Now one leading academic has highlighted just how effective video communication can be, after carrying out research involving 1,855 participants across 12 different studies. Chia-Jung Tsay has been exploring the power of dynamic visual cues, like gestures, facial expressions and body language, during business pitches. And it appears frozen frames and weak connections don’t really matter. “Even when Zoom reduces the amount of exposure, or level of visual richness, you can still convey the right types of information,” said Tsay, associate professor at the UK’s UCL School of Management. Chia-Jung Tsay, associate professor at UCL School of Management. Some of her research into entrepreneurial pitch competitions involved downgrading the video quality to such an extent that the audio was muted, or participants could only be seen as outlines — an effect she likens to the dancing silhouettes in the early Apple iPod commercials.