In the Information Age, video is generally considered a step above audio. Chatting with a friend via webcam is more thrilling than listening to an answering machine message. Further developments to the technology are no less exciting. CD technology evolved into DVD technology. That this happened is not surprising. After all, nobody wanted to switch VCDs in the middle of watching a flick. Also, video conferencing makes multi-million dollar deals more personable for huge corporations. It might seem that audio always evolves into video. In choosing between video conferencing and audio conferencing, however, some companies believe that the latter is a better technology for them.

Phone Ring
Audio conferencing involves people who are in different locations. The number of participants must be at least three people. There are three means for audio conferencing, specifically, through multi-line telephones, telephone companies, or Private Branch Exchange, or PBX. A PBX is a telephone exchange that serves one office or business.

Mission Sort of Accomplished
Telephone networks were created as a means of improving communication among people who are separated by long distances. Today, we can send e-mail and voicemail to people or groups. Additionally, we can use cell phones nearly anywhere in the world. In fact, we can telephone someone in Los Angeles, Paris, or Timbuktu whenever and from wherever we want. While audio conferencing may seem like a gift from the gods, however, it is not without its pros and cons.

The Pluses
A company can reap several benefits from audio conferencing, namely:

* Businesses are able to go global, with virtually no boundaries on the conference's scope.
* Travel time and costs are reduced, if not eliminated. People can circle the globe without leaving their offices.
* The interaction that audio conferencing facilitates helps improve a company's quality of information.
* Because more pieces of information are exchanged faster, audio conferencing allows companies to make decisions quickly.
* Audio conference is cheaper than other options, such as web conferencing. This makes it the ideal means for communication for small businesses that have to penny-pinch in order to make a buck.

The Challenges
Audio conferencing is, for the most part, beneficial to businesses. Some difficulties, however, can arise when using audio conferencing. The service usually cannot be obtained quickly, and could be very expensive. Obtaining the service usually requires contacting an operator to subscribe to, or register for, the audio conference service. In addition, you must book a conferencing resource in advance. All of these requirements explain why telephone conferences rarely happen between family members, friends, and social groups. However, some audio conference providers create products and services that eliminate the typical drawbacks of audio conferencing.

Making the Call
Though preparing for a conference call can be tedious, conference calls are inherently simple, and would remain so if the right steps are taken.

* Schedule a time that is ideal for both parties. Keep in mind that people may be in other time zones, and what is noontime for you could be midnight for them!

* Before you start the conference call, pick someone to take the minutes of the conference. Also, schedule the conference with your conference call service provider. Then, share to conference participants the call number and the password that your service provider gave you.

* Log in before the conference starts, and check off people as they enter the conference. If another party is in a conference room or at home, have them mute their phones until they speak.

* Before ending the call, review any actions that will be taken afterwards, and provide all attendees with the list. Also, schedule any future audio conferences that are needed.

Though society typically chooses video technologically over audio technology, audio conferencing can still be very useful. In fact, when used wisely, it can be music to a company's ears.

Video over IP has an interesting history and it is interesting to learn a little bit about what IP video really is. Basically, video over IP simply refers to the way Internet Protocol, also known as IP, is used to send video and audio. This is simply the step that followed video and audio being delivered over WAN or wide area networks.

Over the years telephony technology has been developed and all of these developments have worked to allow video over IP to exist. Basically, a technology was discovered for use with the phone companies and it was called ATM or asynchronous transfer mode. This was used to for transmitting and switching digital voice date. With the information age it was important to have a type of technology that allowed for moving large amounts of data. The ATM system worked well but as computers and the Internet evolved IP took its place. This was a big decision because changing core networks is no easy or cheap job, but it was a worthwhile one. Telephone companies realized they could save a lot of money by moving voice traffic over IP since all of their data was already transported that way. This decision forced the hand of broadcasters to make the same decision and switch to IP for video transmission. However, lots of research was needed on how to transfer video over IP and a lot of analyses was conducted. Soon, both audio and video were sent over IP and the ATM system was put to rest. Today IP is the best method of sending conference over IP video to homes, businesses, or other computes.

It really is interesting that video over IP could have gotten its start from telephone companies and their changing technologies. However, this is exactly what happened. It truly is interesting to see one thing lead to another as far as technology is concerned and to see how different technologies play on one another. ATM was the best way to send video and audio for some time, but things changed and IP came in and took its place. Who knows if things will change again, but looking back at history it is not entirely crazy to think it will since the only thing constant is change! And that is the basic history of how video over IP came to be. It took a lot of building on old and different technology, but video over IP was born.