Camarillo Firm Markets Classroom Conferencing

A Camarillo firm, View Tech Inc., is marketing a classroom video conferencing system that uses telephone lines rather than satellite transmissions to connect teachers with students in distant classrooms.

The desktop system, called Picture Tel, was used last month to allow a group of teachers in Ventura County to take part in a consumer economics workshop being conducted in Long Beach.

The meeting was one of a series made possible in the past 18 months by equipment supplied by View Tech. The events are conducted by EconomicsAmerica of California, a Long Beach concern that has conducted two dozen such workshops throughout Southern California.

In the latest meeting, seven Ventura County instructors gathered in a conference room at View Tech’s headquarters, taking part in a workshop conducted from Long Beach by Eugene B. Gendel, an economics professor at Woodbury University in Burbank.

Using hardware and software installed in computers at both sites, all participants were able to see and hear each other, Gendel reported.

“After the first few minutes, you almost forget that you are not actually in the same room as the teachers,” he said. “You have the advantage of carrying on normal discussions without the time-consuming travel to their location.”

Last month’s video meeting was sponsored by Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Ventura. Bob Hatfield, View Tech’s chief executive, said his company hopes to distribute the Picture Tel system to school districts throughout Southern California.