The Videoconference as a Bicoastal Pas de Deux (Published 2001)

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STAGGER the line. Elyssa, step forward. That looks good.'' Ben Thompson never raises his voice as he guides the four dancers into their opening positions. Without videoconferencing equipment, however, he would need to bellow, since he is in Los Angeles and the dancers are in New York.

Mr. Thompson and a colleague, Kevin Barron, operate Hyper Media Education, a performing arts company based in Los Angeles that relies on technology to reduce geographic barriers between its performers and creative directors. Sometimes, however, the technology also erodes the performers' patience.

This time there were problems at the Los Angeles end, where Mr. Thompson was working with another group of dancers and musicians who may eventually perform with the New York troupe. A continent away in SoHo, dancers in a converted loft waited while technicians at Polycom, the video equipment vendor, helped solve the glitches in Los Angeles.

After about half an hour the bugs were eliminated, allowing images of the Los Angeles performers to stream over a high-speed data line and emerge on the television screen in New York. Everyone's attention gratefully turned toward synchronizing swoops and turns instead of video signals under the watchful eyes of Mr. Thompson.

Videoconferencing equipment is costly to acquire and configure, yet its ability to create instantaneous and real-time collaborations can justify the cost.

Polycom's ViewStation, used by the Los Angeles and New York troupes with assistance from a benefactor, costs from $4,000 to $15,000 per site depending on the size of the room and field of view. Other vendors, including Tandberg and Radvision, offer similarly priced and equipped units that will send and receive high-quality full-color full-screen video in which the speaker's lips move in sync with the spoken words.