What is Zoom?

While Zoom has become familiar to many of us, some classmates may have heard of it but are not really clear on what it is. The following describes what Zoom is, but not how to use it.

At the most basic level, Zoom provides the ability to see the people we are talking to, as we are talking with them. It’s what we saw on an episode of The Jetsons many, many years ago, (1963 — we were Sophomores). The episode in the photo shows a doctor performing a remote diagnosis!!

  • Zoom requires a microphone, video camera, speakers, and a computer or cell phone, and the Zoom App.
  • Cell phones, Laptops, and Tablets have all of the necessary components built in.
  • Desktop PCs and MACs usually have most, but not all of the components built in.
  • Most of us already have everything that we need!


Additional Information about Zoom

If you compare the voices in a Zoom meeting to a classical phone call, it’s more like a conference phone call. Some of us may remember party line calls in the 1950s. Those party line calls, (neighbors only), preceded the more contemporary conference calls.

Comparing again to a classical phone call, phone calls used to use only dedicated copper wires, (phone lines), from our homes, which connected us to other phone users through the phone company’s switch. Zoom however, uses the internet to connect us with others. In some cases, it’s the Cable TV cable from our homes, for others it’s a satellite dish on our roof, and for others it may be our cell phone connecting to a WiFi signal.

Using our PC/MAC/Laptop/Tablet/Smart phone, the Zoom program, (App), running on that computing device, merges our voice’s audio signal and the video camera’s signal capturing our face and surroundings. That merged stream of voice and video is then sent by our computing device, (through the internet), to the Zoom Server equipment maintained by the Zoom company. Think of that Zoom Server equipment as the modern day equivalent of the old telephone switching boards run by the phone company in the good old days.

The Zoom server equipment then merges our voice/video signal with merged signals from others who have joined the same Zoom meeting as us.

That merged signal, (the mushed together signals from everyone in the Zoom meeting), is then sent back to everyone in the Zoom meeting, (through the internet), and displayed on their screen with the audio playing on their speakers.

This picture shows what happens in a Zoom Meeting of 4 people.