Rise of video as the de facto mode of communication

The hyper-accelerated digitalisation in 2020 in the wake of a pandemic will be a tell-tale for generations ahead. The video chat and conferencing trend exploded during the pandemic and its relevance continues to soar. With an ongoing focus on remote working, organisations will look forward to new and interesting ways of communication—something which will entail lots and lots of videos.

In 2021, as we continue with remote working, video is a key channel for collaboration, learning and communication. From small business owners to schools and universities and global MNCs—all have turned to video to connect with employees and clients. These virtual video interactions have pushed everyone to be tech-savvy, and to get up to speed on how these platforms work.

Businesses have well-adjusted to remote work processes nowadays and, video collaboration will be needed for business continuity and agility, even post-pandemic. Here is why:

5G accelerating more live video adoption

The increased network speeds and the availability of reliable connections along with bandwidth that 5G will bring to the market are going to enable much smoother interactions. 5G can boost 100x increase in traffic capacity and network efficiency as compared to 4G and a bandwidth of this kind will lead to newer forms of communications and engagements—Live Video being one! We can say goodbye to glitchy video calls and freezing images and welcome 4K, 8K high-definition video calls without network interruptions.

5G also empowers ubiquitous mobility. It will allow businesses and people to seamlessly connect anytime and anywhere via video calls over smartphones. This makes large scale mobile video conferencing and live streaming like a piece of cake.

We believe many innovative businesses will tap on this “next wave of speed” to create new immersive experiences such as video calls with AR/VR, 3D imaging, holographic calls, gamification and so much more.

WebRTC will be the de-facto technology for Live Video

With ‘Webification’ of communication systems and consumers’ expectations to have an omni-channel experience, WebRTC (Web Real-time Communications) has become an important enabler for real time communication. WebRTC helps developers to build real-time communication capabilities in browsers and applications. The interoperability of WebRTC and its easy integration across various applications makes it one of the most preferred modes for real time video chats. According to various studies, WebRTC projects a CAGR of 41.7% (from 2020 to 2027).

It will also lead to new use cases, such as communications for autonomous vehicles and smart cities. This technology will help power machine vision by enabling information exchange through data transfers, audio, and video. Similarly, IoT devices can connect to WebRTC. Messages and Live Video can be sent from IoT devices to keep users connected to their items.

Advancements in A.I. will improve video quality and experience

Video calls have become normal, and common, and emerging technologies like A.I. will be incremental in making Live Video an engaging experience in so many ways. With consumer expectation increasing, coupled with fierce competitions, video quality and experience will be the key differentiator when offering Live Videos. Artificial intelligence (A.I.) in real-time communications will help enhance the video quality. For example, AWS has added Noise Suppression to Chimes, and Apple uses Machine learning algorithms to detect and suppress loud noises to separate conversation from the background.

Some companies are already using Computer Vision and AI to automatically detect visual issues, adjust unstable cameras, optimise light balance, and improvise attendee background environment to enhance video quality. A.I. could also be used to create high-quality versions of low-resolution images. Algorithms could be used to transmit lower quality video from the sender, which is then regenerated to a higher quality video at the receiver.

Video becomes not a feature but a staple in customer engagement

Video interactions and engagements in customer engagement remain an add on feature to get customers excited. But not for long. Its ubiquity is expected to continue to grow, as organisations have witnessed that video-enabled customer engagement as a staple in customer experience.

The pandemic has put this trend in overdrive, and we will now only see it become a common and mainstream aspect of customer communication. For instance, many healthcare companies innovated with video chat features to connect with physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and patients. For the retailers, innovating with video calls and AR/VR for a virtual walkthrough of their stores and products is now common. Such changes have resulted in superior personalised experience, higher customer service ROI and customer satisfaction

There will continue to be a focus on videos in the coming years as well and changing trends, evolutions in technology and digitization will only push video communications to be the default channel of collaborations and engagement. Imagine a future with all written and typed out content getting replaced with videos- a scenario that is not much far away for us.

Views are personal. The author is CEO & Founder, EnableX.io, a cloud communications platform provider.