Audio conferencing
An audio conference uses conference calls for meetings
and training sessions. This is the cheapest way to
conduct a conference and it is the first step into the
world of teleconferencing for most corporations and
individuals. Audio conferencing and the necessary
equipment have been around for many decades. Today, this
kind of call is supported by sophisticated and reliable
technologies.
For audio conferencing, you need some dial up numbers and
two or more speakerphones. These numbers can be either
local or long distance numbers. You can also make a
conference on your own through long distance calls, or you
can sign up for an audio conferencing service. These
services offer methods that can handle the dial up on long
distance; each of them works a little differently and you
have many types of packages to sign up for.
With most services, you set a meeting for a given time.
You enter the necessary information to join the meeting
where you have been invited. Every participant of the call
is either at a single handset or at a table surrounding a
speakerphone. There are now special phones designed for
audio conference calling; the sound quality is much better
than with a normal phone and speaker.
Today, you will need to make sure that your communication
is completely safe. A pin number access system can ensure
this, since only people with a proper pin code can reach
the call. You can change this code for each meeting, this
makes your call safer. Every pin number can be used only
once.
In case of international calls, you could face language
difficulties. Some audio conferencing corporations offer
translation services to fit this need, so you can also use
this option. Larger and more sophisticated audio
conferencing services include this service as part of
their package.
Now you have the possibility of holding a conference
call anywhere in the world and you can even reach local
audio conference calling services. Access to local and
toll free international conference
calls around the world means that you don't have to
figure out how to call any country to access an audio
conference. Logging in to the conference is easy as
dialing a local number and the participants can connect to
the call even if they are in different countries.
Here are some tips for successful audio conferences:
-distribute the agenda and
discussion/presentation materials for meetings,
-send a reminder to the participants the day before the
call to confirm their participation,
-at the beginning of the conference, make a roll call to
make sure that all participants know who are audio
conferencing,
-remind participants to identify themselves when
speaking,
-call everybody by name when speaking,
-speak clearly and avoid side conversations and
background noise as much as possible (use the "mute"
option).
In case of web conferencing, you will need special
software designed for this purpose. You also have to be
networked. But web conferencing has the adventage of
seeing the people who are participating, which isn't
possible with simple audio conferencing. At the same
time, it still remains a relatively cheap conference
calling service.
Go
on to read about Teleconferencing
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