Advantages

• Convenience.
• Cost savings for travel, accommodation and staff time.
• Ability to link several sites simultaneously.
• Access to remotely located experts.
• In child abuse or other court proceedings, victims’ evidence provided via videoconferencing can reduce the potential of intimidation.
• Having a set time for the meeting encourages more control and less time wasted on non-agenda items.

Disadvantages

• The quality of the received images can be compromised by the technology.
• On lower quality links, movement can be jerky.
• Body language can be lost if movement is jerky and/or picture quality is reduced.
• There may be a delay on the sound that participants need to get accustomed to.
• Some believe that the atmosphere of a normal face-to-face meeting is lost.

Certainly some of these disadvantages may affect the experience, especially for the lower quality links.

For meetings, it is said that if you already know the participants it is a distinct advantage. This is probably true for most meetings but may be especially important for videoconferences where the technical quality is compromised.