It’s just as easy to transmit video information over the Internet as it to send voice. As long as the connection’s bandwidth is wide enough, regular and high-definition TV can be transmitted. The ITU defines the video compression via its H.263 and H.264 standards. H.264 provides broadcast quality with MPEG-4 compression.
While streaming broadcast video has yet to appear in most areas, VoIP already is being widely adopted for the videoconferencing marketplace. Bob Romano of RadVision indicates that interactive videoconferencing has been around for years in various forms, but it’s now converging into IP.
Video setup is accomplished with H.323 and SIP. When it comes to compression, voice and VoIP are the same.
Several companies have already announced video-over-IP chips, including Telairity Semiconductor and Sigma Designs.