Web conferencing is an online-based system of interaction that utilizes modern audio-video facilities and digital compression technology to facilitate real-time and remote, face to face conferencing. This communications facility comes as an enhanced version of the video conferencing facility introduced in the 60s that was sparingly used until the late 80s due to inherent glitches in the process of converting analog data to digital format. Compression technology available at that time was deemed inefficient to result in poor picture and audio quality during the conference.

Incidentally, the infrastructure running video conferencing systems ranging from proprietary equipment such as the T1, ATM and IDSN lines were very expensive. Moreover, pertinent software and network requirements only increased cost parameters relevant to the system.

The late 90’s saw the emergence of a viable web conferencing system with the availability of Internet Protocol (IP) platforms and more reliable video compression technology. The use of “Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)” or Internet Telephony to route conversations to the internet even extended the cost-effective attributes of web conferencing. Apart from VOIP being cheaper, it is location-independent and could therefore be accessed from any global location where internet access is available. Furthermore, VOIP can be integrated with other internet services such as data or file transfer and audio-video conferencing.

Today, web conferencing has become a popular venue for the conduct of remote meetings, conferences and presentations between individuals based in different global locations. This technology also provides a host of benefits to businesses in terms of time and cost savings given a viable alternative to personal, face to face meetings.