Affordability and convenience have never gone hand in hand with high-quality videoconferencing. You either install half a million dollars’ worth of equipment on a dedicated network connection, or have all your employees drive out to some hotel or conference center on the edge of town to rent the same gear for an afternoon. A true disrupter may have finally arrived in the world of videoconferencing. Vidyo, a New Jersey–based company, is the first to figure out how to create a high-quality videoconferencing environment using the computers and Web cams most companies already own. The Web-based subscription system works thanks to a new type of scalable video compression. Each participant receives the highest quality video their connection is capable of delivering. The fact that the service works over general-purpose IP networks dramatically reduces set-up and maintenance costs. Vidyo sells videoconference room equipment, but an employee can just as easily join a meeting via their laptop in the field. It was good enough to win Frost & Sullivan’s North American Conferencing & Collaboration Product of the Year for 2009.