Task 2: Prepare a plan of project activities

9. Video conferencing software
Task 1. Read and translate the text

What Is Video Conferencing Software?

As the name suggests, video conferencing software is software that allows two or more people to emulate a person-to-person meeting over the internet using real-time, multidirectional video and audio streaming.

A Brief History of Video Conferencing

Credit for the first video conferencing technology would probably have to go to AT&Ts Picturephone. As far back as 1968, this device used the Bell telephone network to broadcast a video feed between three Picturephone booths in Washington DC, New York, and Chicago. These three Picturephones could communicate only with each other. Costs ranged from $16 to $27 for three minutes.
While there would be many advances in video and broadcasting technology in the following decades, it would take the growth of the internet before video conferencing technology really hit the mass market.
Today, video conferencing software is used by companies of all sizes to connect global partners and employees. Thanks to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, it has come on leaps and bounds in terms of both accessibility and affordability to become one of the essential technologies of the modern business communications suite.
There are video conferencing solutions to suit many different needs. From best video conferencing software for small businesses to customized packages that incorporate file-sharing and text functionalities, to products that straddle the boundary between business-oriented and personal communication tools.

What’s the Difference Between Point-to-Point and Multipoint?

Video conferencing software applications facilitate both point-to-point (two-person) and multipoint (three or more participants) video meetings.
Point-to-point video conferencing is similar to a typical video call that many of us are familiar with. As the two participants speak to each other, the audio and video signals from one device are carried over the network and fed to the other.
Multipoint video conferencing uses the same setup of camera, microphone, monitor, and speaker to enable three or more people to recreate the kind of dynamic multidirectional conversation that is possible in a brick-and-mortar conference facility.