Videoconference

History

Videoconferencing uses telecommunications of audio and video to bring people at different sites together for a meeting. This can be as simple as a conversation between two people in private offices (point-to-point) or involve several sites (multi-point) with more than one person in large rooms at different sites. Besides the audio and visual transmission of people, videoconferencing can be used to share documents, computer-displayed information, and whiteboards.

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.

This technique was very expensive, though, and could not be used for more mundane applications, such as telemedicine, distance education, business meetings, and so on, 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.

Technology

The core technology used in a videoteleconference (VTC) system is digital compression of audio and video streams in real time. The hardware or software that performs compression is called 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 labelled packets, which are then transmitted through a digital network of some kind (usually ISDN or IP). The use of audio modems in the transmission line allow for the use of POTS, or the Plain Old Telephone System, in some low-speed applications, such as videotelephony, because they convert the digital pulses to/from analog waves in the audio spectrum range.

The other components required for a VTC system include:

• Video input : video camera or webcam
• Video output: computer monitor , television or projector
• Audio input: microphones
• Audio output: usually loudspeakers associated with the display device or telephone
• Data transfer: analog or digital telephone network, LAN or Internet

There are basically two kinds of VTC systems:

1. Dedicated systems have all required components packaged into a single piece of equipment, usually a console with a high quality remote controlled video camera. These cameras can be controlled at a distance to pan left and right, tilt up and down, and zoom. They became known as PTZ cameras. The console contains all electrical interfaces, the control computer, and the software or hardware-based codec. Omnidirectional microphones are connected to the console, as well as a TV monitor with loudspeakers and/or a video projector. There are several types of dedicated VTC devices:
   1. Large group VTC are non-portable, large, more expensive devices used for large rooms and auditoriums.
   2. Small group VTC are non-portable or portable, smaller, less expensive devices used for small meeting rooms.
   3. Individual VTC are usually portable devices, meant for single users, have fixed cameras, microphones and loudspeakers integrated into the console.
2. Desktop systems are add-ons (hardware boards, usually) to normal PCs, transforming them into VTC devices. A range of different cameras and microphones can be used with the board, which contains the necessary codec and transmission interfaces. Most of the desktops systems work with the H.323 standard. Videoconferences carried out via dispersed PCs are also known as e-meetings.

Echo cancellation

A fundamental feature of professional VTC systems is acoustic echo cancellation (AEC). AEC is an algorithm which is able to detect when sounds or utterances reenter the audio input of the VTC codec, which came from the audio output of the same system, after some time delay. If unchecked, this can lead to several problems including 1) the remote party hearing their own voice coming back at them (usually significantly delayed) 2) strong reverberation, rendering the voice channel useless as it becomes hard to understand and 3) howling created by feedback. Echo cancellation is a processor-intensive task that usually works over a narrow range of sound delays.

Multipoint videoconferencing

Simultaneous videoconferencing among three or more remote points is possible by means of a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU). This is a bridge that interconnects calls from several sources (in a similar way to the audio conference call). 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 ISDN-based videoconferencing. There are MCUs which are pure software, and others which are a combination of hardware and software. An MCU is characterised according to the number of simultaneous calls it can handle, its ability to conduct transposing of data rates and protocols, and features such as Continuous Presence, in which multiple parties can be seen onscreen at once.

MCUs can be stand-alone hardware devices, or they can be embedded into dedicated VTC units.

Some systems are capable of multipoint conferencing with no MCU, stand-alone, embedded or otherwise. These use a standards-based H.323 technique known as "decentralized multipoint", where each 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 technique are that the video and audio will generally be of higher quality 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 quality comes at the expense of some increased network bandwidth, because every station must transmit to every other station directly.

Issues

Some observers argue that two outstanding issues are preventing videoconferencing from becoming a standard form of communication, despite the ubiquity of videoconferencing-capable systems. These issues are:

1. Eye Contact: It is known that eye contact plays a large role in conversational turn-taking, perceived attention and intent, and other aspects of group communication.^[3] While traditional telephone conversations give no eye contact cues, videoconferencing systems are arguably worse in that they provide an incorrect impression that the remote interlocutor is avoiding eye contact. This issue is being addressed through research that generates a synthetic image with eye contact using stereo reconstruction.^[4]
2. Appearance Consciousness: A second problem with videoconferencing is that one is literally on camera, with the video stream possibly even being recorded. The burden of presenting an acceptable on-screen appearance is not present in audio-only communication. Early studies by Alphonse Chapanis found that the addition of video actually impaired communication, possibly because of the consciousness of being on camera.

The issue of eye-contact may be solved with advancing technology, and presumably the issue of appearance consciousness will fade as people become accustomed to videoconferencing.

Standards

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) (formerly: Consultative Committee on International Telegraphy and Telephony (CCITT)) has three umbrellas of standards for VTC.

1. ITU H.320 is known as the standard for public switched telephone networks (PSTN) or VTC over integrated services digital networks (ISDN) basic rate interface (BRI) or primary rate interface (PRI). H.320 is also used on dedicated networks such as T1 and satellite-based networks;
2. ITU H.323 is known as a standard for transporting multimedia applications over LANs. This same standard also applies to older implementations of voice over IP VoIP. In recent years, the IETF's Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) has gained considerable momentum in practice for these two services.;
3. ITU H.324 is the standard for transmission over POTS, or audio telephony networks. 3G-324M is a 3GPP implementation for video call on 3G mobile phones.

In recent years, IP based videoconferencing has emerged as a common communications interface and standard provided by VTC manufacturers in their traditional ISDN-based systems. Business, government and military organizations still predominantly use H.320 and ISDN VTC. Though, due to the price point and proliferation of the Internet, and broadband in particular, there has been a strong spurt of growth and use of H.323, IP VTC. H.323 has the advantage that it is accessible to anyone with a high speed Internet connection, such as DSL.

In addition, an attractive factor for IP VTC is that it is easier to set-up for use with a live VTC call along with web conferencing for use in data collaboration. These combined technologies enable users to have a much richer multimedia environment for live meetings, collaboration and presentations.

Impact on the general public

High speed Internet connectivity has become more widely available at a reasonable cost and the cost of video capture and display technology has decreased. Consequently personal video teleconference systems based on a webcam, personal computer system, software compression and broadband Internet connectivity have become affordable for the general public. Also, the hardware used for this technology has continued to improve in quality, and prices have dropped dramatically. The availability of freeware (often as part of chat programs) has made software based videoconferencing accessible to many.

For many years, futurists have envisioned a future where telephone conversations will take place as actual face-to-face encounters with video as well as audio. Sometimes it is simply not possible or practical to have a face-to-face meeting with two or more people. Sometimes a telephone conversation or conference call is adequate. Other times, an email exchange is adequate.

Videoconferencing adds another possible alternative, and can be considered when:

• a live conversation is needed;
• visual information is an important component of the conversation;

Deaf and hard of hearing individuals have a particular interest in the development of affordable high-quality videoconferencing as a means of communicating with each other in sign language. Unlike Video Relay Service, which is intended to support communication between a caller using sign language and another party using spoken language, videoconferencing can be used between two signers.

Mass adoption and use of video conferencing is still relatively low, with the following often claimed as causes:

• Complexity of systems. Most users are not technical and want a simple interface. In hardware systems an unplugged cord or a flat battery in a remote control is seen as failure, contributing to perceived unreliability which drives users back to traditional meetings. Successful systems are backed by support teams who can pro-actively support and provide fast assistance when required.
• Perceived lack of interoperability: not all systems can readily interconnect, for example ISDN and IP systems require a bridge. Popular software solutions cannot easily connect to hardware systems. Some systems use different standards, features and qualities which can require additional configuration when connecting to dis-similar systems.
• Bandwidth and quality of service: In some countries it is difficult or expensive to get a high quality connection that is fast enough for good-quality video conferencing. Technologies such as ADSL have limited upload speeds and cannot upload and download simultaneously at full speed. As Internet speeds increase higher quality and high definition video conferencing will become more readily available.
• Expense of commercial systems - a well designed system requires a specially designed room and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fit out the room with codecs, integration equipment and furniture.

For these reasons many hardware systems are often used for internal corporate use only, as they are less likely to run into problems and lose a sale. An alternative is companies that hire out video conferencing equipped meeting rooms in cities around the world. Customers simply book the rooms and turn up for the meeting - everything else is arranged and support is readily available if anything should go wrong.

Confer & Inform Meeting does not offer video connections. Besides the tremendous bandwidth needs and the general resistance particpants have to being on camera, our goal was to provide reliable service at low cost to make web meetings available to all.

Web Meetings

Web meetings are used to conduct live meetings or presentations over the Internet. In a web meeting, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet. This can be either a downloaded application on each of the attendees computers or a web-based application where the attendees will simply enter a URL (website address) to enter the conference.

Confer & Inform Meeting uses the term Web Meeting for presentations benefiting from interactivity. Using a Web meeting requires particpants to download software, but allowsthem to share presentation and computer control. Web Seminar is used to describe non- interactive presentations.

A webinar is a specific type of web meeting. It is typically one-way, from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction, such as in a webcast. A webinar can be very collaborative and include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter. In some cases, the presenter may speak over a standard telephone line, pointing out information being presented on screen and the audience can respond over their own telephones, preferably a speaker phone. There are web conferencing technologies on the market that have incorporated the use of VoIP audio technology, to allow for a truly web-based communication.

In the early years of the Internet, the terms "web conferencing" was often used to describe a group discussion in a message board and therefore not live. The term has evolved to refer specifically to live or " synchronous" meetings.

Web Meeting Features

Other possible features of a web meeting include:

• Slide presentations (often created through PowerPoint)
• Live video (via webcam or digital video camera)
• VoIP (Real time audio communication through the computer via use of headphones and speakers)
• Web tours - where URL's, form data, cookies, scripts and session data can be pushed to other participants enabling them to be pushed though web based logons, clicks, etc. This type of feature works well when demonstrating websites where users themselves can also participate.
• Recording (for viewing at a later time by anyone using a unique web address)
• Whiteboard with annotation (allowing the presenter and/or attendees to highlight or mark items on the slide presentation. Or, simply make notes on a blank whiteboard.)
• Text chat (for live question and answer sessions)
• Polls and surveys (allows the presenter to conduct questions with multiple choice answers directed to the audience)
• Screen sharing/desktop sharing/application sharing (where participants can view anything the presenter currently has shown on their screen. Some screen sharing applications allow for remote desktop control, allowing participants to manipulate the presenters screen, although this is not widely used.)

Web conferencing is often sold as a service, hosted on a web server controlled by the vendor, either on a usage basis (cost per user per minute) or for a fixed fee (cost per "seat"). Some vendors make their conferencing software available as a licensed product, allowing organizations that make heavy use of conferencing to install the software on their own servers. Some web conferencing software is distributed free for hosting on the MC's server. There is also software available that is installed on the MC's computer and does not require server configuration software.

An important capability of web conferencing software is application sharing, the ability for one party in the conference to share an application (such as a web browser, spread sheet, etc.) from their desk top with every one else in the meeting and pass the control of the application to someone else in the meeting.

History of Web Conferencing

Real-time text chat facilities such as IRC appeared early in the internet's history. Web-based chat and instant messaging software appeared in the mid-1990s. In the late 1990s, the first true web conferencing capability became available and dozens of other web conferencing venues followed thereafter.

In May 1998 Eric R. Korb was first to use the term "webinar "(web-seminar) to brand the online meeting service for his company ComLinx, LLC. Korb received a registered trademark (Serial Number 75478683) by the USPTO on April 18, 2000. Korb successfully defended the mark several times, but widespread use of the mark without his permission flourished throughout the internet making it very difficult to monitor and defend. Korb eventually transferred ownership of the mark when the dot.com boom failed and ComLinx was forced to shut down in 2001 due to lack of funding. The mark has subsequently been abandoned.

The first commercial 100% computer base web-conference (webinar) product called StarLive was delivered by Starlight Networks in 1997 (acquired by Picturetel in 1998). StarLive combined multicast video (MPEG1 on Intranets along with RealVideo on the Internet with slides and chat and support tens of thousands of simultaneous users across different countries.

As of 2006, the market continued to expand as web conferencing became a more widely accepted alternative to face-to-face meetings requiring travel, and as a richer form of communication than voice-only conferences.

Standards

Web conferencing technologies were not standardized for many years, a significant factor in the lack of interoperability, platform dependence, security issues, cost and market segmentation. In 2003, the IETF established a working group to establish a standard for Web conferencing, called "Centralized Conferencing (xcon)". Mechanisms for privacy and security are important requirements for the resulting protocols.

The deliverables of xcon, listed as part of their charter include creating:

• A basic floor control protocol. This was published in 2006 as RFC 4582: Binary Floor Control Protocol (BFCP)
• A mechanism for membership and authorization control
• A mechanism to manipulate and describe media "mixing" or "topology" for multiple media types (audio, video, text)
• A mechanism for notification of conference related events/changes (for example a floor change)

CONFiance is an implementation of the XCON framework and BFCP licensed under the GPL and Academic Free License.

AbiTeq Confer & Inform Web Meeting

Meeting uses TurboMeeting software coupled to an R-Hub Multi-Function Web Conferencing Appliance to provide users with reliable, secure, convenient and affordable web meeting service.

• Ease-of-use
• Affordability
• Security
• Control
• Reliability

R-HUB's breakthrough Universal Attendance technology enables users of any platform to join meetings by using a browser and requiring no download.

Universal Attendance

If you have used web meetings before, you likely would experience some of your attendees failing to join in your conference and the whole conference falls apart. Let alone the frustration and time taken by your attendees to download and install meeting client software. There are many reasons for the failure: Computer locked down by corporate IT policy that prevents installation of any software Blocked by firewall and proxy servers Blocked by anti-virus and anti-spy software Unsupported platforms like Mac, Linux, Unix, etc. Wrong or missing Java Virtual Machine or Flash installation

Patent Pending TurboMeeting Universal Attendance*

100% attendance by a browser only has been demanded since day one when web conferencing started. Today, TurboMeeting offers the first truly universal attendance web conferencing solution.

• Your meeting attendees do not need to download any kind of software, no Java Applet, no Flash and no documents.
• As long your attendees can view Google/Yahoo maps with their browsers from any of the platforms: Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac, Linux, Unix and iPhone, they can join your meetings and see your presentation.
• Joining a meeting is as easy as typing a URL and as fast as 5 seconds depending on your attendees' Internet connection speed.

Confer & Inform Meeting's TurboMeeting supports much more sophisticated and more powerful meeting types other than the no-download meeting type. Those web meeting types require meeting attendees to download and install TurboMeeting.

The Impromptu Web Meeting

AbiTeq Confer & Inform Meeting may be the first service to offer ad-hoc web meetings for two colleagues discussing an issue over the phone. One of these people needs only to have subscribed to a two person unlimited meeting plan for a reasonable price affordable to nearly anyone. He/she can start a reliable and convenient web meeting in less than 30 seconds. Show a document, drawing, web site or other application to the colleague and continue on with the discussion. When the colleague desires, the presentation control can be passed with one click, so their computer application is visible.

Confer & Inform delivers the web meeting as a useful tool for everyone.