Videoconferencing

See also: List of video telecommunication services and product brands

A Tandberg T3 high resolution telepresence room in use.

Indonesian and U.S. students participating in a educational videoconference.

A videoconference or video conference (also known as a videoteleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It has also been called 'visual collaboration' and is a type of groupware.

Videoconferencing differs from videophone calls in that it's designed to serve a conference rather than individuals. It is an intermediate form of videotelephony, first deployed commercially by AT&T during the early 1970s using their Picturephone technology.

History

See also: Videophone and Videotelephony

Videoconferencing first demonstrated in 1968.

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 meeting activities, 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 usually consisted of two closed-circuit television systems connected via coax cable or radio. An example of that was the German Reich Postzentralamt (Post Office) network set up in Berlin and several other cities from 1936 to 1940.

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 specially equipped trucks became rather common.

This technique was very expensive, though, and could not be used for applications such as telemedicine, distance education, and business meetings. 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. During his time, there was also research into other forms of digital video and audio communication. Many of these technologies, such as the Media space, are not as widely used today as videoconferencing but were still an important area of research. The first dedicated systems started to appear in the market as ISDN networks were expanding throughout the world. One of the first commercial Videoconferencing systems sold to companies came from PictureTel Corp. who had an Initial Public Offering in November, 1984. Videoconferencing systems throughout the 1990s rapidly evolved from very 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. In 1995 the First public videoconference and peacecast between the continents of North America and Africa took place, linking a technofair in San Francisco with a techno-rave and cyberdeli in Cape Town. At the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Nagano, Japan, Seiji Ozawa conducted the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony simultaneously across five continents in near-real time.

In the 2000s, videotelephony was popularized via free Internet services such as Skype and iChat, web plugins and on-line telecommunication programs which promoted low cost, albeit low-quality, videoconferencing to virtually every location with an Internet connection.

In May 2005, the first high definition video conferencing systems, produced by LifeSize Communications, were displayed at the Interop trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, able to provide 30 frames per second at a 1280 by 720 display resolution. Polycom introduced its first high definition video conferencing system to the market in 2006. Currently, high definition resolution has now become a standard feature, with most major suppliers in the videoconferencing market offering it.

In 2010, developments in Holland, have seen the standard laptop delivering High Definition Video Conferencing without any downloads. The system developed by Retnas Ltd, called 'BLINQ' uses Server based applications in the internet cloud driving a standard web browser. This is also very suitable for companies with private networks looking for cost effective solutions, without the need for special conference rooms or costly professional equipment installations.

Technology

Dual display: An older Polycom VSX 7000 system and camera used for videoconferencing, with two displays for simultaneous broadcast from separate locations.

File:Room220.jpg

Various components and the camera of a LifeSize Communications Room 220 high definition multipoint system.

The core technology used in a videoconferencing 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 labeled 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 videoconferencing system include:

• Video input : video camera or webcam
• Video output: computer monitor , television or projector
• Audio input: microphones, CD/DVD player, cassette player, or any other source of PreAmp audio outlet.
• 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 videoconferencing 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 videoconferencing devices:
   1. Large group videoconferencing are non-portable, large, more expensive devices used for large rooms and auditoriums.
   2. Small group videoconferencing are non-portable or portable, smaller, less expensive devices used for small meeting rooms.
   3. Individual videoconferencing 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 videoconferencing 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.

Conferencing layers

The components within a Conferencing System can be divided up into several different layers: User Interface, Conference Control, Control or Signal Plane and Media Plane.

Video Conferencing User Interfaces could either be graphical or voice responsive. Many of us have encountered both types of interfaces, normally we encounter graphical interfaces on the computer or television, and Voice Responsive we normally get on the phone, where we are told to select a number of choices by either saying it or pressing a number. User interfaces for conferencing have a number of different uses; it could be used for scheduling, setup, and making the call. Through the User Interface the administrator is able to control the other three layers of the system.

Conference Control performs resource allocation, management and routing. This layer along with the User Interface creates meetings (scheduled or unscheduled) or adds and removes participants from a conference.

Control (Signaling) Plane contains the stacks that signal different endpoints to create a call and/or a conference. Signals can be, but aren’t limited to, H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Protocols. These signals control incoming and outgoing connections as well as session parameters.

The Media Plane controls the audio and video mixing and streaming. This layer manages Real-Time Transport Protocols, User Datagram Packets (UDP) and Real-Time Transport Control Protocols (RTCP). The RTP and UDP normally carry information such the payload type which is the type of codec, frame rate, video size and many others. RTCP on the other hand acts as a quality control Protocol for detecting errors during streaming.

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 on-screen at once. MCUs can be stand-alone hardware devices, or they can be embedded into dedicated videoconferencing units.

The MCU consists of two logical components:

1. A single multipoint controller (MC), and
2. Multipoint Processors (MP), sometimes referred to as the mixer.

The MC controls the conferencing while it is active on the signaling plane, which is simply where the system manages conferencing creation, endpoint signaling and in-conferencing controls. This component negotiates parameters with every endpoint in the network and controls conferencing resources While the MC controls resources and signaling negotiations, the MP operates on the media plane and receives media from each endpoint. The MP generates output streams from each endpoint and redirects the information to other endpoints in the conference.

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.

Videoconferencing modes

Videoconferencing systems have several common operating modes that are used:

1. Voice-Activated Switch (VAS);
2. Continuous Presence.

In VAS mode, the MCU switches which endpoint can be seen by the other endpoints by the levels of one’s voice. If there are four people in a conference, the only one that will be seen in the conference is the site which is talking; the location with the loudest voice will be seen by the other participants.

Continuous Presence mode display multiple participants at the same time. The MP in this mode puts together the streams from the different endpoints and puts them all together into a single video image. In this mode, the MCU normally sends the same type of images to all participants. Typically these types of images are called “layouts” and can vary depending on the number of participants in a conference.

Echo cancellation

A fundamental feature of professional videoconferencing systems is Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC). Echo can be defined as the reflected source wave interference with new wave created by source. AEC is an algorithm which is able to detect when sounds or utterances reenter the audio input of the videoconferencing 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.

Problems

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

1. Eye Contact: Eye contact plays a large role in conversational turn-taking, perceived attention and intent, and other aspects of group communication. While traditional telephone conversations give no eye contact cues, many videoconferencing systems are arguably worse in that they provide an incorrect impression that the remote interlocutor is avoiding eye contact. Some telepresence systems have cameras located in the screens that reduce the amount of parallax observed by the users. This issue is also being addressed through research that generates a synthetic image with eye contact using stereo reconstruction.
   Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, owns a patent for eye-to-eye videoconferencing using rear projection screens with the video camera behind it, evolved from a 1960s U.S. military system that provided videoconferencing services between the White House and various other government and military facilities. This technique eliminates the need for special cameras or image processing.
   
2. Appearance Consciousness: A second psychological problem with videoconferencing is being 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.
   
3. Signal latency: The information transport of digital signals in many steps need time. In a telecommunicated conversation, an increased latency larger than about 150-300ms becomes noticeable and is soon observed as unnatural and distracting. Therefore, next to a stable large bandwidth, a small total round-trip time is another major technical requirement for the communication channel for interactive videoconferencing.

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 Tandberg E20 is an example of a SIP-only device. Such devices need to route calls through a Video Communication Server to be able to reach H.323 systems, a process known as "interworking".

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

ITU H.320 is known as the standard for public switched telephone networks (PSTN) or videoconferencing over integrated services digital networks (it is accessible to anyone with a high speed Internet connection, such as DSL).

H.264 SVC (Scalable Video Coding) is a compression standard that enables video conferencing systems to achieve highly error resilient IP video transmission over the public Internet without quality of service enhanced lines. This standard has enabled wide scale deployment of high definition desktop video conferencing and made possible new architectures which reduce latency between transmitting source and receiver, resulting in fluid communication without pauses.

In addition, an attractive factor for IP videoconferencing is that it is easier to set-up for use with a live videoconferencing 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.

The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a non-profit alliance between communications vendors, launched on May 19, 2010. The organization's vision is to maximize the interoperability of UC based on existing standards. Founding members of UCIF include HP, Microsoft, Polycom, Logitech/LifeSize Communications and Juniper Networks.

ITU V.80: videoconferencing is generally compatibilized with H.324 standard point-to-point video telephony over regular phone lines.

Social and institutional impact

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 videoconferencing systems based on a webcam, personal computer system, software compression and broadband Internet connectivity have become affordable to 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 over a century, 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 face-to-face meetings with two or more people. Sometimes a telephone conversation or conference call is adequate. Other times, an e-mail exchanges are adequate. However, videoconferencing adds another possible alternative, and can be considered when:

• a live conversation is needed;
• visual information is an important component of the conversation;
• the parties of the conversation can't physically come to the same location; or
• the expense or time of travel is a consideration.

Deaf, hard-of-hearing and mute 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 videoconferencing 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 gateway. 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.
• Participants being self-conscious about being on camera, especially new users and older generations.
• Lack of eye contact (as mentioned in Problems)

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 videoconferencing 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.

Impact on sign language communications

Video Interpreter sign used at VRS/VRI service locations.

Main articles: Video Relay Service, a telecommunication service for deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-impaired (mute) individuals communicating with hearing persons at a different location, and Video Remote Interpreting, used where deaf/hard-of-hearing/mute persons are in the same location as their hearing parties

A Video Interpreter sign used at locations offering VRS or VRI services.

A video relay service (VRS), also sometimes known as a video interpreting service (VIS), is a video telecommunication service that allows deaf, hard-of-hearing, and speech-impaired (D-HOH-SI) individuals to communicate over video telephones and similar technologies with hearing people in real-time, via a sign language interpreter.

A similar video interpreting service called video remote interpreting (VRI) is conducted through a different organization often called a "Video Interpreting Service Provider" (VISP).

VRS is a newer form of telecommunication service to the D-HOH-SI community, which had, in the United States, started earlier in 1974 using a simpler non-video technology called telecommunications relay service, also known as "TRS", or simply as "relay service".

VRS services have become well developed nationally in Sweden since 1997 and also in the United States since 2003. With the exception of Sweden, VRS has been provided in Europe for only a few years since the mid-2000s, and as of 2010 has not been made available in many European Union countries, with most European countries still lacking the legislation or the financing for large-scale VRS services, and to provide the necessary telecommunication equipment to deaf users. France, Germany and the Nordic countries are among the other leaders in Europe, while the United States is another world leader in the provisioning of VRS services.

Telecommunications-facilitated signing

One of the first demonstrations of the ability for telecommunications to help sign language users communicate with each other occurred when AT&T's videophone (trademarked as the "Picturephone") was introduced to the public at the 1964 New York World's Fair –two deaf users were able to communicate freely with each other between the fair and another city. Various universities and other organizations, including British Telecom's Martlesham facility, have also conducted extensive research on signing via videotelephony. The use of sign language via videotelephony was hampered for many years due to the difficulty of its use over slow analogue copper phone lines, coupled with the high cost of better quality ISDN (data) phone lines. Those factors largely disappeared with the introduction of more efficient video codecs and the advent of lower cost high-speed ISDN data and IP (Internet) services in the 1990s.

21st century developments

Significant improvements in video call quality of service for the deaf occurred in the United States in 2003 when Sorenson Media Inc. (formerly Sorenson Vision Inc.), a video compression software coding company, developed its VP-100 model stand-alone videophone specifically for the deaf community. It was designed to output its video to the user's television in order to lower the cost of acquisition, and to offer remote control and a powerful video compression codec for unequaled video quality and ease of use with video relay services. Favourable reviews quickly led to its popular usage at educational facilities for the deaf, and from there to the greater deaf community.

Coupled with similar high-quality videophones introduced by other electronics manufacturers, the availability of high speed Internet, and sponsored video relay services authorized by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in 2002, VRS services for the deaf underwent rapid growth in that country.

Present-day usage

A deaf or hard-of-hearing person at his workplace using a VRS to communicate with a hearing person in London.

Using such video equipment, the deaf, hard-of-hearing, and speech-impaired can communicate between themselves and with hearing individuals using sign language. The United States and several other countries compensate companies to provide video relay service (VRS). Telecommunication equipment can be used to talk to others via a sign language interpreter, who uses a conventional telephone at the same time to communicate with the deaf person's party. Video equipment is also used to do on-site sign language translation via video remote interpreting (VRI). The relative low cost and widespread availability of 3G mobile phone technology with video calling capabilities have given deaf and speech-impaired users a greater ability to communicate with the same ease as others. Some wireless operators have even started free sign language gateways.

Sign language interpretation services via VRS or by VRI are useful in the present-day where one of the parties is deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech-impaired (mute). In such cases the interpretation flow is normally within the same principal language, such as French Sign Language (LSF) to spoken French, Spanish Sign Language (LSE) to spoken Spanish, Swedish Sign Language (SSL) to spoken Swedish, German Sign Language (DGS) to spoken German, British Sign Language (BSL) to spoken English, and American Sign Language (ASL) also to spoken English (since BSL and ASL are completely distinct to each other), and so on.

Sign language interpreting involves considerable effort on the part of the interpreter, since sign languages are distinct natural languages with their own construction, semantics and syntax, different from the aural version of the same principal language.

Multilingual sign language interpreters, who can also translate as well across principal languages (such as from spoken Spanish, to spoken English, to ASL and vice versa), are also available, albeit less frequently.

With video interpreting, sign language interpreters work remotely with live video and audio feeds, so that the interpreter can see the signing party, and converse with the hearing–speaking party, and vice versa. Much like telephone interpreting, video interpreting can be used for situations in which no on-site interpreters are available. However, video interpreting cannot be used for situations in which all parties are speaking via telephone alone. VRS and VRI interpretation requires all parties to have the necessary equipment. Some advanced equipment enables interpreters to control the video camera remotely, in order to zoom in and out or to point the camera toward the party that is signing.

Further information: Language interpretation § Sign language

Interpreter working conditions

Unfavorable experiences of video relay interpreters have been documented in the United States and United Kingdom.

VRS deployment worldwide

Video relay service platform vendors

Video Relay Services is based on three main factors: sign language interpreters, call center management (customer service, call center management), and platform provider (mobile app, servers).

Canada

Canada's regulatory Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a policy order on July 21, 2009, requiring Canadian telecommunication, wireless service, and VoIP providers to implement IP-based text relay services by July 21, 2010, and also delaying a decision on the national provision of video relay services in both official languages (ASL & LSQ) for three years. According to deaf-community organizations Canada is lagging far behind its neighbour, the United States, with respect to video relay service for the deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind, and speech-impaired.

The Video Relay Service Trial Project, managed by Telus with Sorenson as the provider, ended on January 15, 2012. The trial project, which lasted for 18 months, was accessible for approximately 300 participants in BC and Alberta, and cost over $3 million (CAD).

The CRTC issued a policy order on April 22, 2014, deciding that VRS should be offered in Canada, starting as early as the fall of 2015, overseen and implemented by an independent VRS administrator (now the Canadian Administrator of Video Relay Service - CAV).

The CAV opened Video Relay Service in Canada - named SRV Canada VRS - for registration on September 28, 2016

At first, SRV Canada VRS offered 12 hour weekday service (6 am to 6 pm Pacific Time, and accordingly for subsequent time zones) and 8 hour weekend service (8 am to 4 pm Pacific Time). Hours of service were progressively increased, first on April 3, 2017 and then on July 3, 2017. On October 2, 24/7/365 service started.

Denmark

Denmark's video relay service is currently provided by TegnKom and 12K Studio (12K A/S).

TegnKom was created in 2005 as project in cooperation with AMC Nord (Aarhus Municipality), and only offered to deaf people at their workplace. The service can only be used on Windows-based units with use-license for the preinstalled software (MMX).

12K Studio was created and financed in 2011 by the nationwide sign language interpreter company, 12K A/S. The service can be used on Windows-, OS X/iOS-, Linux- and Android-based units (pc, mac and smartphones) with Skype and/or FaceTime app. 12K Studio service is primary offered to deaf people at their workplace, but can also be used in private for free.

France

There are five companies that provide VRS in France. On October 7th, 2016 the Law for a Digital Republic (Loi pour une République numérique) required telephone services to be accessible to deaf, hard-of-hearing, deafblind and speech-impaired persons, throgh the provision of VRS for sign language and cued speech, Text-relay and Speech-relay. The law splits the requirement among three key sectors: telecom carriers, large corporations, and public services. These companies cover the cost of service, making it free for end-users. The major carriers under the French Telecom Federation (FFTélécoms) begin providing services in October 2018 through the Rogervoice app. Large corporations and public services do not comply uniformly to the requirement, and those that do only provide partial compliance, usually relying on one of the 5 existing third-party providers (Sourdline, Deafi, Elioz, Acceo and Rogervoice).

Legal compliance remains a challenge in France, with all parties being globally dissatisfied. In November 2021 a report mandated by the government and carried out by civil parties including NGOs and associations, drafts a list of proposals to improve services. With the focus being on end-users choosing which provider they'd like to make calls with (rather than carriers or call centers imposing a provider). The recommendations carry similar traits to the United States' TRS program. As of 2024 the reform is still underway and is expected to be enacted by 2025.

Germany

Currently, Germany has two providers of VRS and VRI: they are TeSS and TeleSign. TeSS was created in 2005 by the consortium of Deutsche Gesellschaft der Hörgeschädigten (German Society of Hearing Impaired), Deutsche Telekom, Bundesnetzagenteur (federal infrastructure regulatory agency), and several other associations. Deutsche Telekom provided the initial funding for feasibility project that started in 2006.

The deaf and hard-of-hearing clients who use the VRS for private calls must enrol with TeSS and arrange the payment method. They pay 14 eurocents per minute for text relay and 14 eurocents for video relay. TeSS operates around the clock (24/7).

TeleSign provides the combined video relay and video remote interpreting service for the deaf and hard-of-hearing clients at work. The clients must apply to the integration agency for videophones and funds. The subscription is 220 euros per month with one point seven euro per minute of video relay service. The integration agency restricts the monthly call volume to 100 minutes per client. TeleSign operates from eight in the morning to six in the afternoon.

TeSS has added the work-related VRS/VRI as to countereffect the demand of integration agency to switch from TeleSign to "cheaper" TeSS service.

Despite the availability of VRS providers in Germany since 2006, the VRS usage is very extremely low as compared to other countries (no more than 3000 clients out of 80,000 deaf people). The integration agency is notorious for rejecting the applications many times on "cost benefit" factor: the agency claims that some deaf clients do not make sufficient VRS calls per month to justify the cost or that the nature of employment does not warrant the need for VRS and videophones. The deaf and hard-of-hearing callers who use VRS for private calls do not receive any form of reimbursement for the VRS calls.

The grassroot movement is gaining momentum in pushing for the free VRS in Germany to be subsidised by the government through the contribution from the telecom companies.

Norway

NAV, or the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration provides the national relay service for Norway. The service started in 2008, and its usage is increasing.

Spain

Video relay service exists in Spain since September 2009. The platform that provides this service is called Svisual. It allows Deaf people and Hard of Hearing people to communicate with hearing people. The service is provided in Spanish Sign Language and in Catalan Sign Language. Customers may download a free video software application to their phone or tablet, or access the Svisual web on their computer. The service works 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Sweden

Sweden was the first country in the world to implement a public VRS fully subsidized by the government. The service started as a pilot project in 1996 for ISDN videophones, but started to offer SIP-based services in 2003. Currently the Swedish video relay service is the largest in Europe with an average of 110,000 minutes every month.

There is one national service for the country, which is procured by bids to the National Telecom and Postal Agency (PTS) every four years.

The service is provided by Evantia Oy, with call centers in Örebro, Uppsala and Gotland.

Customers may download a video software application from the service provider, use a web-based application or access the service using Skype and third-party SIP software.

United Kingdom

A person at her workplace communicating with a hearing person via a Video Interpreter (VI) and use of sign language.

Significan't (UK) Ltd, a deaf and sign language led social enterprise, was the first to establish an IP video relay service in 2004 in London. The SignVideo Contact Centre utilizes qualified and registered sign language interpreters and processed its 10,000th video call in 2006. It secured national contracts with Access to Work and the National Health Services to provide video remote interpreting services throughout the United Kingdom. In 2010 Significan't introduced the iSignVideo range of videophones and a web-based video calling service, the SignVideo SV2. This service is compliant with the concept of Total Conversation.

contactSCOTLAND BSL is the national VRS service for Scotland and it is free-of-charge for its users. The service was procured by the Scottish Government and it complies with standards for Total Conversation.

United States

In the United States, VRS services have been regulated by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) since 2002.

Support for initial trials in Texas

Ed Bosson of the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) envisioned deaf people communicating with videophones more than 10 years before the FCC began reimbursing for it. Bosson contacted Mark Seeger of Sprint Relay and discussed the possibilities. Seeger then contacted Sprint technicians to see if the proposal was feasible, and then suggested that Bosson bring the idea to Texas' PUC.

It took Bosson considerable time to convince the Texas PUC and to enlist help from a lawyer in interpreting. He first convinced his supervisor and then, one-by-one, the PUC Commissioners that video relay should become a part of statewide Telecom Relay Service offering. Bosson was authorized to manage the first video relay service trials, and Sprint became the first service provider to conduct the Texas Video Relay Service tests. Bosson would later receive national awards from Smithsonian Computerworld and TDI for his work with VRS.

Initial Texas trials

In 1995, the first trial was run by Sprint in Austin and was limited to four public call centers.

The second trial occurred in 1997 and served ten cities in Texas. At that point, Sprint and Hanwave Interpreting partnered to provide service. Jon Hodson of Sorenson Communications worked with Ed Bosson during the early stages and provided video conferencing software during the VRS trial in Texas. (At this point the service was called "Video Relay Interpreting" or VRI, which a name that now refers to Video Remote Interpreting. Linda Nelson has been credited with changing the term from VRI to VRS.) Later, Hanwave Interpreting Service was bought by Communication Service for the Deaf, and Sprint expanded their relay subcontract to include VRS services in addition to the established TRS services.

In 2002, Washington and Texas tested a web based VRS, with CSDVRS providing VRS services via the Internet to Washingtonians.

Implementation across the United States

In 2000, VRS officially became available throughout the State of Texas. In 2002, the FCC allowed for the reimbursement of interstate VRS providers via an interstate TRS fund administration, making the United States the second country after Sweden to federally subsidize VRS nationwide.

United States VRS regulation

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the regulatory body for VRS in the United States. In addition to overseeing VRS, the FCC also oversees Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS), from which the VRS regulatory framework has evolved. The FCC oversees TRS and VRS as a result of their mandate in the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) to facilitate the provisions equal access to individuals with disabilities over the telephone network.

The Interstate Telecommunications Relay Fund was created by the FCC to fund TRS and its scope was expanded to include VRS. Funding for the TRS comes from state tax, through rate adjustments or surcharge on local telephone bills. The tax on revenue is set by the FCC yearly and has been steadily increasing as the number of VRS minutes continues to climb. For 2007 the tax is 7.2/100ths of a penny per dollar of revenue, up from 3.8/100th of a penny in 2000. The current revenue tax of .0072 is expected to generate $553 million against telecommunications industry revenue of $76.8 billion. The fund is managed by National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA), which also administers the much larger Universal Service Fund and publishes the reimbursement rates paid to all relay providers.

In addition to regulating the funding of VRS, the FCC regulates the standards that VRS companies and their employees must follow in handling calls. These regulations ensure that VRS calls are handled appropriately and ethically.

The U.S. FCC-issued rulings include:

• The time it takes an interpreter to answer an incoming VRS call. As of July 1, 2006, VRS providers must answer 80% of calls within two and a half minutes. Starting on January 1, 2007, VRS providers must answer 80% of calls within two minutes;
• as of January 1, 2006, all VRS providers are required to provide service 24 hours a day, seven days a week;
• reimbursement of VRS Video Mail: if a Hearing person calls a sign language user, but there is no answer, the VI signs a message and delivers it to the sign language user's e-mail, similar to an answering machine. Previously this service was not reimbursed and the cost was absorbed by the VRS provider;
• VRS providers are not permitted to "call back" when a customer hangs up before a VRS call is placed;
• VRS providers must only process calls that either originate or terminate in the US or its territories. For example, a person in Canada may use a VRS service in the United States to call a person in the United States, but not another person in Canada.

2005 U.S. FCC "Certification Program"

On December 12, 2005, the Commission released an order adopting new rules permitting carriers desiring to offer IP Relay and VRS services and receive payment from the Fund to seek certification as a provider eligible for compensation from the Fund. The record reflects that other entities that desire to offer VRS have been unable to join a certified state program.

(i) a description of the forms of TRS to be provided (i.e., VRS, IP Relay and/or IP CTS); (ii) a description of how the provider will meet all non-waived mandatory minimum standards applicable to each form of TRS offered; (iii) a description of the provider's procedures for ensuring compliance with all applicable TRS rules; (iv) a description of the provider's complaint procedures; (v) a narrative describing any areas in which the provider's service will differ from the applicable mandatory minimum standards; (vi) a narrative establishing that services that differ from the mandatory minimum standards do not violate applicable mandatory minimum standards; (vii) demonstration of status as a common carrier; and (viii) a statement that the provider will file annual compliance reports demonstrating continued compliance with these rules.

The rules further provide that after review of the submitted documentation, the Commission shall certify that the provider of IP Relay, VRS and IP CTS is eligible for compensation from the Fund if the Commission determines that the certification documentation:

(i) establishes that the provision of IP Relay, VRS and IP CTS ... will meet or exceed all non-waived operational, technical, and functional minimum standards contained in § 64.604; (ii) establishes that the IP Relay, VRS and IP CTS... provider makes available adequate procedures and remedies for ensuring compliance with the requirements of this section and the mandatory minimum standards contained in § 64.604, including that it makes available for its users informational materials on complaint procedures sufficient for users to know the proper procedures for filing complaints; and (iii) where its service differs from the mandatory minimum standards contained in § 64.604, the IP Relay, VRS and IP CTS ... provider establishes that its service does not violate applicable mandatory minimum standards.

As of 2009 there have been six providers certified becoming eligible for reimbursement from the TRS fund under the rules advocated for by Daryl Crouse and supported by others in the industry.

Issues in United States VRS administration

• Numbering standardization competing VRS providers have incompatible numbering schemes.
• Interconnection between the IP-based videophone network and the worldwide telephone network.
• VRS providers encounter difficulties routing 911 calls to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). When a VRS user dials 911, the call is first delivered to the VRS, as with any other call placed. However, when the VRS interpreter attempts to connect with the user's local PSAP, the call is instead connected to the PSAP that services the VRS provider's location. Additionally, the information displayed at the PSAP will be that of the VRS provider, not the VRS user.
  In order to route emergency calls and accurate information to the appropriate PSAP, VRS providers can send the call information to a national call-routing service. This service determines the appropriate local PSAP for the VRS user and delivers the VRS interpreter's 911 call accordingly. The VRS user can then communicate with the PSAP dispatcher via the VRS interpreter, in order to receive the appropriate emergency services. The European Union improves access to emergency services 112 for people with disabilities. The REACH112 project intends to implement a 12-month pilot in Sweden, UK, The Netherlands, France and Spain allowing disabled users to communicate at a distance with each other and directly with the emergency services.
• The VRS industry is under investigation by the FCC, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and FBI for alleged fraudulent activities meant to "manufacture" minutes. The FBI raided the offices of several VRS providers in June 2009 and consequently issued warrants and indictments for fraud. The FCC OIG office presented at the RID conference in Philadelphia alerting the field to the problem and urging all those involved to no longer tolerate and such activity by reporting it to the FCC.
• On November 19, 2009, the FBI unsealed indictments against 26 people charged with engaging in a scheme to steal millions of dollars from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Video Relay Service (VRS) program. Arrests were made the same day by FBI agents and Postal Inspectors in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Maryland and were the result of a joint FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and FCC Office of Inspector General (FCC-OIG) investigation into a nationwide scheme to defraud the FCC's VRS program.
  The indictments charged the owners, employees and contractors of several companies with engaging in a scheme to defraud the FCC's VRS program:
  • Viable Communications Inc., of Rockville, Maryland
  • Master Communications LLC, of Las Vegas
  • KL Communications LLC, of Phoenix
  • Mascom LLC of Austin, Texas
  • Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Interpreting Services Inc. (DHIS), of New York and New Jersey
  • Innovative Communication Services for the Deaf
  • Tamara Frankel, Robert Rubeck, Benjamin Pena of Arizona

Technical details

Typical calling procedure in the United States

Normally:

1. An individual who communicates by American Sign Language, or another mode of manual communication, such as Signing Exact English, contact signing (Pidgin Signed English), Cued Speech, or Linguistics of Visual English, uses a videophone or other video device, such as a webcam, to connect via broadband Internet to a Video Relay Service;
2. the caller is routed to a sign language interpreter, known as a Video Interpreter (VI). The VI is in front of a camera or videophone;
3. the video user gives the VI a voice number to dial, as well as any special dialing instructions;
4. the VI places the call and interprets as a neutral, non-participating third party. Anything that the audio user says is signed to the video user, and anything signed by the video user is spoken to the audio user;
5. once the call is over, the caller can make another call or hang up with the interpreter;
6. the company that provides the interpreter services will then submit billings to the FCC.

Hearing people can also contact a deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech-disabled person via VRS. To initiate a call, a hearing person calls a VRS and connects to a video interpreter who then contacts the video user.

Some VRS services also offer:

• Voice Carry Over: The video user may use his/her own voice instead of the interpreter speaking;
• Hearing Carry Over: the video user may listen for him/herself instead of relying on the interpreter;
• Language Preference: The video user requests that the interpreter use American Sign Language;
• the ability to connect to a sign language interpreter who can interpret into another language, such as Spanish.

Videotelephony descriptive names & terminology

See also: List of video telecommunication services and product brands

The name videophone is not as standardized as its earlier counterpart, the telephone, resulting in a variety of names and terms being used worldwide, and even within the same region or country. Videophones are also known as videotelephones (or video telephones) and often by an early trademarked name "Picturephone", which was the world's first commercial videophone produced in volume. The compound name "videophone" slowly entered into general use after 1950, although "video telephone" likely entered the lexicon earlier after "video" was coined in 1935. Videophone calls (also: videocalls and video chat), differ from videoconferencing in that they expect to serve individuals, not groups. However that distinction has become increasingly blurred with technology improvements such as increased bandwidth and sophisticated software clients that can allow for multiple parties on a call. In general everyday usage the term videoconferencing is now frequently used instead of videocall for point-to-point calls between two units. Both videophone calls and videoconferencing are also now commonly referred to as a video link.

Webcams are popular, relatively low cost devices which can provide live video and audio streams via personal computers, and can be used with many software clients for both video calls and videoconferencing.

A videoconference system is generally higher cost than a videophone and deploys greater capabilities. A videoconference (also known as a videoteleconference) allows two or more locations to communicate via live, simultaneous two-way video and audio transmissions. This is often accomplished by the use of a multipoint control unit (a centralized distribution and call management system) or by a similar non-centralized multipoint capability embedded in each videoconferencing unit. Again, technology improvements have circumvented traditional definitions by allowing multiple party videoconferencing via web-based applications. A separate webpage article is devoted to videoconferencing.

A telepresence system is a high-end videoconferencing system and service usually employed by enterprise-level corporate offices. Telepresence conference rooms use state-of-the art room designs, video cameras, displays, sound-systems and processors, coupled with high-to-very-high capacity bandwidth transmissions.

Typical use of the various technologies described above include calling or conferencing on a one-on-one, one-to-many or many-to-many basis for personal, business, educational, deaf video relay service and tele-medical, diagnostic and rehabilitative use or services. New services utilizing videocalling and videoconferencing, such as teachers and psychologists conducting online sessions, personal videocalls to inmates incarcerated in penitentiaries, and videoconferencing to resolve airline engineering issues at maintenance facilities, are being created or evolving on an ongoing basis.

See also

• List of video telecommunication services and product brands
• Over the phone interpreting and telephone interpreting, audio-only language translation methods used by those with normal hearing.
• Telecommunications Relay Service, precursor to VRS.
• Telepresence, state-of-the-art videoconferencing technology.
• Videoconferencing
• Video Remote Interpreting (VRI), where the hearing person is co-located next to the signer.
• Videophone, VRS's original ancestor.
• Videotelephony
• Webcam

External links

• Media related to Video Relay Services at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to Videophones and Videotelephony at Wikimedia Commons
• (in Russian) Videophone usage for the deaf in Russia
• FCC TRS Rules
• REACH 112
• Orebro region unfair competition

Further reading

• Figliola, Patricia Moloney. Video Relay Service: Program Funding and Reform. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 2013.
• Keating, Elizabeth; Mirus, Gene. "American Sign Language in Virtual Space: Interactions between Deaf Users of Computer-Mediated Video Communication and the Impact of Technology on Language Practices", Cambridge University Press, Language in Society, November 2003, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 693–714. Article stable URL DOI: American Sign Language in Virtual Space: Interactions between Deaf Users of Computer-Mediated Video Communication and the Impact of Technology on Language Practices.

Impact on education

See also: Distance education

Videoconferencing provides students with the opportunity to learn by participating in two-way communication forums. Furthermore, teachers and lecturers worldwide can be brought to remote or otherwise isolated educational facilities. Students from diverse communities and backgrounds can come together to learn about one another, although language barriers will continue to persist. Such students are able to explore, communicate, analyze and share information and ideas with one another. Through videoconferencing students can visit other parts of the world to speak with their peers, and visit museums and educational facilities. Such virtual field trips can provide enriched learning opportunities to students, especially those in geographically isolated locations, and to the economically disadvantaged. Small schools can use these technologies to pool resources and provide courses, such as in foreign languages, which could not otherwise be offered.

A few examples of benefits that videoconferencing can provide in campus environments include:

• faculty members keeping in touch with classes while attending conferences;
• guest lecturers brought int classes from other institutions;
• researchers collaborating with colleagues at other institutions on a regular basis without loss of time due to travel;
• schools with multiple campuses collaborating and sharing professors;
• faculty members participating in thesis defenses at other institutions;
• administrators on tight schedules collaborating on budget preparation from different parts of campus;
• faculty committee auditioning scholarship candidates;
• researchers answering questions about grant proposals from agencies or review committees;
• student interviews with an employers in other cities, and
• teleseminars.

Impact on medicine and health

Videoconferencing is a highly useful technology for real-time telemedicine and telenursing applications, such as diagnosis, consulting, transmission of medical images, etc... With videoconferencing, patients may contact nurses and physicians in emergency or routine situations; physicians and other paramedical professionals can discuss cases across large distances. Rural areas can use this technology for diagnostic purposes, thus saving lives and making more efficient use of health care money. For example, a rural medical center in Ohio, United States, used videoconferencing to successfully cut the number of transfers of sick infants to a hospital 70 miles (110 km) away. This had previously cost nearly $10,000 per transfer.

Special peripherals such as microscopes fitted with digital cameras, videoendoscopes, medical ultrasound imaging devices, otoscopes, etc., can be used in conjunction with videoconferencing equipment to transmit data about a patient.

Impact on business

Videoconferencing can enable individuals in distant locations to participate in meetings on short notice, with time and money savings. Technology such as VoIP can be used in conjunction with desktop videoconferencing to enable low-cost face-to-face business meetings without leaving the desk, especially for businesses with widespread offices. The technology is also used for telecommuting, in which employees work from home. One research report based on a sampling of 1,800 corporate employees showed that, as of June 2010, 54% of the respondents with access to video conferencing used it “all of the time” or “frequently”.

Videoconferencing is also currently being introduced on online networking websites, in order to help businesses form profitable relationships quickly and efficiently without leaving their place of work. This has been leveraged by banks to connect busy banking professionals with customers in various locations using video banking technology.

Although videoconferencing has frequently proven its value, research has shown that some non-managerial employees prefer not to use it due to several factors, including anxiety. Some such anxieties can be avoided if managers use the technology as part of the normal course of business.

Researchers also find that attendees of business and medical videoconferences must work harder to interpret information delivered during a conference than they would if they attended face-to-face. They recommend that those coordinating videoconferences make adjustments to their conferencing procedures and equipment.

Impact on law

In the United States, videoconferencing has allowed testimony to be used for an individual who is unable or prefers not to attend the physical legal settings, or would be subjected to severe psychological stress in doing so, however there is a controversy on the use of testimony by foreign or unavailable witnesses via video transmission, regarding the violation of the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

In a military investigation in State of North Carolina, Afghan witnesses have testified via videoconferencing.

In Hall County, Georgia, videoconferencing systems are used for initial court appearances. The systems link jails with court rooms, reducing the expenses and security risks of transporting prisoners to the courtroom.

The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), which oversees the largest administrative judicial system in the world, under its Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR), has made extensive use of video teleconferencing (VTC) to conduct hearings at remote locations. In FY 2009, SSA conducted 86,320 VTC hearings, a 55% increase over FY 2008. In August 2010, the SSA opened its fifth and largest video-only National Hearing Center (NHC), in St. Louis, Missouri. This continues SSA's effort to use video hearings as a means to clear its substantial hearing backlog. Since 2007, the SSA has also established NHCs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Baltimore, Maryland, Falls Church, Virginia, and Chicago, Illinois.

Impact on media relations

The concept of press videoconferencing was developed in October 2007 by the PanAfrican Press Association (APPA), a Paris France based non-governmental organization, to allow African journalists to participate in international press conferences on developmental and good governance issues.

Press videoconferencing permits international press conferences via videoconferencing over the Internet. Journalists can participate on an international press conference from any location, without leaving their offices or countries. They need only be seated by a computer connected to the Internet in order to ask their questions to the speaker.

In 2004, the International Monetary Fund introduced the Online Media Briefing Center, a password-protected site available only to professional journalists. The site enables the IMF to present press briefings globally and facilitates direct questions to briefers from the press. The site has been copied by other international organizations since its inception. More than 4,000 journalists worldwide are currently registered with the IMF.

Videotelephony descriptive names & terminology

"Videophone" redirects here. For other uses, see Videophone (disambiguation).

A telepresence system in 2007

Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video call) is the use of audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication.

There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. Videophones are standalone devices for video calling (compare Telephone). In the present day, devices like smartphones and computers are capable of video calling, reducing the demand for separate videophones. Videoconferencing implies group communication. Videoconferencing is used in telepresence, whose goal is to create the illusion that remote participants are in the same room.

The concept of videotelephony was conceived in the late 19th century, and versions were available to the public starting in the 1930s. Early demonstrations were installed at booths in post offices and shown at various world expositions. In 1970, AT&T launched the first commercial personal videotelephone system. In addition to videophones, there existed image phones which exchanged still images between units every few seconds over conventional telephone lines. The development of advanced video codecs, more powerful CPUs, and high-bandwidth Internet service in the late 1990s allowed digital videophones to provide high-quality low-cost color service between users almost any place in the world. Today, videotelephony is widespread.

Applications of videotelephony include sign language transmission for deaf and speech-impaired people, distance education, telemedicine, and overcoming mobility issues. News media organizations have used videotelephony for broadcasting.

History

Main article: History of videotelephony

Videotelephony predicted to be in use by 2000, as envisioned in 1910 (artist's conception)

Videotelephone booth, 1922

Origin

The concept of videotelephony was first conceived in the late 1870s, both in the United States and in Europe, although the basic sciences to permit its very earliest trials would take nearly a half century to be discovered. The prerequisite knowledge arose from intensive research and experimentation in several telecommunication fields, notably electrical telegraphy, telephony, radio, and television.

Early systems

Simple analog videophone communication could be established as early as the invention of the television. Such an antecedent usually consisted of two closed-circuit television systems connected via coax cable or radio. An example of that was the German Reich Postzentralamt (post office) videotelephone network serving Berlin and several German cities via coaxial cables between 1936 and 1940.

The development of videotelephony as a subscription service started in the latter half of the 1920s in the United Kingdom and the United States, spurred notably by John Logie Baird and AT&T's Bell Labs. This occurred in part, at least with AT&T, to serve as an adjunct supplementing the use of the telephone. A number of organizations believed that videotelephony would be superior to plain voice communications. Attempts at using normal telephony networks to transmit slow-scan video, such as the first systems developed by AT&T Corporation, first researched in the 1950s, failed mostly due to the poor picture quality and the lack of efficient video compression techniques.

During the first crewed space flights, NASA used two radio-frequency (UHF or VHF) video links, one in each direction. TV channels routinely use this type of videotelephony when reporting from distant locations. The news media were to become regular users of mobile links to satellites using specially equipped trucks, and much later via special satellite videophones in a briefcase. This technique was very expensive, though, and was not adopted for applications such as telemedicine, distance education, and business meetings.

Decades of research and development culminated in the 1970 commercial launch of AT&T's Picturephone service, available in select cities. However, the system was a commercial failure, chiefly due to consumer apathy, high subscription costs, and lack of network effect—with only a few hundred Picturephones in the world, users had extremely few contacts they could actually call, and interoperability with other videophone systems would not exist for decades.

Multiple user videoconferencing first being demonstrated with Stanford Research Institute's NLS computer technology (1968)

An AT&T Picturephone Model 2 from 1969

Digital

In the 1980s, digital telephony transmission networks became possible, such as with ISDN networks. During this time, there was also research into other forms of digital video and audio communication. Many of these technologies, such as the Media space, are not as widely used today as videoconferencing but were still an important area of research. The first dedicated systems started to appear as ISDN networks were expanding throughout the world. One of the first commercial videoconferencing systems sold to companies came from PictureTel Corp., which had an initial public offering in November, 1984.

In 1984, Concept Communication in the United States created a circuit board for standard personal computers that doubled the video frame rate of typical digital videotelephone systems from 15 to 30 frames per second, and reduced the cost from $100,000 to $12,000. The company also secured a patent for a codec for full-motion videoconferencing, first demonstrated at AT&T Bell Labs in 1986.

Global Schoolhouse students communicating via CU-SeeMe, shown here with a video frame rate between 0.9 and 3 frames per second (1993)

Very expensive videoconferencing systems continued to rapidly evolve throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Proprietary equipment, software, and network requirements gave way to standards-based technologies that were available for anyone to purchase at a reasonable cost.

While videoconferencing technology was initially used primarily within internal corporate communication networks, one of the first community service uses of the technology started in 1992 through a unique partnership with PictureTel and IBM, which at the time were promoting a jointly developed desktop based videoconferencing product known as the PCS/1. Over the next 15 years, Project DIANE (Diversified Information and Assistance Network) grew to use a variety of videoconferencing platforms to create a multi-state cooperative public service and distance education network consisting of several hundred schools, libraries, science museums, zoos and parks, and many other community-oriented organizations.

Transition to internet and mobile devices

Advances in video compression allowed digital video streams to be transmitted over the Internet, which was previously difficult due to the impractically high bandwidth requirements of uncompressed video. The DCT algorithm was the basis for the first practical video coding standard that was useful for online videoconferencing, H.261, standardised by the ITU-T in 1988, and subsequent H.26x video coding standards.

In 1992 CU-SeeMe was developed at Cornell by Tim Dorcey et al. In 1995 the first public videoconference between North America and Africa took place, linking a technofair in San Francisco with a techno-rave and cyberdeli in Cape Town. At the 1998 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Nagano, Japan, Seiji Ozawa conducted the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony simultaneously across five continents in near-real-time.

The Kyocera VP-210 Visual Phone was the first commercial mobile videophone (1999).

Kyocera conducted a two-year development campaign from 1997 to 1999 that resulted in the release of the VP-210 Visual Phone, the first mobile colour videophone that also doubled as a camera phone for still photos. The camera phone was the same size as similar contemporary mobile phones, but sported a large camera lens and a 5 cm (2 inch) colour TFT display capable of displaying 65,000 colors, and was able to process two video frames per second.

Videotelephony was popularized in the 2000s via free Internet services such as Skype and iChat, web plugins supporting H.26x video standards, and online telecommunication programs that promoted low cost, albeit lower quality, videoconferencing to virtually every location with an Internet connection.

Videotelephony became even more widespread through the deployment of video-enabled mobile phones such as 2010s iPhone 4, plus videoconferencing and computer webcams which use Internet telephony. In the upper echelons of government, business, and commerce, telepresence technology, an advanced form of videoconferencing, has helped reduce the need to travel.

Additional history

In May 2005, the first high definition videoconferencing systems, produced by LifeSize Communications, were displayed at the Interop trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, able to provide video at 30 frames per second with a 1280 by 720 display resolution. Polycom introduced its first high definition videoconferencing system to the market in 2006. As of the 2010s, high-definition resolution for videoconferencing became a popular feature, with most major suppliers in the videoconferencing market offering it.

Technological developments by videoconferencing developers in the 2010s have extended the capabilities of videoconferencing systems beyond the boardroom for use with hand-held mobile devices that combine the use of video, audio and on-screen drawing capabilities broadcasting in real time over secure networks, independent of location. Mobile collaboration systems now allow people in previously unreachable locations, such as workers on an offshore oil rig, the ability to view and discuss issues with colleagues thousands of miles away. Traditional videoconferencing system manufacturers have begun providing mobile applications as well, such as those that allow for live and still image streaming.

The highest ever video call (other than those from aircraft and spacecraft) took place on May 19, 2013, when British adventurer Daniel Hughes used a smartphone with a BGAN satellite modem to make a videocall to the BBC from the summit of Mount Everest, at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant increase in the use of videoconferencing. Berstein Research found that Zoom added more subscribers during the first two months of 2020 alone than in the entire year 2019. GoToMeeting had a 20 percent increase in usage, according to LogMeIn. UK based StarLeaf reported a 600 percent increase in national call volumes. Videoconferencing became so widespread during the pandemic that the term Zoom fatigue came to prominence, referring to the taxing nature of spending long periods of time on videocalls. This fatigue refers to the psychological and physiological effects participants involved in videoconferencing. One experimental study from 2021 revealed a link between camera use in videoconferencing and a prediction of fatigue occurrence an individual. Furthermore, a 2022 article in the journal "Computers in Human Behaviour" highlighted a study linking negative attitudes with the use of "self-view" when videoconferencing.

On 21 September 2021, Facebook launched two new versions of its Portal video-calling devices, the Portal Go and Portal Plus. The new video calling devices include the first portable variety of the hardware and number of updates.

Major categories

A modern Avaya Nortel 1535 IP model broadband videophone (2008), using VoIP

USB webcam for PC

Videotelephony can be categorized by its functionality and intended purpose, and also by its method of transmission.

Videophones were the earliest form of videotelephony, dating back to initial tests in 1927 by AT&T. During the late 1930s, the post offices of several European governments established public videophone services for person-to-person communications using dual cable circuit telephone transmission technology. In the present day, standalone videophones and UMTS video-enabled mobile phones are usually used on a person-to-person basis.

Videoconferencing saw its earliest use with AT&T's Picturephone service in the early 1970s. Transmissions were analog over short distances, but converted to digital forms for longer calls, again using telephone transmission technology. Popular corporate video-conferencing systems in the present day have migrated almost exclusively to digital ISDN and IP transmission modes due to the need to convey the very large amounts of data generated by their cameras and microphones. These systems are often intended for use in conference mode, that is by many people in several different locations, all of whom can be viewed by every participant at each location.

Telepresence systems are a newer, more advanced subset of videoconferencing systems, meant to allow higher degrees of video and audio fidelity. Such high-end systems are typically deployed in corporate settings.

Mobile collaboration systems are another recent development, combining the use of video, audio, and on-screen drawing capabilities using newest generation hand-held electronic devices broadcasting over secure networks, enabling multi-party conferencing in real time, independent of location. Proximity chat is another alternative mode, focused on the flexibility of small group conversations.

A more recent technology encompassing these functions is TV cams. TV cams enable people to make video calls using video calling services, like Skype on their TV, without using a PC connection. TV cams are specially designed video cameras that feed images in real time to another TV camera or other compatible computing devices like smartphones, tablets and computers.

Webcams are popular, relatively low-cost devices that can provide live video and audio streams via personal computers, and can be used with many software clients for both video calls and videoconferencing.

Each of the systems has its own advantages and disadvantages, including video quality, capital cost, degrees of sophistication, transmission capacity requirements, and cost of use.

By cost and quality of service

From the least to the most expensive systems:

• Web camera videophone and videoconferencing systems, either stand-alone or built-in, that serve as complements to personal computers, connected to other participants by computer and VoIP networks—lowest direct cost, assuming the users already possess computers at their respective locations. Quality of service can range from low to very high, including high definition video available on the latest model webcams. A related and similar device is a TV camera which is usually small, sits on top of a TV, and can connect to it via its HDMI port, similar to how a webcam attaches to a computer via a USB port.
• Videophones—low to midrange cost. The earliest standalone models operated over either plain old telephone service (POTS) lines on the PSTN telephone networks or more expensive ISDN lines, while newer models have largely migrated to Internet Protocol line service for higher image resolutions and sound quality. Quality of service for standalone videophones can vary from low to high;
• Huddle room or all-in-one systems —low to midrange cost, newer endpoint category based on standard videoconferencing systems, but defined by the camera, microphone(s), speakers, and codec contained in a single piece of hardware. Typically used in small to medium spaces where beamforming microphone arrays located in the system are sufficient, in lieu of table or ceiling microphones in closer proximity to the in-room participants. Quality of service is comparable to standard videoconferencing systems, varying from moderate to high. Some manufacturers' huddle room systems do not include the codec within the soundbar-shaped unit, rather only camera, microphone, and speakers. These systems are usually still classified as huddle room systems, but, like webcams, rely on a USB connection to an external device, usually a PC, to process the video codec responsibilities. Despite its name, video conferencing systems for Huddle Rooms prevent participants from huddling close together to be seen in the camera. All-in-one systems for these types of rooms range from wide angles such as 110° Horizontal field of view (FOV) to as much as 360° FOV that allow a full view of the room.
• Videoconferencing systems—midrange cost, usually using multipoint control units or other bridging services to allow multiple parties on videoconference calls. Quality of service can vary from moderate to high.
• Telepresence systems—highest capabilities and highest cost. Full high-end systems can involve specially built teleconference rooms to allow expansive views with very high levels of audio and video fidelity, to permit an 'immersive' videoconference. When the proper type and capacity transmission lines are provided between facilities, the quality of service reaches state-of-the-art levels.

Security concerns

Computer security experts have shown that poorly configured or inadequately supervised videoconferencing systems can permit an easy virtual entry by computer hackers and criminals into company premises and corporate boardrooms.

Adoption

For over a century, 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 face-to-face meetings with two or more people. Sometimes a telephone conversation or conference call is adequate. Other times, e-mail exchanges are adequate. However, videoconferencing adds another option and can be considered when:

• A live conversation is needed
• Non-verbal (visual) information is an important component of the conversation
• The parties of the conversation cannot physically come to the same location
• The expense or time of travel is a consideration

Bill Gates said in 2001 that he used videoconferencing "three or four times a year", because digital scheduling was difficult and "if the overhead is super high, then you might as well just have a face-to-face meeting". Some observers argue that three outstanding issues have prevented videoconferencing from becoming a widely adopted form of communication, despite the ubiquity of videoconferencing-capable systems.

• Eye contact: Eye contact plays a large role in conversational turn-taking, perceived attention and intent, and other aspects of group communication. While traditional telephone conversations give no eye contact cues, many videoconferencing systems are arguably worse in that they provide an incorrect impression that the remote interlocutor is avoiding eye contact. Some telepresence systems have cameras located in the screens that reduce the amount of parallax observed by the users. This issue is also being addressed through research that generates a synthetic image with eye contact using stereo reconstruction.
  Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, owns a patent for eye-to-eye videoconferencing using rear projection screens with the video camera behind it, evolved from a 1960s U.S. military system that provided videoconferencing services between the White House and various other government and military facilities. This technique eliminates the need for special cameras or image processing.
• Appearance consciousness: A second psychological problem with videoconferencing is being 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.
• Signal latency: The information transport of digital signals in many steps need time. In a telecommunicated conversation, an increased latency (time lag) larger than about 150–300 ms becomes noticeable and is soon observed as unnatural and distracting. Therefore, next to a stable large bandwidth, a small total round-trip time is another major technical requirement for the communication channel for interactive videoconferencing.
• 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 videoconferencing. Technologies such as ADSL are usually provided as two separate lines (for uplink/downlink) because each has limited upload speeds and cannot upload and download simultaneously at full speed. As Internet speeds increase, higher quality and high-definition videoconferencing will become more readily available.
• Complexity of systems: Most users are not technically experienced and want a simple interface. In hardware systems, an unplugged cord or an unresponsive remote control is seen as a failure, contributing to a perceived unreliability. Successful systems are backed by support teams who can provide fast assistance when required.
• Perceived lack of interoperability: Not all systems can readily interconnect; for example, ISDN and IP systems require a gateway. 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 dissimilar systems. Free software systems circumvent this limitation by making it relatively easy for a single user to communicate over multiple incompatible platforms.
• Expense of commercial systems: Well-designed telepresence systems require specially designed rooms which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fit out their rooms with codecs, integration equipment (such as Multipoint Control Units), high fidelity sound systems, and furniture. Monthly charges may also be required for bridging services and high-capacity broadband service.

These are some of the reasons many organizations only use the systems internally, where there is less risk of loss of customers. An alternative for those lacking dedicated facilities is the rental of videoconferencing-equipped meeting rooms in cities around the world. Clients can book rooms and turn up for the meeting, with all technical aspects being prearranged and support being readily available if needed. The issue of eye contact may be solved with advancing technology, including smartphones which have the screen and camera in essentially the same place. In developed countries, the near-ubiquity of smartphones, tablet computers, and computers with built-in audio and webcams removes the need for expensive dedicated hardware.

Technology

Components and types

Dual display: A mid-2000s Polycom VSX 7000 system and camera used for videoconferencing, with two displays for simultaneous broadcast from separate locations

A videoconference meeting facilitated by Google Hangouts

The core technology used in a videotelephony 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 labeled packets, which are then transmitted through a digital network of some kind (usually ISDN or IP).

The other components required for a videoconferencing system include:

• Video input: (PTZ / 360° / Fisheye) video camera, or webcam
• Video output: computer monitor, television, or projector
• Audio input: microphones, CD/DVD player, cassette player, or any other source of PreAmp audio outlet.
• Audio output: usually loudspeakers associated with the display device or telephone
• Data transfer: analog or digital telephone network, LAN, or Internet
• Computer: a data processing unit that ties together the other components, does the compressing and decompressing, and initiates and maintains the data linkage via the network.

There are basically three kinds of videoconferencing and videophone 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 videoconferencing devices:
   1. Large group videoconferencing are built-in, large, expensive devices used for large rooms such as conference rooms and auditoriums.
   2. Small group videoconferencing are either non-portable or portable, smaller, less expensive devices used for small meeting rooms.
   3. Individual videoconferencing are usually portable devices, meant for single users, and have fixed cameras, microphones, and loudspeakers integrated into the console.
2. Desktop systems are add-ons (hardware boards or software codec) to normal PCs and laptops, transforming them into videoconferencing devices. A range of different cameras and microphones can be used with the codec, which contains the necessary codec and transmission interfaces. Most of the desktops systems work with the H.323 standard.
3. WebRTC platforms use a web browser instead of dedicated native application software. Solutions such as Adobe Connect and Cisco WebEx can be accessed using a URL sent by the meeting organizer, and various degrees of security can be attached to the virtual room. Often the user must download and install a browser extension to enable access to the local camera and microphone and establish a connection to the meeting. But WebRTC does not require any special software, instead a WebRTC-compliant internet browser itself provides the facilities for 1-to-1 and 1-to-many videoconferencing calls. Several enhancements to WebRTC are provided by independent vendors.

Videoconferencing modes

Videoconferencing systems use several methods to determine which video feed or feeds to display.

Continuous Presence simply displays all participants at the same time, usually with the exception that the viewer either does not see their own feed, or sees their own feed in miniature.

Voice-Activated Switch selectively chooses a feed to display at each endpoint, with the goal of showing the person who is currently speaking. This is done by choosing the feed (other than the viewer) which has the loudest audio input (perhaps with some filtering to avoid switching for very short-lived volume spikes). Often, if no remote parties are currently speaking, the feed with the last speaker remains on the screen.

Echo cancellation

Acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) is a processing algorithm that uses the knowledge of audio output to monitor audio input and filter from it noises that echo back after some time delay. If unattended, these echoes can be re-amplified several times, leading to problems including:

• The remote party hearing their own voice coming back at them (usually significantly delayed)
• Strong reverberation, which makes the voice channel useless
• Howling created by feedback

Echo cancellation is a processor-intensive task that usually works over a narrow range of sound delays.

Bandwidth requirements

Deutsche Telekom T-View 100 ISDN-type videophone meant for home offices and small businesses, with a lens cover which can be rotated upward for privacy

See also: Broadband Internet access

Videophones have historically employed a variety of transmission and reception bandwidths, which can be understood as data transmission speeds. The lower the transmission/reception bandwidth, the lower the data transfer rate, resulting in a progressively limited and poorer image quality (i.e. lower resolution and/or frame rate). Data transfer rates and live video image quality are related but are also subject to other factors such as data compression techniques. Some early videophones employed very low data transmission rates with a resulting poor video quality.

Broadband bandwidth is often called high-speed, because it usually has a high rate of data transmission. In general, any connection of 256 kbit/s (0.256 Mbit/s) or greater is more concisely considered broadband Internet. The International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommendation I.113 has defined broadband as a transmission capacity at 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s. The Federal Communications Commission (United States) definition of broadband is 25 Mbit/s.

Currently, adequate video for some purposes becomes possible at data rates lower than the ITU-T broadband definition, with rates of 768 kbit/s and 384 kbit/s used for some videoconferencing applications, and rates as low as 100 kbit/s used for videophones using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression protocols. The newer MPEG-4 video and audio compression format can deliver high-quality video at 2 Mbit/s, which is at the low end of cable modem and ADSL broadband performance.

Standards

The Tandberg E20 is an example of a SIP-only device. Such devices need to route calls through a Video Communication Server to be able to reach H.323 systems, a process known as "interworking" (2009).

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has three umbrellas of standards for videoconferencing:

• ITU H.320 is known as the standard for public switched telephone networks (PSTN) or videoconferencing over integrated services digital networks. While still prevalent in Europe, ISDN was never widely adopted in the United States and Canada.
• ITU H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is a compression standard that enables videoconferencing systems to achieve highly error resilient Internet Protocol (IP) video transmissions over the public Internet without quality-of-service enhanced lines. This standard has enabled wide scale deployment of high definition desktop videoconferencing and made possible new architectures, which reduces latency between the transmitting sources and receivers, resulting in more fluid communication without pauses. In addition, an attractive factor for IP videoconferencing is that it is easier to set up for use along with web conferencing and data collaboration. These combined technologies enable users to have a richer multimedia environment for live meetings, collaboration and presentations.
• ITU-T V.80: videoconferencing is generally compatibilized with H.324 standard point-to-point videotelephony over regular (POTS) phone lines.

The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a non-profit alliance between communications vendors, launched in May 2010. The organization's vision is to maximize the interoperability of UC based on existing standards. Founding members of UCIF include HP, Microsoft, Polycom, Logitech/LifeSize Communications, and Juniper Networks.

Call setup

Videoconferencing in the late 20th century was limited to the H.323 protocol (notably Cisco's SCCP implementation was an exception), but newer videophones often use SIP, which is often easier to set up in home networking environments. It is a text-based protocol, incorporating many elements of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). H.323 is still used, but more commonly for business videoconferencing, while SIP is more commonly used in personal consumer videophones. A number of call-setup methods based on instant messaging protocols such as Skype also now provide video.

Another protocol used by videophones is H.324, which mixes call setup and video compression. Videophones that work on regular phone lines typically use H.324, but the bandwidth is limited by the modem to around 33 kbit/s, limiting the video quality and frame rate. A slightly modified version of H.324 called 3G-324M defined by 3GPP is also used by some cellphones that allow video calls, typically for use only in UMTS networks.

There is also H.320 standard, which specified technical requirements for narrow-band visual telephone systems and terminal equipment, typically for videoconferencing and videophone services. It applied mostly to dedicated circuit-based switched network (point-to-point) connections of moderate or high bandwidth, such as through the medium-bandwidth ISDN digital phone protocol or a fractionated high bandwidth T1 lines. Modern products based on H.320 standard usually support also H.323 standard.

The IAX2 protocol also supports videophone calls natively, using the protocol's own capabilities to transport alternate media streams. A few hobbyists obtained the Nortel 1535 Color SIP Videophone cheaply in 2010 as surplus after Nortel's bankruptcy and deployed the sets on the Asterisk (PBX) platform. While additional software is required to patch together multiple video feeds for conference calls or convert between dissimilar video standards, SIP calls between two identical handsets within the same PBX were relatively straightforward.

Further information: Video codec

Conferencing layers

The components within a videoconferencing system can be divided up into several different layers: User Interface, Conference Control, Control or Signaling Plane, and Media Plane.

Videoconferencing User Interfaces (VUI) can be either graphical or voice-responsive. Many in the industry have encountered both types of interface, and normally a graphical interface is encountered on a computer. User interfaces for conferencing have a number of different uses; they can be used for scheduling, setup, and making a video call. Through the user interface, the administrator is able to control the other three layers of the system.

Conference Control performs resource allocation, management, and routing. This layer along with the User Interface creates meetings (scheduled or unscheduled) or adds and removes participants from a conference.

Control (Signaling) Plane contains the stacks that signal different endpoints to create a call and/or a conference. Signals can be, but are not limited to, H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Protocols. These signals control incoming and outgoing connections as well as session parameters.

The Media Plane controls the audio and video mixing and streaming. This layer manages Real-Time Transport Protocols, User Datagram Packets (UDP) and Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP). The RTP and UDP normally carry information such the payload type which is the type of codec, frame rate, video size, and many others. RTCP on the other hand acts as a quality control Protocol for detecting errors during streaming.

Multipoint control

Main article: Multipoint Control Unit

Simultaneous videoconferencing among three or more remote points is possible in a hardware-based system 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, or the MCU 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 that are a combination of hardware and software. An MCU is characterized 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 on-screen at once. MCUs can be stand-alone hardware devices, or they can be embedded into dedicated videoconferencing units.

The MCU consists of two logical components:

1. A single multipoint controller (MC), and
2. Multipoint Processors (MP), sometimes referred to as the mixer.

The MC controls the conferencing while it is active on the signaling plane, which is simply where the system manages conferencing creation, endpoint signaling and in-conferencing controls. This component negotiates parameters with every endpoint in the network and controls conferencing resources. While the MC controls resources and signaling negotiations, the MP operates on the media plane and receives media from each endpoint. The MP generates output streams from each endpoint and redirects the information to other endpoints in the conference.

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 do not 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.

Cloud storage

Cloud-based videoconferencing can be used without the hardware generally required by other videoconferencing systems, and can be designed for use by SMEs, or larger international or multinational corporations like Facebook. Cloud-based systems can handle either 2D or 3D video broadcasting. Cloud-based systems can also implement mobile calls, VOIP, and other forms of video calling. They can also come with a video recording function to archive past meetings.

Impact

A mobile video call between Sweden and Singapore made on a Sony Ericsson K800 (2007)

High speed Internet connectivity has become more widely available and affordable, as has good-quality video capture and display hardware. Consequently, personal videoconferencing systems based on webcams, personal computer systems, software compression, and the Internet have become progressively more affordable by the general public. The availability of freeware (often as part of chat programs) has made software based videoconferencing accessible to many.

The widest deployment of videotelephony now occurs in mobile phones. Nearly all mobile phones supporting UMTS networks can work as videophones using their internal cameras and are able to make video calls wirelessly to other UMTS users anywhere. As of the second quarter of 2007, there are over 131 million UMTS users (and hence potential videophone users), on 134 networks in 59 countries. Mobile phones can also use broadband wireless Internet, whether through the cell phone network or over a local Wi-Fi connection, along with software-based videophone apps to make calls to any video-capable Internet user, whether mobile or fixed.

Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and mute individuals have a particular role in the development of affordable high-quality videotelephony 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 directly between two deaf signers.

Videophones are increasingly used in the provision of telemedicine to the elderly, disabled, and to those in remote locations, where the ease and convenience of quickly obtaining diagnostic and consultative medical services are readily apparent. In one single instance quoted in 2006: "A nurse-led clinic at Letham has received positive feedback on a trial of a video-link which allowed 60 pensioners to be assessed by medics without traveling to a doctor's office or medical clinic." A further improvement in telemedical services has been the development of new technology incorporated into special videophones to permit remote diagnostic services, such as blood sugar level, blood pressure, and vital signs monitoring. Such units are capable of relaying both regular audio-video plus medical data over either standard (POTS) telephone or newer broadband lines.

A Tandberg T3 high-resolution telepresence room in use (2008)

Videotelephony has also been deployed in corporate teleconferencing, also available through the use of public access videoconferencing rooms. A higher level of videoconferencing that employs advanced telecommunication technologies and high-resolution displays is called telepresence.

Today the principles, if not the precise mechanisms, of a videophone are employed by many users worldwide in the form of webcam videocalls using personal computers, with inexpensive webcams, microphones, and free video calling Web client programs. Thus an activity that was disappointing as a separate service has found a niche as a minor feature in software products intended for other purposes.

According to Juniper Research, smartphone videophone users will reach 29 million by 2015 globally.

A study conducted by Pew Research in 2010, revealed that 7% of Americans have made a mobile video call.

Government and law

In the United States, videoconferencing has allowed testimony to be used for an individual who is unable or prefers not to attend the physical legal settings or would be subjected to severe psychological stress in doing so, however, there is a controversy on the use of testimony by foreign or unavailable witnesses via video transmission, regarding the violation of the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

In a military investigation in North Carolina, Afghan witnesses have testified via videoconferencing.

In Hall County, Georgia, videoconferencing systems are used for initial court appearances. The systems link jails with courtrooms, reducing the expenses and security risks of transporting prisoners to the courtroom.

The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), which oversees the world's largest administrative judicial system under its Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR), has made extensive use of videoconferencing to conduct hearings at remote locations. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) conducted 86,320 videoconferenced hearings, a 55% increase over FY 2008. In August 2010, the SSA opened its fifth and largest videoconferencing-only National Hearing Center (NHC), in St. Louis, Missouri. This continues the SSA's effort to use video hearings as a means to clear its substantial hearing backlog. Since 2007, the SSA has also established NHCs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Baltimore, Maryland, Falls Church, Virginia, and Chicago.

Education

Indonesian and U.S. students participate in an educational videoconference (2010)

See also: Distance education

Videoconferencing provides students with the chance to learn by participating in two-way communication forums. Because it is live, videotelephony allows teachers to access remote or otherwise isolated learners. Students from diverse communities and backgrounds can come together to learn about one another through practices known as telecollaboration (in foreign language education) and virtual exchange, although language barriers will continue to be present. Such students are able to explore, communicate, analyze, and share information and ideas with one another.

Through videoconferencing, students can visit other parts of the world, including museums and other cultural and educational sites. Such virtual field trips can provide enriched learning opportunities to students, especially those who are geographically isolated or economically disadvantaged. Small schools can use these technologies to pool resources and provide courses, such as in foreign languages, which could not otherwise be offered.

Some benefits that videoconferencing can provide to education include:

• faculty members keeping in touch with classes while attending conferences;
• faculty members attending conferences 'virtually'
• guest lecturers brought in classes from other institutions;
• researchers collaborating with colleagues at other institutions on a regular basis without loss of time due to travel;
• schools with multiple campuses collaborating and sharing professors;
• schools from two separate nations engaging in cross-cultural exchanges;
• faculty members participating in thesis defenses at other institutions;
• administrators on tight schedules collaborating on budget preparation from different parts of campus;
• faculty committee auditioning scholarship candidates;
• researchers answering questions about grant proposals from agencies or review committees;
• alternative enrollment structures to purely in-person attendance;
• student interviews with employers in other cities, and
• teleseminars.

Medicine and health

Main article: Telemedicine

Videoconferencing is a highly useful technology for real time telemedicine and telenursing applications, such as diagnosis, consulting, prevention, treatment, and transmission of medical images. With videoconferencing, patients may contact nurses and physicians in emergency or routine situations; physicians and other paramedical professionals can discuss cases across large distances. Rural areas can use this technology for diagnostic purposes, thus saving lives and making more efficient use of health care money. For example, a rural medical center in Ohio used videoconferencing to successfully cut the number of transfers of sick infants to a hospital 70 miles (110 km) away. This had previously cost nearly $10,000 per transfer.

Special peripherals such as microscopes fitted with digital cameras, videoendoscopes, medical ultrasound imaging devices, otoscopes, etc., can be used in conjunction with videoconferencing equipment to transmit data about a patient. Recent developments in mobile collaboration on hand-held mobile devices have also extended video-conferencing capabilities to locations previously unreachable, such as a remote community, long-term care facility, or a patient's home.

Business

Videoconferencing can enable individuals in distant locations to participate in meetings on short notice, with time and money savings. Technology such as VoIP can be used in conjunction with desktop videoconferencing to enable low-cost face-to-face business meetings without leaving the desk, especially for businesses with widespread offices. The technology is also used for remote work. One research report based on a sampling of 1,800 corporate employees showed that, as of June 2010, 54% of the respondents with access to videoconferencing used it "all of the time" or "frequently".

Intel Corporation have used videoconferencing to reduce both costs and environmental impacts of its business operations.

Videoconferencing is also currently being introduced on online networking websites, in order to help businesses form profitable relationships quickly and efficiently without leaving their place of work. This has been leveraged by banks to connect busy banking professionals with customers in various locations using video banking technology.

Videoconferencing on hand-held mobile devices (mobile collaboration technology) is being used in industries such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare, insurance, government, and public safety. Live, visual interaction removes traditional restrictions of distance and time, often in locations previously unreachable, such as a manufacturing plant floor thousands of miles away.

In the increasingly globalized film industry, videoconferencing has become useful as a method by which creative talent in many different locations can collaborate closely on the complex details of film production. For example, for the 2013 award-winning animated film Frozen, Burbank-based Walt Disney Animation Studios hired the New York City-based husband-and-wife songwriting team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez to write the songs, which required two-hour-long transcontinental videoconferences nearly every weekday for about 14 months.

With the development of lower-cost endpoints, the integration of video cameras into personal computers and mobile devices, and software applications such as FaceTime, Skype, Teams, BlueJeans and Zoom, videoconferencing has changed from just a business-to-business offering to include business-to-consumer (and consumer-to-consumer) use.

Although videoconferencing has frequently proven its value, research has shown that some non-managerial employees prefer not to use it due to several factors, including anxiety. Some such anxieties can often be avoided if managers use the technology as part of the normal course of business. Remote workers can also adopt certain behaviors and best practices to stay connected with their co-workers and company.

Researchers also find that attendees of business and medical videoconferences must work harder to interpret information delivered during a conference than they would if they attended face-to-face. They recommend that those coordinating videoconferences make adjustments to their conferencing procedures and equipment.

Press

Main article: Press videoconferencing

The concept of press videoconferencing was developed in October 2007 by the PanAfrican Press Association (APPA), a Paris France-based non-governmental organization, to allow African journalists to participate in international press conferences on developmental and good governance issues.

Press videoconferencing permits international press conferences via videoconferencing over the Internet. Journalists can participate on an international press conference from any location, without leaving their offices or countries. They need only be seated by a computer connected to the Internet in order to ask their questions.

In 2004, the International Monetary Fund introduced the Online Media Briefing Center, a password-protected site available only to professional journalists. The site enables the IMF to present press briefings globally and facilitates direct questions to briefers from the press. The site has been copied by other international organizations since its inception. More than 4,000 journalists worldwide are currently registered with the IMF.

Sign language

Video Interpreter sign used at VRS/VRI service locations

Main articles: Video Relay Service and Video Remote Interpreting

One of the first demonstrations of the ability for telecommunications to help sign language users communicate with each other occurred when AT&T's videophone (trademarked as the Picturephone) was introduced to the public at the 1964 New York World's Fair—two deaf users were able to communicate freely with each other between the fair and another city. Various universities and other organizations, including British Telecom's Martlesham facility, have also conducted extensive research on signing via video telephony.

The use of sign language via videotelephony was hampered for many years due to the difficulty of its use over slow analog copper phone lines, coupled with the high cost of better quality ISDN (data) phone lines. Those factors largely disappeared with the introduction of more efficient and powerful video codecs and the advent of lower-cost high-speed ISDN data and IP (Internet) services in the 1990s.

21st-century improvements

Significant improvements in video call quality of service for the deaf occurred in the United States in 2003 when Sorenson Media Inc. (formerly Sorenson Vision Inc.), a video compression software coding company, developed its VP-100 model stand-alone videophone specifically for the deaf community. It was designed to output its video to the user's television in order to lower the cost of acquisition and to offer remote control and a powerful video compression codec for unequaled video quality and ease of use with video relay services. Favorable reviews quickly led to its popular usage at educational facilities for the deaf, and from there to the greater deaf community.

Coupled with similar high-quality videophones introduced by other electronics manufacturers, the availability of high-speed Internet, and sponsored video relay services authorized by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in 2002, VRS services for the deaf underwent rapid growth in that country.

A deaf or hard-of-hearing person uses a Video Relay Service at his workplace to communicate with a hearing person in London (2007).

Using such video equipment in the present day, the deaf, hard-of-hearing, and speech-impaired can communicate between themselves and with hearing individuals using sign language. The United States and several other countries compensate companies to provide video relay services (VRS). Telecommunication equipment can be used to talk to others via a sign language interpreter, who uses a conventional telephone at the same time to communicate with the deaf person's party. Video equipment is also used to do on-site sign language translation via Video Remote Interpreting (VRI). The relatively low cost and widespread availability of 3G mobile phone technology with video calling capabilities have given deaf and speech-impaired users a greater ability to communicate with the same ease as others. Some wireless operators have even started free sign language gateways.

Sign language interpretation services via VRS or by VRI are useful in the present day where one of the parties is deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech-impaired (mute). In such cases the interpretation flow is normally within the same principal language, such as French Sign Language (LSF) to spoken French, Spanish Sign Language (LSE) to spoken Spanish, British Sign Language (BSL) to spoken English, and American Sign Language (ASL) also to spoken English (since BSL and ASL are completely distinct from each other), German Sign Language (DGS) to spoken German, and so on.

Multilingual sign language interpreters, who can also translate as well across principal languages (such as a multilingual interpreter interpreting a call from a deaf person using ASL to reserve a hotel room at a hotel in the Dominican Republic whose staff speaks Spanish only, therefore the interpreter has to use ASL, spoken Spanish, and spoken English to facilitate the call for the deaf person), are also available, albeit less frequently. Such activities involve considerable mental processing efforts on the part of the translator, since sign languages are distinct natural languages with their own construction, semantics and syntax, different from the aural version of the same principal language.

With video interpreting, sign language interpreters work remotely with live video and audio feeds, so that the interpreter can see the deaf or mute party, and converse with the hearing party, and vice versa. Much like telephone interpreting, video interpreting can be used for situations in which no on-site interpreters are available. However, video interpreting cannot be used for situations in which all parties are speaking via telephone alone. VRS and VRI interpretation requires all parties to have the necessary equipment. Some advanced equipment enables interpreters to control the video camera remotely, in order to zoom in and out or to point the camera toward the party that is signing.

Comparison of Sign Language communication tools

Tool	Owner	Free?	Pure web based?	Works on desktops?	Mobile support?	Uses email?	Required hardware	Installation	Limitations	Specialities	Technologies	Deaf made?	Licensing
Facebook Messenger	Facebook	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Any mobile	App must be installed, does not require a FB account			?	No	100% proprietary
FaceTime	Apple Inc	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Apple hardware only (Desktop or mobile)	App must be installed, requires Apple ID account			?	No	100% proprietary
Glide (software)	Glide	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Any mobiles	App must be installed			?	No	100% proprietary
Google Hangouts	Google	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Any Desktop or mobiles	App must be installed, requires Google account			?	No	100% proprietary
Skype	Microsoft	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Any Desktop or mobile	App must be installed, requires Microsoft account			?	No	100% proprietary
Tikatoy Archived 2019-01-08 at the Wayback Machine	Tikatoy Archived 2019-01-08 at the Wayback Machine	Yes	No	Yes	Android only	Yes	Desktop or Android	Requires a web browser with Adobe Flash	Apple blocks Adobe Flash		C++, JavaScript, Python	Yes	100% proprietary
videomail.io	Binary Kitchen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Android only	Yes	Desktop or Android, iPhone and Safari (web browser) only for viewing	Web browser	Recording max 3 minutes, does not work on old browsers	Reusable: can be plugged directly into other websites or as a WordPress plugin ninja-forms-videomail Archived 2018-01-19 at the Wayback Machine	JavaScript	Yes	Mixed. Proprietary server and client is open source

Descriptive names and terminology

See also: List of video telecommunication services and product brands

The name videophone never became as standardized as its earlier counterpart telephone, resulting in a variety of names and terms being used worldwide, and even within the same region or country. Videophones are also known as video phones, videotelephones (or video telephones) and often by an early trademarked name Picturephone, which was the world's first commercial videophone produced in volume. The compound name videophone slowly entered into general use after 1950, although video telephone likely entered the lexicon earlier after video was coined in 1935.

Videophone calls (also: videocalls, video chat) as well as Skype and Skyping in verb form differ from videoconferencing in that they expect to serve individuals, not groups. However that distinction has become increasingly blurred with technology improvements such as increased bandwidth and sophisticated software clients that can allow for multiple parties on a call. In general everyday usage the term videoconferencing is now frequently used instead of videocall for point-to-point calls between two units. Both videophone calls and videoconferencing are also now commonly referred to as a video link.

Webcams are popular, relatively low-cost devices that can provide live video and audio streams via personal computers, and can be used with many software clients for both video calls and videoconferencing.

A videoconference system is generally higher cost than a videophone and deploys greater capabilities. A videoconference (also known as a videoteleconference) allows two or more locations to communicate via live, simultaneous two-way video and audio transmissions. This is often accomplished by the use of a multipoint control unit (a centralized distribution and call management system) or by a similar non-centralized multipoint capability embedded in each videoconferencing unit. Again, technology improvements have circumvented traditional definitions by allowing multiple-party videoconferencing via web-based applications.

A telepresence system is a high-end videoconferencing system and service usually employed by enterprise-level corporate offices. Telepresence conference rooms use state-of-the-art room designs, video cameras, displays, sound systems and processors, coupled with high-to-very-high capacity bandwidth transmissions.

Typical uses of the various technologies described above include calling one-to-one or conferencing one-to-many or many-to-many for personal, business, educational, deaf Video Relay Service and tele-medical, diagnostic and rehabilitative purposes. personal videocalls to inmates incarcerated in penitentiaries, and videoconferencing to resolve airline engineering issues at maintenance facilities, are being created or evolving on an ongoing basis.

Other names for videophone that have been used in English are: Viewphone (the British Telecom equivalent to AT&T's Picturephone), and visiophone, a common French translation that has also crept into limited English usage, as well as over twenty less common names and expressions. Latin-based translations of videophone in other languages include vidéophone (French), Bildtelefon (German), videotelefono (Italian), both videófono and videoteléfono (Spanish), both beeldtelefoon and videofoon (Dutch), and videofonía (Catalan).

A telepresence robot (also telerobotics) is a robotically controlled and motorized videoconferencing display to help give a better sense of remote physical presence for communication and collaboration in an office, home, school, etc. when one cannot be there in person. The robotic avatar device can move about and look around at the command of the remote person it represents.

Popular culture

Dr. Heywood Floyd in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey calls his daughter on Earth.

In science fiction literature, names commonly associated with videophones include telephonoscope, telephote, viewphone, vidphone, vidfone, and visiphone. The first example was probably the cartoon "Edison's Telephonoscope" by George du Maurier in Punch 1878. In «In the year 2889», published 1889, the French author Jules Verne predicts that «The transmission of speech is an old story; the transmission of images by means of sensitive mirrors connected by wires is a thing but of yesterday.» In many science fiction movies and TV programs that are set in the future, videophones were used as a primary method of communication. One of the first movies where a videophone was used was Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927).

Other notable examples of videophones in popular culture include an iconic scene from the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey set on Space Station V. The movie was released shortly before AT&T began its efforts to commercialize its Picturephone Mod II service in several cities and depicts a video call to Earth using an advanced AT&T videophone—which it predicts will cost $1.70 for a two-minute call in 2001 (a fraction of the company's real rates on Earth in 1968). Film director Stanley Kubrick strove for scientific accuracy, relying on interviews with scientists and engineers at Bell Labs in the United States. Dr. Larry Rabiner of Bell Labs, discussing videophone research in the documentary 2001: The Making of a Myth, stated that in the mid-to late-1960s videophones "... captured the imagination of the public and ... of Mr. Kubrick and the people who reported to him". In one 2001 movie scene a central character, Dr. Heywood Floyd, calls home to contact his family, a social feature noted in the Making of a Myth. Floyd talks with and views his daughter from a space station in orbit above the Earth, discussing what type of present he should bring home for her.

A portable videophone is also featured prominently in the 2009 science fiction movie Moon, where the story's protagonist, Sam Bell, also calls home as well to communicate with loved ones. Bell, the lone occupant of a mining station on the far side of the Earth's moon, finally succeeds in making his video call after an extended work period, but becomes traumatized when viewing his daughter.

Other earlier examples of videophones in popular culture included a videophone that was featured in the Warner Bros. cartoon, Plane Daffy, in which the female spy Hatta Mari used a videophone to communicate with Adolf Hitler (1944), as well as a device with the same functionality has been used by the comic strip character Dick Tracy, who often used his "2-way wrist TV" to communicate with police headquarters. (1964–1977).

By the early 2010s videotelephony and videophones had become commonplace and unremarkable in various forms of media, in part due to their real and ubiquitous presence in common electronic devices and laptop computers. Additionally, TV programming increasingly used videophones to interview subjects of interest and to present live coverage by news correspondents, via the Internet or by satellite links. In the mass market media, the popular U.S. TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey incorporated videotelephony into her TV program on a regular basis from May 21, 2009, with an initial episode called Where the Skype Are You?, as part of a marketing agreement with the Internet telecommunication company Skype.

Additionally, videophones have been featured in:

• "Lisa's Wedding", an episode of The Simpsons which depicted a Picturephone (1995).
• a Beyoncé Knowles pop single and music video called "Video Phone" from her album I Am ... Sasha Fierce (2008).

See also

• 3GP and 3G2
• Comparison of web conferencing software
• H.331
• Information appliance
• List of video telecommunication services and product brands
• Media phone
• Mobile VoIP
• Press videoconferencing
• Project DIANE—a large U.S. business and social services videoconferencing network
• Smartphone
• Telecollaboration
• Teleconference
• Telephony—the ancestral technology
• Teletraining
• U.S.–Soviet Space Bridge
• Visual communication
• VROC (Virtual Researcher on Call)
• Web conferencing

Bibliography

• Santanu Brahma & Axlator Communications Audio Video Telephony Archived 2021-01-19 at the Wayback Machine, Real time updates and news about WebRTC technology and browser-based audio and videotelephony.
• Burns, R.W., Television: An International History of the Formative Years in IEE Publication Series, Institution of Electrical Engineers, Science Museum (Great Britain), 1998, ISBN 0-85296-914-7, ISBN 978-0-85296-914-4
• Daly, Edward A. & Hansell, Kathleen J. Visual Telephony, Artech House, Boston, 1999, ISBN 1-58053-023-0, ISBN 978-1-58053-023-1, CIPD HD9697.T452D35 651.7'3-dc21.
• Mulbach, Lothar; Bocker, Martin; Prussog, Angela (1995). "Telepresence in Videocommunications: A Study on Stereoscopy and Individual Eye Contact". Human Factors. 37 (2): 290–305. doi:10.1518/001872095779064582. ISSN 0018-7208. PMID 7642183. S2CID 31369406.
• Nellist, John G. Understanding Telecommunications And Lightwave Systems: An Entry-Level Guide, John Wiley and Sons, IEEE Press, 2002, ISBN 0-471-15032-0, ISBN 978-0-471-15032-9.
• Schnaars, Steve; Wymbs, Cliff (2004). "On The Persistence Of Lackluster Demand—The History Of The Video Telephone". Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 71 (3): 197–216. doi:10.1016/S0040-1625(02)00410-9.
• Shepard, Steven. Videoconferencing Demystified: Making Video Services Work, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002, ISBN 0-07-140085-0, ISBN 978-0-07-140085-5
• Stevenson Bacon, W. Amazing New Picturephone: A Step Closer to In-Person Visits, Popular Science, June 1968, pp. 46–47.
• Valinder, Anne. Like a window in your living room: Video-mediated communication for extended families separated by space, University of Gothenburg: Department of Applied Information Technology, pp. 6–18, October 5, 2012. Web. January 23, 2013 (PDF).
• Wilcox, James R. & Gibson, David K. Video Communications: The Whole Picture, Focal Press, CMP Books, San Francisco, 2005, ISBN 1-57820-316-3, ISBN 978-1-57820-316-1.

Further reading

Unsorted

• Greenberg, Alan D. Taking the Wraps off Videoconferencing in the US Classroom, Wainhouse Research, April 2009.
• Kopytoff, Verne G. Hewlett-Packard Sells Its Video Conferencing Business, The New York Times, June 1, 2011.
• Lawlor, Julia. Videoconferencing: From Stage Fright to Stage Presence, The New York Times, August 27, 1998.
• Lohr, Steve. As Travel Costs Rise, More Meetings Go Virtual, The New York Times, July 22, 2008.
• Miller, Claire Cain. Logitech Buying a Maker Of Videoconference Tools, The New York Times, November 11, 2009.
• Miller, Claire Cain. Logitech Breaks Into Videoconferencing, The New York Times, November 10, 2009 on line, and November 11, 2009, in print, p. B3. Discusses the acquisition of LifeSize Communications.
• Millman, Howard. The Videoconference as a Bicoastal Pas de Deux, The New York Times, July 12, 2001.
• O'Brien, Kevin. Stranded Travelers Turn to Videoconferencing, The New York Times, April 19, 2010. Article discusses the increased use of videoconferencing due to the eruption of an Icelandic volcano which severely curtailed air travel for several months.
• Ramirez, Anthony. More Than Just a Phone Call; Video Conferencing And Photocopies, Too, The New York Times, September 15, 1993. Discusses the deployment of videoconferencing rooms in several hundred Kinkos locations.
• Shannon, Victoria. Videoconferencing's virtual leap forward, The New York Times, August 29, 2007.
• Sharkey, Joe. A Meeting in New York? Can't We Videoconference?, The New York Times, May 11, 2009 online, and in print on May 12, 2009, p. B6 of the New York edition.
• Vance, Ashlee. Cisco Buys Norwegian Firm for $3 Billion, The New York Times, October 1, 2009 online, and October 2, 2009, in print, p. B7. Discusses the acquisition of Tandberg.
• Wang, Ses Open source tool detects videoconferencing equipment vulnerabilities, Help Net Security, 17 February 2012.
• Wayner, Peter. Jerky Pictures and Sound Are History. Videoconferencing Is All Grown Up., The New York Times, June 16, 2005.

General

• Adeshina, Emmanuel. In-Person Visits Fade as Jails Set Up Video Units for Inmates and Families, The New York Times website, August 7, 2012, pg. A15 of the New York Edition.
• Bajaj, Vikas. Transparent Government, Via Webcams in India, The New York Times, July 18, 2011, pg.B3. Published online: July 17, 2011.
• Davis, Andrew W.; Weinstein, Ira M. The Business Case for Videoconferencing, Wainhouse Research, March 2005.
• Fairlie, Rik. Skype Puts Video Calls on Your TV, The New York Times, July 2, 2010.
• Hoffman, Jan. When Your Therapist Is Only a Click Away, The New York Times, September 25, 2011, pg. ST1. Also published September 23, 2011 online at www.nytimes.com.
• Miller, Hugh."Videophones: The Real Problem". Archived from the original on 2002-06-16. Retrieved 2002-06-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Department of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, June 16, 2002. Discusses social issues related to videotelephony.
• Perlroth, Nicole. Cameras May Open Up the Board Room to Hackers, The New York Times online, January 22, 2012. A version of this article appeared in print on January 23, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: "Conferences Via the Net Called Risky".
• ProAV Magazine. Being There, ProAV Magazine, November 7, 2008.
• Saint Louis, Catherine. With Enough Bandwidth, Many Join The Band, The New York Times, January 10, 2012 (online), January 11, 2012 (in print, New York Edition, pg. A1). Retrieved online January 11, 2012. Synopsis: a look at the pros and cons of videotelephony used for private, individual, music lessons.
• Steinberg, Neil. Dude, Where's My Video Phone?, Forbes.com website, October 15, 2007

Environmental benefits

• Biello, David. Can Videoconferencing Replace Travel?, Scientific American, March 18, 2009.
• Coroama, V.C., et al. Effects of Internet-Based Multiple-Site Conferences on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Archived 2013-06-03 at the Wayback Machine, Telematics and Informatics, 2011, doi:10.1016/j.tele.2011.11.006
• Pachner, Joanna. The Next Best Thing to Being There, Toronto: The Globe and Mail, October 13, 2009.

Historical and technical

• Ebel, H. "Subjective Assessment of Picture Interference in the Videophone" in 4th International Symposium on Human Factors in Telephony, Bad Wiessee, Germany, September 23–27, 1968, Information Gatekeepers Inc., pp. 289–298.
• Fischer, K.; Ebel, H.; "Problems Of How To Position Users In Front Of The Videophone" in: 4th International Symposium on Human Factors in Telephony, Bad Wiessee, Germany, September 23–27, 1968, Information Gatekeepers Inc., pp. 269–282.
• Hall, A.D. "Experiments with Picturephone Service" in: Bell Laboratories RECORD, 1964, Vol. 42, pp. 114–120.
• Ives, Herbert E. Two-Way Television and a Pictorial Account of its Background in: Bell Laboratories Record, 1930, Vol. 8, pp. 399–404, and viewable online here Archived 2020-02-05 at the Wayback Machine.
• Ives, Herbert E. Picture Transmission and Television in: Bell Labs Quarterly, April 1932, Vol. 11, pp. 118–142.
• Jaur, Francis. "Usage Domestiques du Visiophone", Technologies de l'Information et Société, 2, 1990, pp. 89–102. (French)
• Schunack, Von Johannes; Maly, Rolf. Die Fernseh-Sprechtechnik in: Fernseh A.G.: 10 Jahre, Berlin: Hausmitteilungen Aus Forshunsg Und Betrieb Der Fernseh Aktiengellschaft, July 1939, pp. 138–143. (PDF, German)
• Schulte, Olaf A. "The Next Best Thing To Being There"—Ein Überblick Zu 25 Jahren Videokonferenzforschung (An Overview of 25 years of videoconferencing research) in: Medien & Kommunikations-wissenschaft, Baden-Baden: Hans-Bredow-Institut, April 2002, pp. 551–570 (PDF, German).

External links

• Debut of the First Picturephone, 1970 video courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, N.J.
• British Pathé news clip: Videophone 1970, a movie reel news clip on the assembly and demonstration of a prototype British General Post Office 'Viewphone' at Taplow, Buckinghamshire; (February 1, 1970; video, 1:16 seconds length)
• Whirlpool Forums: Movies that feature videophones

See also

• List of video telecommunication services and product brands
• Media phone
• Mobile VoIP
• Press videoconferencing
• Teleconference
• Telecollaboration
• Telepresence, for high-end videoconferencing
• US-Soviet Space Bridge
• Videophone, for basic units and their point-to-point use
• Videotelephony, an overview on the parent article
• VROC (Virtual Researcher on Call)
• Webcam

Further reading

• Biztech2 Actis Launches Mobile Videoconferencing Solution Biztech2.com website, August 25, 2009. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
• Davis, Andrew W. & Weinstein, Ira M. The Business Case for Videoconferencing, Wainhouse Research, March 2005.

External links

• Video Conferencing White Paper Archive
• 3D Telepresence 3D Telepresence: The European FP7 Project 3DPresence has build the first 3D Multi-perspective Telepresence system using auto-stereoscopic screens.