Contributors: Phyllis Wilson, Melisa Dillon, Brittney Treichel, Amanda Crawford, Hannah Karwal, Brittney Richeson and Tina DuPont
What is Video Conferencing?
A videoconference (also known as a video teleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It has also been called visual collaboration and is a type of groupware. It differs from videophone in that it is designed to serve a conference rather than individuals.
History
Simple analog videoconferences could be established as early as the invention of the television. Such videoconferencing systems consisted of two closed-circuit television systems connected via cable. During the first manned space flights, NASA used two radiofrequency (UHF or VHF) links, one in each direction. TV channels routinely use this kind of videoconferencing when reporting from distant locations, for instance. Then mobile links to satellites using special trucks became rather common.
Videoconferencing was first demonstrated in 1968.
This technique was very expensive, though, and could not be used for more mundane applications, such as telemedicine, distance education, business meetings, and particularly in long-distance applications.
Attempts at using normal telephony networks to transmit slow-scan video, such as the first systems developed by AT&T, failed mostly due to the poor picture quality and the lack of efficient video compression techniques. The greater 1 MHz bandwidth and 6 Mbit/s bit rate of Picturephone in the 1970s also did not cause the service to prosper.
It was only in the 1980s that digital telephony transmission networks became possible, such as ISDN, assuring a minimum bit rate (usually 128 kilobits/s) for compressed video and audio transmission. The first dedicated systems, such as those manufactured by pioneering VTC firms, like PictureTel, started to appear in the market as ISDN networks were expanding throughout the world.
Video teleconference systems throughout the 1990s rapidly evolved from highly expensive proprietary equipment, software and network requirements to standards based technology that is readily available to the general public at a reasonable cost. Finally, in the 1990s, IP (Internet Protocol) based videoconferencing became possible, and more efficient video compression technologies were developed, permitting desktop, or personal computer (PC)-based videoconferencing. In 1992 CU-SeeMe was developed at Cornell by Tim Dorcey et al., IVS was designed at INRIA, VTC arrived to the masses and free services, web plugins and software, such as NetMeeting, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, SightSpeed, Skype and others brought cheap, albeit low-quality, VTC.
Landmarks Events
1995 First public videoconference and peacecast between continent of North America and Africa. Demonstration of telepresence, audience interaction, virtual dancing, etc. Linked a technofair in San Francisco with a techno-rave and cyberdeli in Cape Town.
1998 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Nagano, Japan. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony simultaneously across five continents in real time.
Webcams
Web cameras are small cameras, (usually, though not always, video cameras) whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video conferencing application. The term webcam is also used to describe the low-resolution digital video cameras designed for such purposes, but which can also be used to record in a non-real-time fashion.
Web-accessible cameras involve a digital camera which uploads images to a web server, either continuously or at regular intervals. This may be achieved by a camera attached to a PC, or by dedicated hardware. Videoconferencing cameras typically take the form of a small camera connected directly to a PC. Analog cameras are also sometimes used (often of the sort used for closed-circuit television), connected to a video capture card and then directly or indirectly to the internet.
How To Use a Web Cam
As webcam capabilities have been added to instant messaging text chat services such as AOL Instant Messenger, one-to-one live video communication over the internet has now reached millions of mainstream PC users worldwide. Increased video quality has helped webcams encroach on traditional video conferencing systems. New features such as lighting, real-time enhancements (retouching, wrinkle smoothing and vertical stretch) can make users more comfortable, further increasing popularity. Features and performance vary between programs.
Some online video broadcasting sites have taken advantage of this technology to create internet television programs centered around two (or more) people "diavlogging" with each other from two different places. Among others, BloggingHeads.tv uses this technology to set up conversations between prominent journalists, scientists, bloggers, and philosophers.
Today Videoconferences are in general used to facilitate various types of meetings.
Meetings, Business
Facilitating attendance at meetings is one of the simplest yet most popular uses of videoconferencing. For meetings that already regularly take place and require face-to-face communication, videoconferencing can substitute for the actual physical presence of remote participants. This reduces travel costs as well as travel time and makes meeting attendance more convenient. It can also make meetings more likely to occur. Frequent and/or ad hoc meetings that might not have been scheduled due to travel costs and timing can be enabled via videoconferencing and enhance the sense of teamwork among people at different locations but working on the same project.
Videoconferencing provides remote participants with much of the face-to-face familiarity that comes with physical presence, including elements of facial expression, body language, and eye contact. If videoconferencing is readily available on individual desktops, the cohesive effects of this enhanced communication can be even greater. Collaborative work can then be enhanced further through the integration of videoconferencing with collaborative electronic tools (data transfer, shared whiteboards, and shared applications.)
Classrooms
A particularly exciting type of "meeting" that may be enhanced and expanded through the use of videoconferencing is classroom instruction. Certainly all of the factors listed above for furthering the success of videoconferencing within general meetings affect the classroom as well. In addition, the introduction of videoconferencing into the classroom means that at least some things about the nature of the instruction necessarily have to change.
Most importantly, use of videoconferencing in the classroom requires special attention to the comfort level, teaching style, and instructional techniques of the instructor. In the ideal world, preparation for the use of videoconferencing in the classroom would be minimal. However, today's reality dictates that there will have to be some adapting and learning on the part of instructors to use videoconferencing successfully for instruction.
Plan your classroom time to include interactive activities that call on remote participants to respond and become actively engaged in the learning process.
Contributions to Education
The most crucial contribution to education that video conferencing gives is that it allows students a source of two way communication. In addditon, it allows for teacher from all over the world to be brough to isolated areas. Students are able to communicate with students in other places that have diverse cultures and backgrounds. It allows students easy ways to communicate with one another to work on problems and projects without actually seeing each other. Another, interesting event that can occur while using video conferencing is that students can take virtual field trips. For instance, students can take a virtual field trip to the zoo, this will allows students that go to schools in low poverty areas the ability to explore the outside world.
Here are a few ways video conferencing can contribute to education:
- Teachers can keep in touch with students and other faculty members when away
- Guest speakers can be brought into the classroom
- Students can communicate with other students throughout the world
- Virtual feild trips
- Parent teacher conferences
- Sharing projects and books.
Benefits of Video Conferencing on students:
- Appeals to students with many different learning styles
- Allows many classrooms around the world to collaborate
- Increases students motivation to learn
- Students are able to improve their presentation and communication skills
- Students improve their research skills
IMConfrencing.com
- This site allows for people without a webcam to observe a video confrencing meeting taking place.
- There is a "chat" feature that allows those observing to ask questions or comment without being on video
- This site offers a split screen that has the capability of uploading presentations from powerpoint for the meeting participants to see
- The "share screen" tool allows for viewers to see the moderators desk top and anything he/she might be doing
- There is also a cool "opinion poll" feature that allows the moderator to create and distribute a poll with any question that collects and formats answers in a pie chart for all to see
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