Teleconferencing comes of age: Electronic meetings enter a new era, thanks to personal computers, video printers, slide projectors, and bright graphics, among other tools

It is 9 a.m. in New York, 2 p.m. in London, and an important teleconference is about to begin between a corporate headquarters in New York and the company's branch in London. More than a dozen executives and their staffs gather at each end to confer conveniently using high-quality audio and visual fidelity.