Learn A Lot More About LifeSize Video Conferencing Technologies A video conference or life size video conference (also known as a video teleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which enable two or much more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. The core technologies used in a life size video conference program is digital compression of audio and video streams in real time. The hardware or software that performs compression is referred to as a codec (coder/decoder). Compression rates of up to 1:500 can be achieved. The resulting digital stream of 1s and 0s is subdivided into labeled packets, which are then transmitted via a digital network of some type (usually ISDN or IP). The use of audio modems in the transmission line permit for the u se of POTS, or the Plain Old Telephone System, in some low-speed applications, such as video telephony, because they convert the digital pulses to/from analog w aves in the audio spectrum range. Multipoint Videoconferencing Simultaneous videoconferencing among three or much more remote points is achievable by means of a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU). This is a bridge that interconnects calls from several sources (in a comparable way to the audio conference cal l). All parties call the MCU unit, or the MCU unit can also call the parties which are going to participate, in sequence. There are MCU bridges for IP and ISDNbased videoconferencing. There are MCUs which are pure software program, and other people which are a combination of hardware and software program. An MCU is characterized according to the number of simultaneous calls it can deal with, its ability to conduct transposing of data rates and protocols, and features such as Continuous Presence, in which several parties can be seen onscreen at as soon a s. MCUs can be stand-alone hardware devices, or they can be embedded into dedicated videoconferencing units. Some systems are capable of multipoint conferencing with no MCU, stand-alone, embedded or otherwise. These use a standards-based H.323 method identified as "decentralized multipoint", where every station in a multipoint call exchanges video and audio directly with the other stations with no central "manager" or other bottleneck. The advantages of this method are that the video and audio will typically be of greater quality simply because they don't have to be relayed through a central point. Also, users can make ad-hoc multipoint calls
without any concern for the availability or control of an MCU. This added convenience and high quality comes at the expense of some increased network bandwidth, simply because each and every station must transmit to every other station directly. High speed Internet connectivity has become more widely accessible at a reasonable price and the price of video capture and display technology has decreased. Consequently, personal videoconferencing systems based on a web cam, personal computer program, software program compression and broadband Internet connectivity have become cost-effective to the general public. Also, the hardware utilized for this technologies has continued to enhance in high quality, and prices have dropped significantly. The availability of freeware (frequently as part of chat programs) has produced software based videoconferencing accessible to numerous. Life Size Video Conferencing is now becoming introduced to online networking web sites, in order to assist companies form profitable relationships swiftly and efficiently without having leaving their place of work. This has been leveraged b y banks to connect busy banking experts with clients in different locations using video banking technologies. Even though it already has proven its prospective value, research has shown that numerous employees do not use the video conference equipment since they are afraid that they will appear to be wasting time or searching for the easiest way if they use videoconferencing to improve customer and supplier relationships. This anxiety can be avoided if managers use the technology in front of their employees. Researchers discover that attendees of company and medical video conferences should work harder to interpret info delivered during a conference than they would if they attended face-to-face. They recommend that those coordinating video conferences make adjustments to procedures and equipment.