 in the same physical location. Many find that video communication allows for meetings that travel would preclude. Video communication promises cultural implications. Live videoconferences provide an interactive alternative to staged, choreographed, one-way political conventions. The 1996 conventions laid the groundwork for this trend by sponsoring Worldwide Web sites and chat rooms on the Internet. Each party provided delegate groups at its respective convention with personal computers, and provided some with personal hand-held communications systems. Before the 2004 Democratic National Convention officially started, more than 4,000 delegates made history by participating in a videoconference... without leaving their hotels. Polycom provided VSX 7000 units to each of the 22 hotels and the university that housed the 56 delegations. As a result, each delegation connected to a secure central host site using Polycom MGC 100 multi-point conferencing units for daily conferences with Democratic leaders, including former Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. "Polycom's technology helped us create an innovative environment to deliver information and better communicate with our delegates in real time. (through) a virtual Convention," said Rod O'Connor, DNCC CEO." Gore opened the series of daily, live video sessions. Video Communication Applications With increasingly fast and inexpensive network bandwidth to offices and homes, video communication technology is becoming the basis for countless new products and services. A 500+ Kbps connection from a business or a home is usual, and it is becoming common from PDAs (personal digital assistants) that have mobile phone capabilities. Figure 2-1. Videoconference with Set-top System (courtesy of Polycom). Verizon launched such connectivity in about a dozen US markets in 2004, and Sprint followed by announcing nationwide deployment of similar networks for its own PDA and connection card (which insert into lapt