nch, German, and English). Within the ITU, two organizations promote recommendations that relate to multimedia and videoconferencing. These are the ITU's Telecommunications Standardization Sector and its Radiocommunications Sector. Until 1993, the ITU-T was known as the CCITT (Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique) and the ITU-R as the CCIR (Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique des Radiocommunications). The ITU-R generates recommendations that deal with the preparation, transmission, and reception of radio-based signals, with the term 'radio' being taken in the broadest sense, to include television and telephony. The ITU-R's contribution to multimedia primarily relates to television formats, specifically the CCIR Rec. 601-2 specification for digital video and the CCIR Rec. 709 specification for HDTV. The ITU-T is the largest body of the ITU. It generates functional and electrical specifications for telecommunications and data communications networks. Because standardization today is a global activity the ITU-T cooperates with other standards bodies. For instance, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a member of the ITU-T and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and International Standards Organization (ISO) also incorporate their protocols into the ITU standards. The ITU-T has ratified two important groups of interactive multimedia standards: the H.32X and T.12X specifications. It also developed the G.7XX audio specifications and the V.80 modem specification. Along with its work on ISDN and B-ISDN, the International Standards Bodies ITU-T has laid the foundation international audiovisual exchanges. In October of 1996 the ITU-T convened its second World Telecommunication Standardization Conference (WTSC 96) in Geneva. At the Conference, the Questions for the next ITU study period (1997-2000) were drafted and Study Group 16 was created. Known as "Multimedia Services and Systems," Study Group 16 is intended to formally coalesce the informally linked sp