For the better part of 20 years, audio and video conferencing companies have touted the cost and time savings implicit in holding virtual meetings. And yet, business travel continues to accelerate.

While some may chalk that up to a deep-seated desire of mid-level executives to experience the pleasure of hotel stays and room service, others would debate the value of virtual conferences. The problem, as anyone who has participated in multi-speaker conferences knows, is that participants don't necessarily know who's doing the talking. Being there in pixel form, or as sound waves, just isn't the same.

DiamondWare, a company that has been around for more than a decade — mostly working on military applications — is starting to move into the commercial arena with 3-D positional technology, which is designed to improve audio quality in the voice-over-IP environment.

“Right now, the VoIP industry is pretty pleased with itself because it has ad hoc conferencing,” said Keith Weiner, president of DiamondWare. “But in the enterprise setting, you want to distinctly recognize people.”

Since late last year, the company has been producing a softphone specifically for PDAs. The Wi-Fone product, designed to work with either Pocket PC or Widows platforms, initially is being bundled with service from Voiceworks, a Miami-based Internet telephony service provider, as well as Interlink Global.

Now the company wants to bring its flagship technology, which serves as the basis of a tactical intercom system for the military, to other devices such as PBXs and other PDAs.

“It's really a form factor question,” Weiner said. “As we get closer to market, and as we line up partners, that will be answered.”

Regardless of the form, the technology is designed to give users more of a “live” experience. At the same time, the platform will serve as just one layer in future conferencing applications.

“We look at this as, ‘How do you increase the content of what's being communicated?’” Weiner said. “If you have whiteboard, for example, that's huge, especially for engineers and other knowledge workers.”

One key element that may not be added as fast as one might expect is video. While Weiner expects the technology to give videoconference more of a live feel, there are numerous social and cultural issues that have hampered video conferencing.

“The technology itself has been around since the 1960s,” he said. “It poses all these extra sets of problems, and at the same time with bandwidth the way it is today, you don't get the highest quality with 30 frames per second.”

However, Weiner said, the company expects that presence-management technology will be a key factor in the deployment of 3-D positional technology because it will allow for large ad hoc audio conferences in which users can easily distinguish between speakers. Beyond the recognition factor, the technology also eliminates “conference call fatigue,” which often impacts knowledge retention.

“3-D positional stuff is like microwave ovens or a garage door opener,” he said. “You have to experience it to appreciate it. Once you have it, you never want to go back.”