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The History And Background Of Video Conferencing
By Tim Gorman
Videoconferencing in its first forms has been around a lot longer than you might imagine. In 1964, a new device called the Picturephone was demonstrated at the World's Fair in New York. Even then it wasn't completely new - the idea of joining video and voice was first trailed in 1956 by AT&T. This was a huge leap forward - instead of just hearing a person's voice, you could see them as well. And so videoconferencing began. It would be a lot more years before it reached the incredible heights it has today - now large groups of people can communicate across the world, whether in boardrooms or hospitals, and the flow of data, ideas and visual presentations can happen instantaneously.
It was 1970 before a commercial version of the Picturephone service was put into service in downtown Pittsburgh. AT&T executives were confident that in just ten years, there would be more than a million Picturephones in use. However they reckoned without the cost. At more than $160 a month, the Picturephone might still be affordable to some businesses, but it was out of reach of the average person. Add to that the fact that the equipment was bulky, difficult to use, and the picture was so tiny that it could hardly be seen, and it's not surprising that the Picturephone wasn't a roaring success.
But the seed had been planted, and by the 1980s, other companies were working on developing a video conferencing product. 1982 saw the release of the first videoconferencing system from Compression Labs. It was also huge, and took up an enormous amount of resources, which could trip 15 amp circuit breakers. With a price tag of $250,000, it was definitely outside the reach of most businesses, let alone the fact that using a connection cost $1,000 per hour. Still, it was the only working videoconferencing system on the market.
It would be four more years before PictureTel, in Delaware, launched an opposition product. It was substantially cheaper, at only $80,000 for the system and $100 an hour for lines. The race had begun. In 1991 PictureTel joined with IBM to introduce a cheaper version, with the pictures being sent in black and white. This certainly reduced costs, but still not to a level that most businesses were willing to pay. The big leap forward was that this system was PC based, and video conferencing was finally on track to be widely available. It was still pricey, at $20,000 for the system and $30 an hour. The other drawback was that you also still needed to use a conference room specially equipped for videoconferencing. This meant the participants had to relocate to the videoconferencing room, and also had to pay to use the facilities.
1992 was the year when videoconferencing got caught up in the technology boom and an affordable option for the masses started to become reality. AT&T introduced their new Videophone, which only cost $1,500. Still expensive for the general public, but business was definitely starting to get interested. Next came Macintosh, with their CU-SeeMe system for the personal computer. Initially it didn't have audio, but the video component was excellent. In 1993 they added multipoint capability, and by 1994 it was a true videoconferencing with audio and video.
Unfortunately it was only accessible to Mac users, but developers worked hard until they came up with a Windows compatible version. Early versions didn't have audio, but by August 1995 Cu-SeeMe was available for Windows with full audio and video functionality. This was hugely important, because now someone could talk to another person anywhere in the world, and yet still be sitting in their own office or home. Now that the benchmark had been set, more high-tech companies joined the race and videoconferencing software and equipment options expanded. Microsoft joined in 1996, with their NetMeeting product, and now videoconferencing was basically available to anyone with a home computer.
In 1996, too, VocalTec Surf&Call was released, which was the first web to phone plug-in. And by 2000, Samsung had developed the MPEG-4 streaming 3G video cell phone. By streaming the media, it can be read, heard and viewed the instant it's being delivered. It's now possible to videoconference anywhere in the world for as little as $12 a month and the cost of a good phone. Industry giants like Yahoo and MSN have gone one step further and made the service free.
If you're looking for ways to get 100% free video conference calling then try visiting BestConferenceCallingServices.com located at http://www.bestconferencecallingservices.com for a variety of money saving deals on audio, video and web conference calling.
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