To set the foundations for future elaboration, at the simplest level, a video conference is an online meeting (or a meeting over distance) that takes place between two parties, where each participant can see an image of the other, and where both parties are able to speak and listen to the other participants in real time. The components necessary to make this happen include:

•   A microphone, webcam and speakers
•   A display
•  A software program that captures the voice stream from the microphone, encodes it, transmits to the other participant, and simultaneously decodes the digital voice stream being received from the remote participant in the video conference (most commonly referred to as a “Codec”).
•   A software program that bridges both parties together across a digital connection, managing the exchange of voice and video between participants. At either end of the connection, the video and voice traffic is combined and delivered to each participant in the form of a real-time video image and audio stream.
•   An optional management tool for the scheduling of video conferencing sessions

At a slightly more advanced level, it is also possible to provide the ability to share content from a device during a video call. The quality and type of content that can be shared depends on the rate of data exchange during the call.

Terminology used by video conferencing users to describe the process of dialling into and participating in a virtual meeting is known as “joining a bridge.” Different virtual meeting rooms are assigned unique “bridge numbers,” and users join a video call by “dialling a bridge number.”