ON SOME ASPECTS OF VIDEO TELEPHONY AND VIDEO CONFERENCING.

A video telephone trial network, set up between the Netherlands PTT Administration and Philips is reported. The network interconnected 65 subscribers in offices and laboratories of Philips at Eindhoven and Hilversum, and the PTT at the Hague and Leidschendam. The Netherlands PTT Administration provided the transmission facilities including radio links, and Philips supplied the subscriber equipment, the exchanges and the repeaters in the local network. Preliminary results show that a psychological threshold exists in the acceptance of videotelephony. To people that are willing to fully participate, it can be a satisfactory means of communications, in particular for those tasks for which the conventional telephone service is inadequate.