Desktop video conferencing is the cheapest and the fastest way to stay in touch. In today’s day and age where everyone is spread across the globe it is not possible to get together every year for the great family gatherings at Christmas or Easter. The elderly and aged people in the family do want to keep in touch at east at celebration times. Though the physical presence cannot be compensated by anything, it will be nice to have a family gathering even over desktop video conferencing. With desktop video conferencing the whole family can decide on a date and time and log onto the Internet through one of the many online chat programs such as Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or Skype and have a desktop video conferencing program for the benefit of all the family members.

Desktop video conferencing is the most convenient way to have a family meeting of all the members of the family. The distance or the location is not a criterion for them to take part in the desktop video conferencing program and there is no need to hire the services of a video conferencing service provider either. There are many free video conferencing services available on the Internet. The only qualifying criterion is that each member who wants to take part in the desktop video conferencing program must possess a computer with the required video input as well as audio input and output hardware and of course access to the Internet through a broad band connection.

Broad band Internet connection is a must for desktop video conferencing because the technology for video compressing, though very advanced, is not good enough to compress video signals to transmit effectively over slow Internet connections. The slower connections will transmit voice and video signals in phases giving the effect of a slow motion picture movement and the voice will break up as well. The apparatus must be of reasonably good quality as well. A good 2 mega pixel web camera used as a video input device and a microphone for the audio input device coupled to a headphone or speakers to enable what everyone partaking in the desktop video conferencing program is saying.

The Internet and desktop video conferencing has definitely brought people and countries closer together. It is cheaper to partake in an international group discussion through desktop video conferencing rather than having to fly across the world and spend that much time and money. With today’s high definition desktop video conferencing, desktop video conferencing is a pleasure. The Internet has brought whole communities together and it is not only families and students who are making the most use of this technology. There are more important meetings taking place with government heads and military Generals using Desktop video conferencing to monitor training sessions and remote activities right from their desktops. So next time you are up to something you must ensure that some group of people, probably half way across the planet are not watching.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com

Video conferencing is also known as ‘videoteleconferencing’ and is a technique of setting up an interactive telecommunication system comprising of video input and out put devices such as video cameras and screens, audio input and out put devices such as microphones and speakers and transmission and receiving apparatus at two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. This system is also been called visual collaboration and is a type of groupware. It differs from videophone in that it serves a conferencing (group of people) rather than individuals.

Video conferencing started with the invention of television, which was nothing but a one way communication channel. This technology transmitted video and sound signals to a wide audience but was just a one way communication channel. Video conferencing was the technique of transmitting as well as receiving video and audio signals between a group of people. Each individual in a video conferencing was able to interact with the other members of the conferencing through the hardware which consisted of the above mentioned video, audio and transmitting and receiving equipment. In the beginning of the 1960 there was just closed circuit video conferencing. This soon advanced to wireless communication between people on a video conferencing. The low definition video conferencing reproduction was soon to be replaced by high definition video conferencing technology in the nineties.

Technological advancements in the 1980’s made digital telephony transmission possible. These brought technologies such as ISDN that assured a basic minimum bit rate of 128 kilo bytes per second available over a leased line. This technology assured a fair quality of audio as well as video signals to be transmitted over a vast area. The history of video conferencing had begun with the early experiments of NASA trying to simultaneously communicate with all its base stations and it’s astronauts in space. This video conferencing enabled scientists to communicate and instruct the astronauts with the experiments underway. It was the contribution of companies such as AT&T Picture Tel and the like that has made video conferencing what it is today. From the early history of video conferencing the technology has come a long way. Video conferencing equipment expanded through out the 90’s and evolved into the internet video conferencing we have today. In fact, video conferencing cannot be possible in most parts of the world with out the Internet as this is the main tool of communications in vogue today.

VOIP is the main technology that has advanced the communications techniques all over the world and contributed to the history of video conferencing. Today video conferencing is available to the general public at very reasonable costs and ease. Internet Protocol, popularly known as IP, made video conferencing available to the world through the Internet in the mid 1990’s. This enabled more efficient video compression possible leading to better transmission of video signals. Desktop video conferencing came into existence setting another milestone in the history of video conferencing.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com

Video conferencing can be traced back to the invention of television, which is nothing but a one way video conferencing so to speak. Tele-video conferencing is the process of a group of people located in different parts of the globe of country (distance really does not matter) and being able to simultaneously take parting a two way discussion by observing all the other members of the conferencing on a video screen live and talk to them as if they were all sitting in the same room. In earlier times such video conferencing consisted of closed circuit television systems, which was the technology where by the video and audio signals were transmitted through a cable system and not transmitted through the air. This resulted in the video quality being very poor in quality as well as being very expensive to transmit. This type of communication was very attractive and the demand for better transmission techniques resulted in companies investing in high definition video conferencing techniques.

The first high definition video conferencing was inadvertently tried out by NASA who required to conferencing with astronauts in space. The distance required very high definition video conferencing capabilities and NASA achieved this by using high frequencies to link up and down between the space stations and the earth stations. This kind of high definition video conferencing has been put to wider use by television news channels using this high definition video conferencing between the studios and the mobile news trucks. High definition video conferencing has since become very common with the technology advancing and transforming from analog to digital format the world over.

High Definition Video conferencing was first demonstrated in the early nineties. Though this technique was still very expensive, it could not be put to use for more mundane applications, such as telemedicine, distance education, business meetings, and so on. The use of normal telephone networks to transmit video failed due to the poor picture quality and the lack of efficient video compression techniques that were available at the time. The greater bandwidth and 6 MBPS transmission rate of the popular though short lived Picturephone in the 1970s did not prosper. These were but stepping stones to the digital high definition video conferencing that the world knows today. The Internet had enabled high definition video conferencing to be put to wider use with more and more people from different walks of life being able to take advantage of this great technology.

High definition video conferencing started out as an important means of communications between scientific, defense and government organizations. The usefulness of this communications technology was realized and so the demand grew by leaps and bounds. So as a result from the early closed circuit low definition video conferencing to the present day high definition video conferencing techniques employed today, high definition video conferencing is being used not only by the high and mighty but by students who are able to use the technology to further their studies by taking part in high definition video conferencing set up by their universities in distant places. House wives are also able to use the technology from the comforts of their homes. The retired and aged people can see and speak to their entire families settled all over the world at the flick of a switch. Yet High definition video conferencing has a long way to go.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com

When NASA started experimenting with video conferencing they did not think that the system they were using to confer with groups of people in different parts of the world at the same time would one day be a household service, much like the electricity and telephone service that was so common back then. Desktop conferencing refers to being able to transmit and receive video and sound signals at the same time from a computer on your desktop. Conferencing means a group of people in different places, with distance between them not withstanding, being able to partake in a discussion simultaneously with all of the participants being able to hear and see any of the other participants at the same time. Desk top conferencing is like being in the same room at the same time. When NASA used the technology for the first time the costs were prohibitive, besides the distance of tele-video conferencing was severely limited as transmission technology was not as developed as it is today.

Companies have pooled their resources together to setup the infrastructure that is needed to vide conferencing all over the world. These technologies have been networked so that all countries can use the system economically. The Internet has enabled desktop conferencing to be used by all people all over the world. The Internet is the cheapest mode of communication. The technology is growing by leaps and bounds and the cost of using it is reducing every day. The problem with desktop conferencing is that one needs a fairly fast Internet broadband connection for effective transmission of video and sound signals. This is because unlike sound signals, video signals form fairly large packets of data and the time taken to transmit this data over a slow connection can take a month of Sundays. Therefore the connection speed must be at least 256 kilo bytes per second to enable proper video desktop conferencing.

In the past video teleconferencing was achieved by closed circuit television technology. This was a very expensive method and required a sound proof studio and a whole lot of paraphernalia. This also required a trained staff at both or all stations of the video conferencing. That made this technology available only to the very large business in the private sector as well as government agencies. The cost implications were prohibitive for small industries and companies who found flying across the globe to meet their business partners a more economical way of communication. The Internet has changed all that. Desktop conferencing has become a reality with the advancement of the Internet. Business executives, government heads and even house wives can turn on a video conferencing at the flick of a button through the computers on their desktops. The technology is easy to use with even fifth graders being able to use it. Through desktop conferencing people can connect to a group of people and discuss subjects ranging from the afternoon lunch recipe to North Koreas nuclear program.

The ultimate analysis is that desktop conferencing is the cheapest and most effective way to take part in a group discussion with participants from any spot of the globe – of course that spot does need to have access to the Internet through a broad band connection.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferancing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferancing at http://www.tandberg.com

Video conferencing is the process of communicating through visual and audio capabilities. This is not to be mistaken for video telephony as conferencing denotes a group of people simultaneously conferring over a network and video telephony, though capable of transmitting video as well as voice, is the technology that only allows two people to talk and view each other simultaneously. Therefore video conferencing is rather different and there is a lot to be known about video conferencing and the many uses it can be put to effectively. There are many ways to go about video conferencing, by ‘ways’ we mean the many technologies that can be put to use when a group of people need to go about video conferencing. Starting from the basic telephony video conferencing to state-of-the-art satellite systems, the trick is to pick the most economical of the technologies available for the business.

Knowing about video conferencing will require a bit of research if you are deciding on setting up a video conferencing system for your business. Video conferencing is also known by the term ‘video teleconferencing’. Tele denotes ‘from a distance’ and this distance can be half way around the globe. There is no limit to where teleconferencing can be delivered with the satellite technology becoming so advanced and economic to use even for the smallest of businesses. Small businesses have very limited knowledge about video conferencing and its cost implications. Some don’t even know the advantages and the availability of video conferencing. The fact is that video conferencing has been around for many decades with NASA being the first to put it to practical use. Simple analog video conferencing was established with the invention of television. Then video conferencing was setup between two or more stations using closed circuit television systems. Closed circuit means the signal was not transmitted wirelessly, it was transmitted through a pair of cables. This system, like today used input devices for video and sound. The video input device was a camera and the sound input was the microphone. The sound proof studio was a necessity, unlike today.

The technique was very expensive and so people brushed the idea aside instead of trying to know more about video conferencing. However, some people saw the advantages and started investigating and experimenting with ways to develop a more cost effective method to use video conferencing in order to make it a viable way of communications. These experiments and trials brought video conferencing to the forefront of telecommunications and businesses and institutions started enquiring about video conferencing and were considering using the technology for business meetings, which started seeming like a cheaper option as compared to having their business executives fly over to a destination to attend the conferencing. This saved a lot on time as well as money. Governments started using video conferencing to communicate with other government heads across the globe. This cut down on travel and security costs.

With the advancement of technology more and more people are becoming aware about video conferencing and as the Internet becomes more advanced and faster video conferencing will be a household name that might replace a lot of commuting saving on time and money for businesses and social organizations all over the world.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com

Telecommuting has many mistaken definitions. The very name of the job gives one and all the impression that you are taking and making calls over the telephone from your home or typing your fingers away on a computer or typewriter. Telecommuting actually means an employee was linked from home to their office computer network. But telecommuting is much broader technique and term and really includes any person who does even a portion of their work at home. This can include researching, working on drawings, or performing other types of information analysis. Telecommuting really is as simple as a person working from somewhere outside the office.

Many people are of the misconception that you have to own a business to work from your home. This just isn’t the case anymore. More people are able to perform their jobs from home. The business world is realizing the many benefits telecommuting can have on companies and their personnel. It his believed that if a worker commutes only thirty minutes each way, which isn’t much in today’s business world, not having to take this commute can add an extra five hours a week an employee can spend with his or her family. This is not five hours the employee wasn’t previously working nor doing personal things. Just 5 hours of time spent during the week getting from one spot to another.

Telecommuting also provides a telecommuter with the ability to handle personal appointments without having to take entire days off from work. A telecommuting employee can take an hour or two through the day to go to doctor appointments or school conferences and simply make up the time later in the day. This can equal higher productivity for employees. Less commuting can reduce an employee’s costs as well as the stress related to daily commuting to and from work. For many employees, the price of gas and car maintenance is unbearable. These costs of going to the office can be greatly reduced by telecommuting even a couple of days a week. Often the most distracting place to work is at the office. There are many distractions from ringing telephones to chatty co-workers. Even telecommuting part of the time can reduce these distractions and make work more efficient. And if everyone comes to the office at least one common day in a week for meetings and review sessions can and the rest of the week left for more telecommuting work. Many workers even say they would take a job making a little less money if they had the opportunity to telecommute.

Telecommuting is fast becoming a reality in today’s busy world. The workplace has shifted from a central office to far out places such as employee homes and neighborhood complexes where people primarily use electronic means to transfer work between home and office networks. Employers should consider telecommuting options for their employees and help reduce the travel related stress as well as the dangers of commuting far and wide for employees. This will boost productivity and moral of the employees who will find it easier to telecommute.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com

It might sound like a dream come true when you are offered a project you can do from the comforts of your home without having to commute to and from a place of work everyday. This is the world of the telecommuter, a person who works over the Internet through a computer installed at home. This is also known work-at-home projects and in contrast to what people might think, you need to be more dedicated to the job in order to earn a decent living as a telecommuter. For there are many distractions for the telecommuter at the home front. One needs to be focused when working as a telecommuter as this is the kind of work that pays for the work you do and not a monthly salary as you would expect.

Millions of people around the world are already taking advantage of the benefits of telecommuting and the trend is growing tremendously and is expected to cross unexpected levels in the coming years. High-speed internet connections, laptop computers and email enable the telecommuter to work from a distance instead of having to travel to and from work everyday. Working out of conventional office setting is very convenient and productivity seems to be improved while reducing travel time and the ever-increasing cost of transportation. The number of people joining the telecommuter population is predicted to reach 9.9 million by 2010.

If you are an employer you will understand the various benefits that can come from having telecommuter employees. The greatest benefit is the time that is saved from traveling and allowing your employees to have those many quality hours to spend with their families. Then there is the safety for all telecommuters that doing away with commuting long hours everyday provides.

Thousands of employees around the world are eying the chance to mark their attendance at work from their home office. Only a fortunate few have earned this position through their workplace, with most of their co-workers grumbling unmentionables under their breath. Others fed up of waiting for their boss to offer them the opportunity to convert to a telecommuter are jumping ship and changing over to a job that allows telecommuting usually taking on the roll of an independent contractor. Before you take the dive into the home employment business – or telecommuter business as it is called - you should consider what it will take to make it to your dream. You should have a tried and tested plan to become a telecommuter, or you will be like so many others who have taken the dive and are now aimlessly splashing around.

Employers have a great and very rational fear when it comes to taking on telecommuter staff is that they don’t have any way to monitor what the telecommuter is doing through the work hours. It takes plenty of trust to assume an employee is hard at work when they are out of sight. You would do well to help the boss eliminate these fears by proposing ways to track and share your progress. This will also help you make sure you are making the most of your opportunity while still fulfilling your work responsibilities.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com

The Tandberg 880 is a popular and versatile video conferencing system and is meant to be a set top codec. The standard Tandberg 880 system is delivered complete with wireless remote control, integrated W.A.V.E. II camera, high quality wired microphone and cables for connection to video displays and IP network. This system is ideal for small to medium size meeting rooms; the Tandberg 880 can transform any standard television set into a global meeting and communications tool in as little time as it will take to set up a DVD player.

The Tandberg 880 video conferencing system adapts to the H.261, H.263, H.263+, H.263++, H.264 video standards over a bandwidth of H.320 up to 384 kbps and for H.323 up to 768 kbps the system incorporates the Picture in picture and intelligent video managementTF functionality to make video conferencing all the more pleasant and easy. The Tandberg 880 has four built in video inputs and a built-in main camera. The video inputs are:

• 1 x MiniDin, S-video: auxiliary/document camera
• 1 x RCA/Phono, composite: document camera/aux
• 1 x RCA/Phono, composite: VCR
• 1 x XGA: PC

The system has a XGA Input at 640 x 480 - 1024 x 768 resolution and 56 - 85 Hz. auto-detection and a XGA Output at 640 x 480 - 1024 x 768, 60 Hz. The video outputs follow the NTSC, PAL, VGA, SVGA or XGA formats.

the Tandberg 880 include Still Image Transfer

CIF, SIF, 4CIF (H.261 Annex D) 4 SIF, VGA, SVGA, XGA

The audio features of the Tandberg 880 have not been compromised as with all the Tandberg systems and include:

• Telephone add-on via MultiSiteTF
• Audio level meters
• Automatic noise reduction
• Two separate acoustic echo cancellers
• Audio mixer
• Automatic gain control
• VCR ducking

The crystal clear audio output is delivered through two output ports namely the RCA/Phono, Line Level, which is the main audio and the RCA/Phono, which is the line level for VCR.

Even though they started out with humble beginnings Tandberg had made a name for themselves in the live video conferencing equipments industry. They have a range of products that cater to large and small businesses alike. From engineers and business tycoons to the simple student or housewife, Tandberg has something to offer. From the largest of LCD screens to the simplest of desktop video conference systems one can pick whatever suite them best. Tandberg is definitely the leader in the video conferencing industry and have come to be one of the most trusted names in live video conferencing equipment and service as well. So when you are in the need of a video conferencing expert come to the leaders in the industry Tandberg, they have al the equipment you will ever need to set up a reliable video conferencing system in your business or organization and the system will pay for itself when you compare it to the savings from the cost of travel in a single year.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com

A video conference unit may be a piece of hardware of an entire video conferencing station set up and ready to participate in a video conference online. Here we will engage in the many video conference units available in the market for you to add to your video conference unite at the office. You may have a video conference unit set up at your end but it takes an entire organization to make that video conference unit work. Like the Cisco IPVC- this is a part of the Cisco IP Communications system and is a complete portfolio of IP video Multipoint Control Units and ISDN gateways for traditional video conferencing networks, and Cisco Video Telephony solutions. Cisco Video Telephony integrates video into Cisco CallManager to enable desktop video communications-making video as easy to use and administer as a telephone. Cisco MeetingPlace enables rich-media conferencing to make remote meetings as natural as face-to-face meetings of any video conference unit.

The Cisco IPVC 3500 series MCUs, part of Cisco’s complete IP videoconferencing solution, enables multi-party video conference units to partake using traditional video conferencing networks, ad-hoc conferencing for Cisco Video Telephony, and also enables scheduled video conferences without any restrictions for Cisco MeetingPlace. Many video conference units manufactured by the leaders in the industry seamlessly integrates voice, video, and Web conferencing capabilities to make remote meetings as natural and effective as face-to-face meetings for unmatched productivity gains. For easy setup and attendance of integrated voice, video, and Web conferences, Tandberg video conference units offer a Web browser interface and the most advanced integrations with the Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes environments. Meeting coordinators simply schedule the meeting and the Tandberg video conference unit does the rest at the flick of a button. Sometimes large businesses require the services of an entire video conference unit such as the Cisco MeetingPlace to handle pre-conference formalities and technical difficulties. These video conference units make all the requirements such as setting up the conference calls, inviting the participants and ensuring the equipment works better than expected. Then there are video conference units for smaller businesses that just require a simple PC and web cam along with a microphone and a number of people just log onto an online vide conference unit such as Yahoo, messenger or AOL that offer free video conferencing online. In addition to the hardware for the PC they will also need to have a high speed internet connection such as broadband to accommodate the compressing of video packets and transmitting them over the network.

Unlike these large video conference units the online video conference is mostly used by students and daily net meeting participants. No doubt there is no need for high resolution images and very good quality sound, but even these lesser known online video conference units are useful for small businesses that have used these and unite frequently to make faster decisions by conferring with their counterparts online over miles instead of spending valuable time and money traveling the distance.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com

Video conferencing is the technique of conducting a conference between two or more participants at different sites irrespective of their demographic locations by using computer networks to transmit audio and video data. For example, a point-to-point video conferencing system works much like a video telephone, between two people only. Each participant has a video camera, microphone, and speakers mounted on his or her computer. As the two video participants speak to each other, their voices are carried over the network and delivered to the other’s speakers, and whatever images the video camera captures appear in a window on the other participant’s monitor. The other technique is multipoint videoconferencing. Multipoint video conferencing allows three or more participants to sit in a virtual conference room and communicate with the other participants of the video conference as if they were sitting right in front of you or next to each other. Technology that existed up to the mid 90s, made costs of video conferencing prohibitively expensive for most organizations, but that has changed drastically. Many experts and businessmen are of the belief that video conferencing will be one of the fastest-growing segments of the computer industry in coming years.

Companies such as Lifesize and Tandberg are leaders in the field of video conferencing systems and have installed tens of thousands of their systems in locations all over the world. Through innovative, generation next video conferencing technology, Tandberg can deliver greater video quality, brilliant audio coverage and flawless manageability. Tandberg customers enjoy better quality at any bandwidth and, with the very best cost factor available anywhere on the market. Anyone with dispersed colleagues and operations can now effectively share important information and valuable insights.

Tandberg video conferencing systems are fast becoming the indispensable communication tools of the globe. As more and more companies and business organizations are going global the need to stay in touch is becoming imperative. Business managers need to be in constant touch with their subordinates and customers all over the world. Offices being decentralized will need Tandberg’s video conferencing system to ensure that anyone can meet anyone, anywhere, at the flick of a button and maybe a small message to come online. Tandberg offers a comprehensive array of video conferencing equipment to choose from. So if you are a small business house of a conglomerate Tandberg has just the video conferencing equipment for you. They even have something for the housewife and the student fraternity. The small desktop video conferencing equipment and software is the best you could get anywhere in the market at the best prices you could ever imagine.

Though there are many kinds online video conferencing software available on the Internet, for free, you might want to try some professional video conferencing software and equipment from the leaders in the industry. You will be surprised at the difference it will make for your business, the fact that you can establish actual eye contact with the people at the other end of the line makes all the difference with the professional video conferencing systems from the pros.

Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com