As a very powerful alternative to meeting in person, online video conferencing is really coming into its own. Businesses of any size are taking advantage of this technology to save on business travel, yet still have personal interaction with their customers. This is a very exciting technology for several different reasons.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a technology used to carry voice conversations using IP by digitizing voice into discrete packets that are transferred independently over the IP network. This is in contrast to traditional circuit-switched protocols used in the Public Switched Telephone Network. In simple terms a VoIP handset converts an analogue voice signal into a digital signal (binary data) that can be placed in an IP packet. For example, the telephone user speaks into their handset. The voice vibrates the diaphragm in the handset microphone and converts these vibrations to an analogue electrical signal. The analogue electrical signal is sampled at regular intervals (e.g. 8000 times per second) and each sample is assigned a binary number - typically 8 bits long. The binary data is assembled into small packets and inserted into the data field of the IP packet and sent to the destination.
A telecommunications network engineer in general is a professional who designs, installs and maintains telecommunications and computer networks. This is not an entirely technical role as the Network Engineer will ideally have an understanding of business processes to ensure any design offered is appropriate to the operation of the business. The network infrastructure must enable the business to meet its goals and ensure long term productivity. If the network infrastructure is underspecified it can bring a business to a standstill.
Real estate agents who utilize brandable web conferencing software are decades ahead of the rest of the pack.