The arrival of videoconferencing with its necessary software technology is seen as a major turning point in the communication distance. You do not have to travel thousands of kilometres, just to see your long lost friend living across the Pacific. In addition, it benefits not only personal but also of other applications communications. For the industry of the enterprise, it is now possible to interact with colleagues living across the world for meetings and major conferences. For the medical profession, patients can now be treated long distance in real time by a medical specialist without travel and lose a lot of time and effort.
To understand the capabilities of video conferencing, this article will focus its discussions in two parts: first, the overview of video conference with a brief discussion of its history and its same and second nature, hardware and software that is necessary to facilitate a successful video conference. The second part will also be dealing with free software that you can use for your video conferencing.
Video conferencing - an overview
As mentioned previously, video conferencing allows two people in a different location to see, hear and talk together in real time. It is composed of a set of interactive telecommunication equipment which is responsible for the output video in audio and real time bi-directional.
Video conferencing history began with the introduction of television. He began to use cameras in closed circuit which were linked by a cable. However, it did not become popular for costs (mainly on the wire and maintenance). In addition, it is not effective, especially when it is used for long distance such as the meetings of the company and of distance learning.
After the introduction and the broad development of Internet in the 1990s, the cost and ease of videoconferencing is within the reach of small and medium-sized enterprises. The hardware and software used for videoconferencing, long-distance communications are now more attractive and easier for everyone.
Free video conference software
The establishment of basic video conference is composed of a set of hardware and software. On the material, it includes a video input for capturing images in real time such as the web camera; video output for displaying captured image to the other end, such as monitor or television set; audio input as a PC compatible microphone. audio output as the speakers; and the support of transmission of data such as the Internet, or even Local or LAN network.
To interpret the data transmitted from one place to another, you must have specific software for video conferencing. There are commercial software available on the market, you can buy, if you like free stuff, you can use the Internet for some free software. Although the quality of the service is low compared to software available on the market, it can be used for your conferencing needs. Some of the free software available on the web are:
o Google talk
o Yahoo Messenger
o MSN Messenger
They all are palpable in downloadable form. All you need to do is search on the Internet and follow the procedures by directly downloading them on your PC. They are free, so you do not have to worry about all expenses related to their download.
Luke Garfield
Respected computer scientist and author.
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