CU-SeeMe is an Internet videoconferencing client. CU-SeeMe can make point to point video calls without a server or make multi-point calls through server software first called a "reflector" and later called a "conference server" or Multipoint Control Unit (MCU). Later commercial versions of CU-SeeMe could also make point-to-point or multi-point calls to other vendor's standard H.323 endpoints and servers.
History[edit]
CU-SeeMe was originally written by Tim Dorcey of the Information Technology department at Cornell University It was first developed for the Macintosh in 1992 and later for the Windows platform in 1994. Originally it was video-only with audio added in 1994 for the Macintosh and 1995 for Windows. CU-SeeMe's audio came from Maven, an audio-only client developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The platform was introduced to the public on April 26, 1993, as part of an NSF funded education project called the Global Schoolhouse.
In 1994 WXYC utilized CU-SeeMe to simulcast its signal to the net and so became the world's first internet radio station.
On June 20, 1995, now defunct London cable channel Channel One used CU-SeeMe to simulcast its programme Digital World on the Internet, becoming the first UK television programme to broadcast live on the web. The programme was frame-grabbed every 2 frames using a macro written in Windows by duo Thibault & Rav.
On Thanksgiving morning in 1995, World News Now was the first television program in the US to be broadcast live on the Internet, using a CU-SeeMe interface. Victor Dorff, a producer of WNN at the time, arranged to have the show simulcast on the Internet daily for a six-month trial period. CU-SeeMe was also used in a taped interview segment in which anchor Kevin Newman and Global Schoolhouse director and founder Dr. Yvonne Marie Andres discussed the future of computers in communication.
In March 1996, CU-SeeMe was used for the first ever live internet broadcast of a musical theatre performance with the production of Cowboys in Love: The Hank Plowplucker Story. The show was produced by The Ethereal Mutt, and the stream was a partnership between Emutt and the CIS staff at Arizona State University.
The Internet Phone Connection, written by Cheryl L. Kirk was one of the first consumer books to feature CU-SeeMe. The book outlined how to use the program to communicate across the globe.
CU-SeeMe 2.x was released as a commercial product in 1995 through an agreement with Cornell University. The full commercial licensing rights were transferred to White Pine Software in 1998.[