Improving video-mediated communication with orchestration

Video-mediated communication (VMC) has become a popular communication medium. However, research to date suggests that the inherent constraints of VMC impair effective and efficient communication and task performance. We propose that these negative findings could be attributed to how the technology was used and propose the novel concept of communication orchestration aimed at mitigating some of the signaled limitations. Orchestration is a selection process for displaying information that is deemed relevant for accomplishing an effective and efficient task performance and communicative experience. We report an experiment that confirmed this suggestion. The results indicate that orchestration could be an important novel feature to aid humans when communicating via VMC, but also suggest that there is potential for further improvements in orchestration.

► Video-mediated communication has become a popular medium.
► Previous empirical studies have failed to find added value of video channel.
► We propose this could be attributed to how the technology is used in these studies.
► We report an experiment substantiating this suggestion.
► Displaying goal relevant information on the TVs had significant positive effects.