Videoconferencing apparatus having integrated multi-point conference capabilities

• US 7,089,285 B1
• Filed: 10/05/2000
• Issued: 08/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Polycom Incorporated (Plantronics, Inc.)
• Inventors: Drell, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim, Krisna
• Assistant Examiner(s): BARQADLE, YASIN M
• Application Number:
  US09/684,145
• Time in Patent Office: 2,133 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207, 348/14.01, 348 1406- 1416, 348/552
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

A videoconferencing apparatus includes a multi-point (MP) conference application that enables the apparatus to combine and distribute audio and video signals received from a plurality of remote conference endpoints, thereby obviating the need to provide a separate multi-point control unit having hardware-based inverse multiplexers (IMUXs). The MP conference application is configured to generate, for each remote conference endpoint participating in a conference, discrete instances of a signal processing train by means of dynamically allocable IMUXs, each processing train including a communication process and audio/video/data codecs. The processed audio and video signals are subsequently conveyed to an audio mixer and video switching module for combination with locally-generated audio and video signals. The outputs of the audio mixer and video switching module are sent to each of the plurality of signal processing trains, which process the combined signals according to a transmit mode for distribution to the remote endpoints over the network.

Claims

1. A method for conducting a conference between a near conference endpoint and a plurality of remote conference endpoints connected for communication by a network, comprising the steps of:

at the near conference endpoint;

generating local audio and video signals;

receiving audio and video signals from the plurality of remote conference endpoints;

creating a plurality of processing trains for processing the received signals, each processing train uniquely corresponding to one of the plurality of remote conference endpoints;

processing the received audio and video signals;

combining the processed audio and video signals with the local audio and video signals; and

transmitting the combined audio and video signals to each of the plurality of remote conference endpoints.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a plurality of processing trains includes creating a communication process and a set of codecs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of combining the processed audio and video signals is performed using an audio mixer and a video switching module.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a circuit switch for instantiating the plurality of processing trains, the circuit switch including dynamically allocable inverse multiplexers.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the video switching module is selectively operable in a continuous presence mode, wherein images corresponding to each of the plurality of conference endpoints are displayed in separate areas of a composite image.

6. A multi-point capable video conferencing endpoint comprising:

a network interface for receiving remote audio and video data from a plurality of remote endpoints through a network;

an audio interface for receiving local audio data from a local source;

a video interface for receiving local video data from a local source; and

a CPU programmed to control receipt of the remote audio and video data, receipt of the local audio and video data;

combination of the remote audio and video data with the local audio and video data; and

transmission of the combined audio and video data to each of the plurality of remote endpoints through the network, wherein the CPU is further programmed to instantiate a plurality of processing trains corresponding to the plurality of remote endpoints, wherein each processing train receives the audio and video data from a single remote endpoint.

7. The multi-point capable video conferencing endpoint of claim 6, wherein each processing train comprises:

a communication process for sending and receiving the audio and video data to and from a single remote endpoint;

a video codec in communication with the communication process for encoding the sent video data and decoding the received video data; and

an audio codec in communication with the communication process for encoding the sent audio data and decoding the received audio data.

8. The multi-point capable video conferencing endpoint of claim 7, further comprising:

a video switching module in communication with each of the plurality of processing trains and the video interface for combining the local video data with the remote video data; and

an audio mixing module in communication with each of the plurality of processing trains and the audio interface for combining the local audio data with the remote audio data.

9. The multi-point capable video conferencing endpoint of claim 6, wherein the network interface comprises a plurality of ISDN ports corresponding to the plurality of remote endpoints.

10. The multi-point capable video conferencing endpoint of claim 6, wherein the network interface comprises an Ethernet connection.