Fifteen / Fives #7

Below is the basic content I will use for introducing the user to videoconferencing:

IP video is a videoconferencing technology that uses the Internet as the transmission medium. Using a camera, microphone, monitor, and a piece of equipment called a codec (COMpressor/DECompressor), IP video allows two or more people in different locations to communicate with each other in real time. All parties can see and hear each other simultaneously.

BASIC COMPONENTS OF A VIDEOCONFERENCE

Camera
To capture local video. At least one camera must be present at each endpoint or site. Cameras vary in image quality and features like their ability to PTZ (Pan, Tilt, and Zoom).

Monitor
To display remote video. Monitor quality like screen size and resolution affect the size and clarity of the incoming video window.

Speakers
To play remote audio. Within a videoconference audio is as important, and often considered more important, than video. If we lose video or experience poor video quality in a conference but audio remains intact, we can still accomplish many of our communication objectives. The conference would simply become a teleconference rather than a videoconference. In contrast, poor or disrupted audio quality effectively shuts down a videoconference, often sending participants scrambling to find a "native audio" telephone to complete the meeting.

Microphone
To capture local audio. There is a very wide range that can be used for videoconferencing, from a headset mic to an array of room microphones.

Polycom VS4000
The central unit of the videoconferencing equipment. It does all the backend work to encode and decode the video and audio feeds and transimisson.

User Interface
A touchpanel that controls the cameras, the addressbook and connection start/end, the presets of the camera and all user configurations. It also switches the views between the TV, VCR, PC, ELMO, PROJECTOR, and CAMERAS.

Remote Control
Does everything the touchpanel but it is handheld.