By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-07-24 20:16:11 | Word Count: 664
Chatting with audio and video at the same time used to be a sci-fi dream that was years into the future or prohibitively expensive — and often both. Things have changed a lot in only a few short decades however and today, videoconferencing is a reality that many people take advantage of every day. Offering the ability to communicate in audio as well as video, such tools have become an integral part of business and commerce in the 21st Century.
One of the most important benefits of videoconferencing is that it allows people from different places to communicate with each other just as easily as if they were in the same room. One application could be as simple as two people in separate offices conversing with one another, in a scenario known as “point-to-point” communication. In videoconferences involving several people from different places, the arrangement is referred to as “multi-point” communication. With either method, participants in the videoconference can share documents, show on-screen data, and physical whiteboards. The opportunities for up-to-date and real-time communication are therefore increased, regardless of the physical location of the participants.
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Videoconferencing relies in large part on the digital compression of audio and video streams. The process is done in real-time, using either a hardware or software device called a coder/decoder or codec. These devices compress data up to 1/500 of its original size, making it a lot easier to transmit over the Internet. Aside from the codec, you will also need the following for videoconferencing:
- A video camera or webcam
- A computer monitor, TV or projector
- Microphones
- Source of audio
- Speakers
- Data transfer network, which could be a telephone network, LAN or the Internet
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