3Com® Conferencing Converges Audio, Video, and Document Collaboration

Traditional conference calls are often a nuisance to arrange and expensive to hold, but the flexibility and power of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) creates a new model for such group activities. Users can configure multiparty audio conferences right from their desktops. They can hold "on-the-fly" conferences simply by dialing a specialized SIP Uniform Resource Indicator (URI, similar to a URL).

Cost is lowered because internal users communicate over IP to the server which binds together the various participant packet streams. External users dial in the usual way, and the receiving digital gateway converts the circuits to packets and then passes these to the conferencing server.

Video services are established in much the same way. Packet streams, however, are more easily integrated since they often originate in a web camera attached to the personal computer with Ethernet service readily available.

Document conferencing is often used in combination with video or audio conferencing to collaborate on the development of such communications as presentations or word files. Time and cost economies of this type of group work can lower expenses, improve productivity, and strengthen customer interactions.