History of Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is a telecommunication technology which allows two or more people to interact with each other by a two-way audio video transmission. A popular mode of interaction, it is used in various aspects of life. Today, video conferencing is used in business, education, health, administration and legal environment. From a medium of instruction in distance education to a medium to give testimony in court proceedings, this technology has become a prominent mode of communication all over the world. The biggest advantage of video conferencing is that it allows individuals or groups who are separated by any distance to interact easily, thus sparing the expenses which both sides would have incurred, had they met in person.

History of Video Conferencing

The history of video conferencing can be traced back to 1964, when a gadget known as the Picturephone was introduced at the World’s Fair in New York. Earlier, in 1956, the concept of bringing together voice (audio) and picture (video) was demonstrated by AT&T. The technology made it feasible for the caller to see the person whom he called while being in conversation. In 1970, AT&T introduced its commercial Picturephone service in Pittsburgh, and confidently proclaimed that they would reach out to a customer base of a million within a decade. Picturephone's high operating costs, more than $160.00 per month, turned out to be its biggest drawback. The bulky device was also very slow and difficult to operate. Even the picture screen was very small, and barely clear. Owing to all these drawbacks, the Picturephone wasn't able to live up to its expectations.

In 1982, Compression Labs launched their first video conferencing system. With a price tag of $250,000, the huge machine required enormous resources. The connection cost was also whopping $1,000 per hour. Though costly, it had an advantage of being the only video conferencing system till 1986. In 1986, a Massachusetts based firm called PictureTel launched a comparatively cheaper system priced at $80,000. Its connection cost was $100 per hour, which made it 10 times cheaper than its competitor. In 1991, PictureTel, in collaboration with IBM, introduced a cost-efficient black and white video conferencing system. The first PC based video conferencing system, it price was $20,000, while the connection changes were $30.00 per hour. All this while, video conferencing required a conference room well equipped with video conferencing equipment. Relocating to the video conferencing room and renting the same involved a high expenditure, thus making the technology quite expensive.

The following year saw the launch of AT&T Videophone, priced at $1,500, which was targeted for the home market. But a large section of the society was still unable to afford the new gadget. During the same time, Macintosh launched its own video conferencing system meant for the PC, called CU-SeeMe v0.1. It had one of the best video quality of that time, an advantage which was overshadowed by its major drawback, lack of audio capability. After Macintosh developed into a multi-point system in 1993, CU-SeeMe was upgraded to a full-fledged video conferencing system with quality audio backing. Though a remarkable piece of technology, it was only compatible to the Mac systems. In 1994, it was further upgraded to make it compatible to Windows, which was the then most popular operating system. But again like its first version, it lacked audio feature, which eventually came with the CU-SeeMe v0.66b1 in 1995.

Due to the major boom in the demand for video conferencing systems, many high tech companies joined the race to provide better systems at cheaper rates. In 1996, with the launch of Microsoft NetMeeting v20.0b2, video conferencing became a home affair. The year also marked the introduction of the first web to phone plugin, VocalTec Surf & Call. It became very popular in the business circuit owing to its ability to provide the website visitors with the facility of conducting business from any part of the world.

Nowadays, conference calls are a very common and important aspect of almost all businesses and organizations. Today, videoconferencing costs have come down to as low as $12.00 a month, wherein a user can use this facility to interact with anyone, anywhere in this world. Some messenger services have even made conferencing on the web free of cost. Information transfer has become faster and cheaper due to this technology, which allows two individuals to interact with each other, even though they are located in two different parts of the world. It has truly made the world a smaller place.