray player and even my laptop is HD. If your business is responsible for "making stuff" - and the service delivery to go with it - then the HD trend is clear. How will you make the most of it?
