Conquering Distances Via Video Conferencing Software
Michalis "BIG Mike" Kotzakolios
Kotzakoliou, SSA

With the advent of the Internet, businesses have gone global. The entire world has become a viable market for any enterprise in this, the digital age. And since communication is a vital aspect of any business, the World Wide Web has also helped facilitate the same with so much ease and convenience. But times have evolved. Whereas communication was once conducted exclusively through emails, people can now exchange ideas in real time, through voice and video applications. Indeed, communicating with someone from the other side of the globe has become as easy as talking to the monitor itself, and this is made possible by video conferencing software.

A discussion on video conferencing software would be moot without discussing video conferencing. Video conferencing is the transmission and reception of audio and video signals via the Internet for the more efficient effectuation of communication. With video conferencing, people can communicate while seeing each other on their screens. This manner of exchanging messages is more personal, and is most probably the next best thing to an actual meeting. No wonder people have started to label video conferencing software as the product that makes a digital boardroom possible.

Of course, aside from transmission, compression is also essential to be able to convey data at very fast rates. This is the primary reason why video conferencing software is needed as the engine for the entire process. Usual video files are encoded in such a way that any difference in connection speed from the terminals concerned would result in terrible lags that would be detrimental to the communication aspect itself. Conferencing software takes care of this problem, freeing up much needed bandwidth for a faster data transfer.

There are many varieties of this software available in the market today, most of which offer the same basic features. Some video conferencing software, however, offer other benefits that suit particular concerns. Video conferencing software that employ the VRVS system, for example, are primed up for future applications that would involve Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), which is a channel that will soon be the video conferencing standard for faster data transfer. Other video conferencing software programs employ the H.323 system, the current standard for the industry.

The prominent manufacturers of video conferencing software are Zoon, Creative Labs, and Logitech. There are other players in the field, of course, and new ones emerge from time to time. Choosing the right video conferencing software would really depend on what you need, and what these manufacturers can offer.