Confravision
Early British videoconferencing service
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Confravision was an early British studio-based city-to-city videoconferencing service in the United Kingdom, launched in 1971 by Post Office Telecommunications.[1][2][3] In 1972, Confravision was available between studios in Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow, London, and Manchester.[4]
The studio locations were:
- Euston Tower[4]
- 2-12 Gresham Street, London[1]
- Telephone House, Birmingham[1]
- Clifton Heights, Bristol[1]
- India House, Glasgow[1]
- Bridgewater House, Manchester[1]
The interior design of the studios was by the industrial designer Kenneth Grange.[4] Each studio had seating and microphones for five participants. Up to three sites could be connected at one time. Calls could be booked either by telephone or telex.[1]
The Confravision system was still in use in 1982.[5] A Confravision department was still listed in BT's internal directory in 1986.[6]
Development
The Confravision service developed from early experiments using microwave radio links between Post Office Telecommunication's headquarters in Gresham Street and the Post Office Research Station in Dollis Hill.[7]
Sound-in-sync digital audio transmission was used on some links where there could not be separate audio and video paths.[7]
Experimental services were launched in 1975 connecting Confravision to Sweden and the Netherlands.[1]
Following the early developments in Confravision, digital video compression techniques would substantially reduce the bandwidth needed for videoconferencing.[8] Experimental tests were made[when?] of transatlantic videoconferencing between the British Confravision system and AT&T's Picturephone service over a 1.544 Mbit/s T-carrier digital circuit running over the TAT-6 transatlantic analog submarine cable.[9]
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