Most businesses that install 3CX for telephony discover the video conferencing afterwards. It is included in the licence, it works in a browser, and for the internal meetings and customer calls that make up most of a working week it does the job well. This article explains how it works, what it needs from a meeting room, and where its limits are.
How 3CX video works
3CX video conferencing is built on WebRTC. A meeting is a link. Internal users start one from the web client or the mobile app; external participants click the link and join in Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox with nothing to install. Audio, video, screen sharing, a shared whiteboard, polls, chat and recording are included. Meetings can be scheduled from the 3CX client or directly from Outlook and Google Calendar, and dial-in by phone is available for participants who are on the road.
What it is good for
- Internal meetings – stand-ups, reviews and one-to-ones, where the participants are already 3CX users and the meeting starts from the same client they use for calls.
- Customer and supplier calls – a sales or support conversation that starts as a phone call or a website chat can be escalated to video in the same session.
- Remote support and training – screen sharing and remote control let an IT team or a trainer take over a participant’s screen with permission.
- Webinars – up to the participant limit of your licence edition, with presenter controls and recording.
Setting up a meeting room
3CX video in a meeting room is usually a PC or a small-form-factor unit running the web client, connected to a display, a camera and a speakerphone or soundbar. The choice of peripherals decides the experience far more than the software does:
- Camera – a wide-angle 4K camera with auto-framing for a small room; a PTZ camera for a boardroom where the speaker moves. Nearity and Yealink both make suitable USB models that Zen stocks.
- Audio – a USB speakerphone for a huddle room; a soundbar or a ceiling microphone array for a larger room. Echo cancellation and beam-forming are what stop remote participants hearing the room as a bathroom.
- Display – any HDMI display works; an interactive display from OneScreen or eZon adds whiteboarding and touch control.
- Network – a wired connection for the room PC, and QoS that prioritises real-time traffic on the firewall.
3CX or a dedicated platform?
Be honest about the use case. If your organisation lives in Microsoft Teams or Zoom for collaboration with external companies that also live there, 3CX video will not replace them, and 3CX can integrate with Teams for calling instead. If your video use is mostly internal, or with customers and suppliers who join by link, 3CX video removes a subscription and keeps everything in one client. Many companies run both: 3CX for calling, queues and quick video, and a collaboration suite for document-centric work.
Security and privacy
Meetings are encrypted in transit, links can be protected with a PIN, and hosts control who can share screens or unmute. If you self-host 3CX in a UAE cloud region or on-premises, meeting traffic and recordings stay within your environment, which simplifies compliance conversations for regulated sectors.
Practical advice from deployments
Three things come up repeatedly. First, test the room from the far end – join from a laptop outside the office and listen; that is what your customers hear. Second, standardise the room kit across the company so support is simple. Third, train the people who run meetings, not just IT; a two-minute walkthrough of screen sharing and mute controls prevents most complaints.
Where Zen fits in
Zen distributes 3CX and the room hardware that goes with it – Yealink and Nearity cameras and audio, OneScreen and eZon interactive displays – for the UAE and GCC. We can specify a room kit for a given room size and budget, supply it from Dubai stock and support it after installation. See the 3CX page or the full portfolio.