Using Conference Call Services Via The Internet
As technology advances at a steady pace, computers are becoming ever more sophisticated, with recent models being pre-configured to enable basic videoconferencing. Although web-style videoconferencing is a great way for two people to interact with each other, the large majority of the conference call services market is aimed at attracting businesses and not individual consumers. This is because professional videoconferencing equipment is very expensive and beyond the ability of most individual customers to purchase.
Most web conference call services intended for use by individual consumers are simply a PC system that have an additional camera connected to it along with some additional devices that are intended to modify certain background settings. Web conferencing can be used to initiate online conversations with almost anyone, anywhere in the world. It removes the need to rent special rooms in which to hold conferences in foreign countries. Simply invite the people you wish to initiate the web conference with using your preferred web conferencing client and wait for them to accept your invitation.
In order to hold web conferences, you will require some basic hardware in the form of a computer that is able to support various forms of media, a microphone, web camera, video card, sound card and audio listening device. Most modern computers have the majority of the required hardware built-in, and you will probably only need to purchase the web camera as an addition. An internet connection is also essential for making web conference calls. Your internet connection should also be reasonably fast, as slower internet connections affect the quality of the audio and video transmissions.
Conferencing applications such as Microsoft NetMeeting allow you to engage in videoconferencing sessions with other users. These applications allow you to adjust the gain of the microphone to a comfortable level, alter the video window size, and view anything within range of the camera lens. You can obtain these applications for a small fee and there are even some applications such as Yahoo's Messenger service that are available free of charge.
The following hardware requirements for NetMeeting should give you an idea of the kind of specifications you need in a computer for web conferencing.
- Windows 95 or higher and minimum Pentium 90 processor with 16MB of RAM
- At least 4 MB of hard drive space (with at least 10 MB extra space for temporary storage of files during installation)
- Reasonably fast internet connection
- Speakers, microphone and a decent sound card
- Web Camera
The majority of modern computers have an average of 500MB of RAM and 80 GB of hard drive space. This is more than adequate for conferencing. Even some of the older, less able computers are sufficient to interact with conference call services.