New Training: Intro to Communication, Audio and Video Basics

In this 8-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Lalo Nunez introduces the world of Cisco Collaboration: audio and video basics, bandwidth calculation, and a brief overview of codecs Watch this new Cisco training.

Learn Cisco Collaboration with one of these courses:

• Cisco Collaboration Solutions and Architecture

This training includes:

• 8 videos

• 43 minutes of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Intro to Collaboration

• History of Communication

• Audio Basics – What is sound?

• Audio Basics – Sound Properties

• Analog vs Digital

• Intro to Codecs

• Calculating Bandwidth

• Video Basics

Audio and Video Basics: What Are Codecs?

In the world of digital media, codecs are the pieces of software that control audio and video. Without codecs, we wouldn't have things like streaming media. Let's take a closer look at what a codec is and how they play a role in business today.

Codecs are compression technologies for media. They allow a way for electronic devices to both create and play audio and video. In general, codecs contain two components; a piece to encode (or create) and a way to decode (or read) a media file. Codecs are like a common recipe that devices use to know how to encode and decode media files.

Though you may think of codecs as purely for entertainment (mp3 and mp4), codecs also play a crucial role in business.

For example, the G.729 and G.711 codecs are popular codecs for VoIP systems. The G.729 codec can use less network bandwidth than G.711, something that some businesses may need, but at the cost of poor audio quality.

That is a good general rule of thumb for most codecs – the more compression it uses, the lower the quality the final product will most likely be.

Without audio and video codecs, we would not have digital communications today. The two examples above are just a couple of many codecs used in the business environment. Codecs are used for any digital audio and video communication method from simple phone calls to more complicated telepresence video communication methods.