Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020
1:30 – 3:00 PM PDT

Virtual Event

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic looks like it will be the catalyst that turns video conferencing into an everyday communications tool for use by everyday people. This 50+ year overnight success story has roots dating back to at least the 1964 World’s Fair with AT&T’s vision of a videophone that would be as simple to use as a telephone. 

To realize that vision, many different technologies would have to be invented, refined and cost-reduced, including video capture and associated screens, broadband infrastructure and the cloud, and the digitalization of audio and video and the associated compression algorithms. The names of many of the Silicon Valley start-ups and companies, like CLI, C-Cube, and Divicom that built the foundation for video conferencing are no more, but some, like 8×8 and Intel, remain.

Join the IEEE Silicon Valley Technology History Committee as we look back at this service where the hype and marketing often raced ahead of the technology and infrastructure. Our speakers will provide the lessons they learned along the way and explain how slowly the various building blocks came together and were ready to deliver when the market was ready. Finally, we will take a glimpse into the future to see what is next, whether it is about improving security to the role of future technologies, like virtual reality in creating richer communication experiences.

VIDEO RECORDING

Speakers:

Dave House: Senior VP of Intel when they purchased the DVI technology from David Sarnoff Research Center Laboratories. This technology brought multimedia to the DOS-based PCs and later became a fundamental building block for Intel’s ProShare video conferencing system. House went on to lead telecom and networking stalwarts, such as Bay Networks, Nortel, and Brocade. He is currently the proprietor of the highly acclaimed House Family Vineyards.

Eric Dorsey: Director of Engineering at Compression Laboratories, a pioneer in video compression for both video conferencing and television distribution networks. He was involved in the initial meetings of the MPEG standard committees and went on to senior roles at notable set-top companies, such as Thompson and TiVo. More recently, he worked on a project for preserving Dr. Stephen Hawking’s synthetic voice

Bryan Martin: A member of the Technical Staff that developed IIT’s Visual Processor Unit which CLI used as a replacement for discrete circuits. Martin went on to lead technical operations for the rebranded 8×8 and, as CEO, transitioned it from hardware to one of the pioneers in delivering Unified Communications as a Service using voice and video over IP. Currently, he is Chairman and CTO of 8×8, Inc.

Ken Pyle, the moderator is a member of the Board of this committee and traditionally our videographer.