Advancement of Video Conference Technology

There are many changes with the video conferencing technology as several new equipments are invented

MPEG-2 Videoconferencing

Moving Pictures Engineering Group (MPEG-2) videoconferencing is one of the higher quality forms of videoconferencing. MPEG-2 video cards are used for encoding and decoding. After signaling between conferencing systems they send different size of data streams ranging from 1.5Mbps up to 15Mbps.

It has a very complex standard that includes many resolution and format. This encoding is used in many consumer products like DVD players, satellite TV receivers and digital cable TV receivers.

MJPEG (Motion-JPEG)

It is an encoding technique that compresses each video frame before transmission. It uses no inter-frame information that an error or packet loss on the network only crashes a tile and not other frames. It provides two type of compression using MJPEG codecs. One is set a fixed compression level for the DCT codec then it compresses each video frame and transmits it. Another one set a bandwidth cap and it allows Q-value to vary frame-by-frame.

MJPEG is used when a videoconferencing has little or no movement. This type of encoding has consistent, easy editing in frames. JPEG-compression is very cheap to do in hardware. It is a very It can be use for video frames from sub-QCIF size up to full-size 1080i-HDTV.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol for initiating, managing and terminating voice and video sessions across packet networks. SIP sessions involve one or more participants and can use unicast or multicast communication. Borrowing from ubiquitous Internet protocols, such as HTTP and SMTP, SIP is text-encoded and highly extensible. SIP may be extended to accommodate features and services such as call control services, mobility, interoperability with existing telephony systems, and more.

SIP is being developed by the SIP Working Group, within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The protocol is published as IETF RFC 2543 and currently has the status of a proposed standard. Compared with H.323 it promises greater scalability and flexibility. SIP is specifically developed for the Internet.

Video conferencing technology is revolutionizing the way students learn and how executives communicate over the internet. Many believe that SIP videoconference and other IP based technologies will eventually replace ISDN as the medium of choice for videoconferencing. Videoconference technology is still evolving with new emerging technologies vying for place as a cost effective solution to long travels and expensive meetings.