Web conferencing or internet 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 old video conferencing facility first introduced in the mid 60s that was sparingly used until the late 80s. This was 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 90s 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...