Video conferencing is one among the must have technologies essential for ensuring the smooth operation of businesses and enterprises. The technology enables the participation of all members of the organization in meetings despite the physically distant locations they are in. By making use of video conferencing system, the employees can attend team meetings in real time.
In this session, we answer some of the frequently asked questions on video conferencing.
What Are The Essential Components Of Video Conferencing?
The essential video conferencing equipment includes:
- Video Input – Video cameras or web cams are used to supply video input to the conferencing system.
- Audio Input – Microphones are usually placed centrally or near individual participants.
- Video Output –Monitor, television, computer screen or television.
- Codec – Coder-decoder technology that is associated with hardware or software used to compress and decompress videos sent between end points.
- Echo Cancellation Software – It cancels out echoes to enable undisturbed real-time conversation.
- Internet Connection –A stable internet connection is quintessential for video conferencing.
How Is Data Compressed In Video Conference?
The camera and microphone captures audio and video signals from a video conference. The data involves continuous frequencies that represent color shades, sound, depth and brightness, indicating that the data would require enormous bandwidths for transmission. Codecs are used to compress the data prior to its transmission which is then decompressed at the receiving end.
How Is Video Conferencing Data Transferred?
After compressing the data digitally, it can be sent across a digital network and in the majority of cases, broadband internet connection is the preferred network. The data that is received by the other participant’s video conferencing system at the receiving end is decompressed/decoded back into its original form.
How Does Video Conferencing Data Get Through Firewall?
Firewalls are designed to protect businesses from viruses and malicious worms. However firewalls may block video conferencing data. In order to facilitate failsafe video conferencing, firewalls need to:
- Recognize the signals of video conferencing
- Enable the signals to bypass the firewall all the while offering protection for other kinds of traffic
- Handle traffic to ensure the quality of video conferencing
Session Border Controllers (SBCs) are the standard equipments used to enable video conferences get through firewalls. SBC is a combination of hardware and software.
Video conferencing ensures the participation of all the employees of a company or members of a business team in important discussions and team meetings.