BT Relate 2000

Forgotten Technology · 1993

BT’s Relate 2000 brought colour video calls to ordinary home telephone lines in 1993.

Designed and manufactured by GEC-Marconi, it combined a corded telephone, integral camera and small colour LCD. Digital compression allowed speech and low-frame-rate colour pictures to travel over an ordinary analogue telephone line. It went on general sale in March 1993, following a prototype demonstration in 1992. Video calling required mains power and compatible equipment at both ends.

Why It Mattered

BT’s first commercially available videophone offered something that still felt futuristic in 1993: seeing the person you were calling through an ordinary home telephone line. In practice, pictures could blur or judder, speech sounded less natural, and both households needed compatible equipment. It brought video calling into the home, but the price and uneven call quality made it difficult to justify buying one—especially if nobody you knew had one too.

Video over the Telephone Network

The Relate 2000 digitised and compressed colour pictures for transmission through the conventional analogue public switched telephone network.
Launch specifications described a 14.4 kbit/s moving-video mode with a stated maximum near ten frames per second and a 9.6 kbit/s still-image mode.
Newspaper testing reported approximately five to eight images per second in practice, with blurred or jerky movement and less natural-sounding speech.

Hardware and Controls

The desktop unit combined a corded telephone, integral camera and hinged colour LCD measuring approximately three inches or 7.5 cm.
Functions included self-view, picture-in-picture, freeze-frame or still-image operation, and controls to refresh or disable outgoing video.
Video calls used ordinary telephone connections, but video, loudspeaker and timer functions required mains power.

Price, Compatibility and Adoption

BT sold each unit through BT phone shops and Dixons for £399, or offered a pair for £749.
Compatible equipment was required at both ends for video, creating a network-effect problem despite the discounted two-unit price.
Marconi’s M-VTS system was incompatible with AT&T’s competing analogue-videophone system, and the Relate 2000 did not achieve broad household adoption.

Associated With

BT - British marketer; GEC-Marconi - designer and manufacturer

Defining Feature

Digitally compressed colour video transmitted over an ordinary analogue telephone line

Status

Discontinued - withdrawal date unknown

Primary Records

Image Sources

Image 1 — Science Museum Group Collection; © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Image 2
Image 3 — Science Museum Group Collection; © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Image 4 — Science Museum Group Collection; © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum