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.