| Conducting a conference
between two or more participants at different sites by
using computer networks to transmit audio and video data.
For example, a point-to-point (two-person) video conferencing
system works much like a video telephone. Each participant
has a video camera, microphone, and speakers mounted on
his or her computer. As the two participants speak to
one another, their voices are carried over the network
and delivered to the other's speakers, and whatever images
appear in front of the video camera appear in a window
on the other participant's monitor.
Multipoint videoconferencing allows three or more participants
to sit in a virtual conference room and communicate
as if they were sitting right next to each other. Until
the mid 90s, the hardware costs made videoconferencing
prohibitively expensive for most organizations, but
that situation is changing rapidly. Many analysts believe
that videoconferencing will be one of the fastest-growing
segments of the computer industry in the latter half
of the decade.
Video Conference Tutorial for iChat and AIM
Video conferencing is easy to use once it is set up
correctly. With the right equipment video and audio
quality are surprisingly good. This video conferencing
tutorial will show you how to set up iChat 4 and AIM
6.5 to allow you to audio or video conference with a
Mac or PC. (View my original tutorial for iChat 3 and
AIM 5.9 here.)
Included are step-by-step instructions for getting
a free screen name, downloading free software, installation
and use, video conferencing camera recommendations,
firewall port settings, VoIP interference tips, and
troubleshooting guides for both Mac and Windows XP.
(Solid underlined links open in a new page while dotted
underline are within this page or web site.)
To video conference between AIM and iChat you will
need either an AIM (AOL Instant Messaging network) screen
name or a .Mac member name (Mac users can use either.)
Both are free. You do not need to sign-up for AOL to
get the screen name for video conferencing. |
