Video Conferencing Essay -- Communication Essays

Video Conferencing This essay will be about a communication medium called Video Conferencing (not to be confused with Web conferencing). I will explain what video conferencing is, how it works, potential uses, future impact with regards to technology as well as advantages/disadvantages with video conferencing. According to West, Donald (august 2003) â€Å"Videoconferencing Whit Paper† Videoconferencing is two way video and sound between two or more locations using video, audio and high speed digital communication connections. The development of videoconferencing started way back in 1956 with AT&T building the first picture phone test system, and it gradually evolved and in 1991 the first video/audio conference was held (HREF1). By means of video conferencing, images are digital, bits or pixel is used to represent the image. Video is accomplished by sending a sequence of digital frames, this is then received, decoded and shown at the receiving end. Both parties of the conference receive and transmit streams of digital images and voice at the same time. Common features of video conferencing systems are camera, visual display, audio system, user interface and control system, network connection and compression. The critical component in this process is the compression, referred to as CODEC. This device converts images to a digital format for transmission and decodes the received image for display. Displays are normally standard television receivers, LCD or video projectors. The use of video conferencing as an essential part of business communication has increased dramatically in recent years. The growth is expected to continue unabated according to research firm Frost & Sullivan Inc, going from 1.9 billion U.S to 5.4 billion U... ... It has been limited by the lack of bandwidth, but as that is continuously growing streaming is definitely something to be reckoned with in the near future. The most interesting technology would be Teleportec, to be in two places at once sounds very fascinating, projecting a digital image of the user to appear in a room. Although it sounds more like science-fiction, it is vaguely in use today, even though it is very expensive it would be very interesting to se how this technology develops in the future. References Videoconferencing White Paper - August 2003 by West, Donald Video conferencing report by Taylor, Moira (HREF1) http://myhome.hanafos.com/~soonjp/vchx.html (HREF2) http://www.uc.edu/ucitnow/winter_01/vctech.htm Electronic Engineering Times. David Lammers Manhasset: Apr 29, 2002. , Iss. 1216; pg. 46, 2 pgs http://gateway.proquest.com: