Teleconferencing - An Upgraded Means of Communication

1900: At the World's Fair in Paris, the 1st International Congress of Electricity was held, where Russian, Constantin Perskyi made the first known use of the word "television." Soon after, the momentum shifted from ideas and discussions to physical development of TV systems. Two paths were followed: Mechanical television - based on Nipkow's rotating disks, and Electronic television - based on the cathode ray tube work done independently in 1907 by English inventor A.A. Campbell-Swinton and Russian scientist Boris Rosing. 1906: Lee de Forest invents the "Audion" vacuum tube that proved essential to electronics. The Audion was the first tube with the ablity to amplify signals.

A major milestone in the history of telecommunications was the invention of the electric telegraph. It was the beginning of communication via wire. The computer industry is typically thought of as new, but the essential technology of computer networks was developed when Americans were migrating westward. The Magnetic Telephone Company, as well as dozens of other high tech companies of the nineteenth century, followed the railways with miles and miles of telegraph lines. (Derfler & Freed, 2003).

In the year 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was the first one to patent telephone. By using the equipment designed for telegraph, this technology was developed. With the help of operators, all the calls were connected. And in early 1890’s, a support of the mobile telephony came into actuality when the radio communication was invented by Charles Stevenson for keep contacts with the offshore lighthouses. Later in year 1894, signals known as radio waves were transmitted over the distance of 2kms by Guglielmo Marconi.

Companies in today’s economy are looking for ways to reduce the cost of doing business and IP telephony provide this opportunity. IP telephony will continue to see tremendous activity and make incredible gains in the enterprise space. Until the service providers work their way through all that excess inventory, and are once again ready to research new technology, you can rest assured that next-generation telephony will be busy gaining traction in the enterprise market. (www.tcnet.com,2004) Cost Savings Model Analog and digital based phone systems that use a different set of communication protocols but similar cables to connect to a POP (Point Of Presence) are a very familiar site. These are present not only in home setting, but also in large industrial and office application.

Although information and communications technology describes a large range of systems there are still some underlining common features. An information system incorporates a group of people, equipment and procedures. It is there to collect, record, process, store, retrieve and present information. The importance of ICT for the smooth running of a multi-site business is paramount, the following are a number of ways in which ICT can improve your company’s performance; - Increased Efficiency: If programmed correctly, computers can monitor the data collection processes very efficiently, whilst also checking for human errors and providing help and guidance to the user. Most large scale organisations are using computer-assisted interviewing as standard in many of their surveys simply because of the remarkable achievements good data collection programs can make to reduce human error and speed processing in the collection of important information.

In telecommunications this is a connection of peripherals together so that they can exchange information. The first such exchange of information was on May 24, 1844 when Samuel Morse sent the famous message "What hath God wrought" from the US Capitol in Washington D.C. across a 37 mile wire to Baltimore using the telegraph. The telegraph is basically an electromagnet connected to a battery via a switch. When the switch is down the current flows from the battery through the key, down the wire, and into the sounder at the other end of the line. By itself the telegraph could express only two states, on or off.

The Three Telegraphs In 1830, an American named Joseph Henry showed the potential of William Sturgeon's electromagnet for long distance communication by sending an electronic current over one mile of wire to activate an electromagnet which caused a bell to strike. In 1837, the British physicists, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented the ... ... middle of paper ... ...em. Telephone Rivals the Telegraph Until 1877, all rapid long-distance communication depended upon the telegraph. A slower and more tedious form of long distance communication was posting letters. It was that very year that a rival technology developed, this device would (again) change the face of communication -- the telephone.

However, it wasn’t until 1868, that the first power station was built. The power station was used to power; lights, heating, inventions that produced hot water, an elevator, life saving devices and farm buildings. It wasn’t although until 1882, that the public power station started operation. Therefore technology advances, are our friend. Since then, inventors have created a wide range of inventions, an invention that has once again been reinvented was the telephone, the idea was first created back in 1874, but it wasn’t until March 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell first uttered, "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you."

(Alexander Graham Bell Bio) Alexander’s most popular and most well-known invention was the telephone. It was an upgrade from form of communication at the time, the telegraph, which was a clicking machine that had different patterns for each ladder of the alphabet. “The telephone was able send telegraph transmissions that could be sent on the same wire if they were transmitted on different harmonic frequencies.”(Alexander Graham Bell Bio) The telephone had an end where you speak into it and the other end played the noises from the other telephone. “He was the first to realize electrical currents could exactly duplicate sound waves transmitting multiple sounds by vibrating the air in a series of frequencies” (Alexander Graham Bell) Bell believed his invention of the photophone was even greater than the telephone. The photophone was a device that enabled sound to be transmitted on a beam of light.

“However, the first successful wireless transmission of human dialogue took place on Christmas Eve 1906.” Credit for this successful wireless transmission goes to Reginald Fessenden. He used a radio to transmit music and verbal communication to ships at sea in the Atlantic. When the 1920s rolled around mobile radio systems in the United States were operating at 2MHz. These systems were mostly used by law enforcement agencies for dispatching. Then, just shortly after World War II happened in 1946, several of the first mobile radiotelephone systems popped up in the United States.