, the application itself is located on the Internet. Participants in audio conferences with access to collaboration software can also illustrate ideas by using PowerPoint or other types of documents. They can edit as well as view the documents, jointly. As opposed to room-type video conferencing, which is intended for group meet- ings that must be planned and scheduled ahead of time, desktop-enabled video confer- encing can be spontaneous because the meeting is often between two people. Those included in a voice call can enable video, on the spur of the moment. Figure 2-9 pres- ents an example of video conferencing on a personal computer. Using video conferencing capabilities such as this, co-workers with video cameras and UC-licensed PCs can work together on a more personal level. Another advantage is that staff members who have camera-equipped laptops can take advantage of the same communications capability away from the office as they do in their office. In addition to the use of licensed video conferencing software, companies now routinely use Skype for audio and video conferencing because of its low cost (or often no cost) and ubiquity. Universal availability is an important characteristic when you're attempting to use video conferencing with people outside of your own organization. The following is a quote from an anonymous consultant based in the United States: So, now instead of me having to fly to Thailand for a two-hour meeting with my development team, or having to travel to Newcastle, England, in order to have a three-hour requirements review session, my office's network is powerful enough to let me do all of this from my desk via a high-resolution and low-latency video conference using WebEx or Skype, for basically no cost above the cost my company already pays for its network. I can tell you that this has allowed me to do great work quicker and more effectively. Data Centers and IP Private Branch Exchanges Desktop Video Conferencing in Unified Communications Users access a single Unified 1000 ShoreT