Method and system for providing an audio conference

• US 20080247528A1
• Filed: 04/05/2007
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cinchcast Holdco Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cinchcast, Inc.
• Inventors: Charish, Avrohom Y.
• Granted Patent: US 8,098,807 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5063 Centrally initiated conference, i.e. Conference server dials participants computer conference organisation arrangements H04L12/1818
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/123 where the packet-switched network is an Internet Protocol Multimedia System-type network

Abstract

A method and system for providing an audio conference includes receiving audio from a moderator via a circuit-switched telephone network, transmitting a representation of the audio to a first listener group via the circuit-switched telephone network, and transmitting a representation of the audio to a second listener group via a packet-switched network. The audio conference is preferably transmitted to the first listener group and the second listener group in real-time or near real-time (e.g., within a few seconds). Although the method and system could be used with any suitable circuit-switched telephone network, the method and system are preferably used with a public switched telephone network. Further, although the method and system could be used with any suitable packet-switched network, the method and system are preferably used with the Internet.

Claims

1. A method of providing an audio conference in near real time, comprising:

* receiving audio from a moderator via a network;

transmitting a representation of the audio to a first listener via a public switched telephone network; and

transmitting a representation of the audio to a second listener via the Internet.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the moderator with a telephone number that corresponds to a moderator position within the audio conference.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining the conference upon disconnection of the moderator from the conference, and reconnecting the moderator to the audio conference.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the first listener with a telephone number that corresponds to a listener position within the audio conference.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the second listener with a URL that corresponds to a listener position within the audio conference.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting audio to a second listener via the Internet includes encoding and streaming a representation of the audio.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying information to the moderator related to the audio conference via the Internet.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the information includes the caller identification of the first listener.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting a representation of the audio via the PSTN further includes transmitting the representation of the audio to a first listener group via the PSTN, wherein the first listener group includes a plurality of first listeners.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the information includes the number of listeners that receive the representation of the audio via the PSTN.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the information includes the number of listeners that receive the representation of the audio via the PSTN and via the Internet.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising accepting a signal from the first listener indicating a desire to contribute audio to the audio conference.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the signal includes one or more dialed tones on the PSTN.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising displaying information to the moderator related to the audio conference via the Internet.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein displaying information to the moderator includes displaying information to the moderator via the Internet and an Internet browser.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the information includes the indication from the first listener.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising

accepting an input from the moderator via the Internet to join the first listener into the audio conference;

receiving audio from the first listener via a PSTN;

wherein transmitting a representation of the audio to the second listener includes transmitting a representation of the audio from the first listener.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising accepting an input from the moderator via the Internet to play an audio file, wherein transmitting a representation of the audio to the first listener and to the second listener includes transmitting a representation of the audio file.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising recording a representation of the audio.

20. A computer program product that, when executed by a machine, provides an audio conference in real time, comprising:

instructions to receive audio from a moderator via a public switched telephone network;

instructions to transmit a representation of the audio to a first listener via the PSTN; and

instructions to transmit a representation of the audio to a second listener via the Internet.

21. A method for administrating network-based audio conferencing, comprising the steps of:

enabling a two-way audio conference between a moderator and a guest;

encoding, in real-time, audio data indicative of the two-way audio conference in a streaming format; and

publishing a representation of the audio data in the streaming format in real-time or near real-time.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of publishing is defined further as the steps of storing the audio data in the streaming format on computer readable medium accessible by a streaming server having a URL;

and providing a hyperlink to the URL of the streaming server on a web page to publish the stored audio data.

23. An audio server system for establishing two-way audio communication between a moderator terminal and a guest terminal, the audio server system comprising:

a conferencing system enabling two-way audio communication between the moderator terminal and the guest terminal;

a media encoder receiving audio data representative of the two-way audio communication, and encoding the audio data representative of the two-way audio communication in a streaming format; and

means for publishing, while the two-way audio communication between the moderator terminal and the guest terminal is ongoing, the two-way audio communication in a streaming format.

24. An audio server system for establishing two-way audio communication between a moderator terminal and a guest terminal, the audio server system being accessible by a listener terminal via the Internet, the audio server system comprising:

a conferencing system enabling two-way audio communication between the moderator terminal and the guest terminal;

a media encoder receiving audio data representative of the two-way audio communication in real-time, and encoding the audio data representative of the two-way audio communication in a streaming format, the media encoder storing the two-way audio communication in the streaming format on one or more computer readable medium;

a streaming server having a URL and also having access to the two-way audio communication in the streaming format; and

a web server providing a web page having a hyperlink including the URL of the streaming server whereby upon activation of the hyperlink by the listener terminal, the listener terminal is connected to the streaming server to stream the two-way audio communication to the listener terminal.

25. The audio server system of claim 24, wherein upon activation of the hyperlink by the listener terminal, the listener terminal is directed to the URL of the streaming server.