Desktop videoconferencing (DVC) is changing the way companies do business by adding another dimension to the limited communication capabilities of the telephone. While videoconferencing systems have been available for years for corporations willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to equip a conference room, desktop videoconferencing is relatively new and comparatively inexpensive communication revolution. Desktop conferencing enables you to see and talk to your family, friends, and business associates around the world by using a practical technology that is readily available today. It combines personal computing with audio, video, and communication technology for real-time interaction from a typical PC. Most desktop conferencing solutions provide desktop application sharing capability by which two users on different systems can simultaneously use an application that is only installed on one of the machines, so they can edit a spreadsheet, or a wordprocessor document. DVC solutions also have shared whiteboard capability that allows multiple users to simultaneously view and annotate a document with pens, highlighters, and drawing tools. Some systems can even handle multi-page documents and provide tools for presenting them. Compared to the large and expensive room videoconferencing systems that dominated the early 1990's, the cost of desktop videoconferencing is relatively low and continues to decline as technology advances. DVC is designed to simulate a face-to-face meeting by allowing the subtleties of body language and facial expression to be communicated in a way not possible via a telephone call, an e-mail, or a fax. However, DVC involves a different mode of communication requiring a mix of skills in writing, reading, speaking, and collaborating. DVC systems work by recording, digitizing, compressing and then transmitting both voice and video as digital data via communication channels. Once the data is received at the other end, it is decompressed and played through the computer's monitor and speakers. Depending on the conferencing solution that is being used, DVC technical requirements include: Hardware: such as a multimedia processors that provide the power to send and receive digitized audio and video, color video camera and a speakerphone. Software that allows the user to place and answer phone calls, control the video and audio sent and received, send, receive, and manipulate files.