Multi-point video conference system and media processing method thereof

• US 8,767,591 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Limited, ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Yang, Yong, Yang, Chun, Cao, Yilin, Ding, Kun, Huang, Mingshi, Gong, Xiaodong
• Primary Examiner(s): Hsu, Alpus H
• Assistant Examiner(s): LAM, YEE F
• Application Number:
  US11/830,057
• Publication Number:
  US 20070273755A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,528 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4046 with distributed floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5054 Meet-me conference, i.e. participants dial-in
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

This invention discloses a multi-point video conference system and the media processing method thereof. The multi-point video conference system includes a softswitch, an application server and terminals. The softswitch is responsible for protocol adaptation and calling process, and performing the interconnection with other systems as an external interface of the conference system. The application server is responsible for service logic control and charging. The characteristic of this invention lies in that: the terminals behaved as conference participants including a conference chairman and ordinary conference members. Any terminal registered on the softswitch could be a conference member, and the conference chairman must be a SIP soft terminal with video conference service capability in order to realize the media control. The invention realizes the media control on the basis of the soft terminal behaved as the conference chairman, therefore any terminal user that has registered on the softswitch can initiate or participate a multi-point video conference, and the participant terminal number of the video conference is not limited.

Claims

1. A multi-point video conference system, used in current networks, comprising a softswitch, an application server and terminals, in which:

said application server is used for informing the softswitch to set up a call between a terminal behaving as a conference chairman and terminals behaving as ordinary conference members according to a multi-point video conference request from the terminal behaving as the conference chairman;

said softswitch is used for protocol adaptation and call process, setting up independent calling between the terminal behaving as the conference chairman and the terminals behaving as ordinary conference members;

said terminals include the terminal behaving as the conference chairman and the terminals behaving as ordinary conference members, in which, any terminal registered on the softswitch can be a terminal behaving as ordinary conference members; and

the terminal behaving as the conference chairman is a SIP soft terminal with video conference service capability for media controlling;

completing media processing, and transmitting processed media to the terminals behaving as ordinary conference members;

wherein the terminal behaving as conference chairman is a software terminal with multi-channel media controlling and processing capability;

the terminal behaving as conference chairman includes a SIP module used for SIP session between the softswitch and the application server;

the terminal behaving as conference chairman also includes an audio processing module and a video processing module;

the terminal behaving as the conference chairman is used for conference scheduling, including launching the conference, inviting members to join the conference and ending the conference;

the terminal behaving as the conference chairman is used to capture local audio and video, and receive audio and video media packets from other conference members, the media packets received will be processed by a media processing unit within the terminal behaving as the conference chairman.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein within the terminal behaving as the conference chairman, the audio processing module is used to capture local audio and receive the audio received from other conference members, as well as synthesize the local audio and the audio received from other conference members and transmit the synthesized audio;

the video processing module is used to capture local video and receive the video from other multi-channel conference members, as well as synthesize the local video and the video received from other multi-channel conference members and transmit the synthesized video.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein within the terminals behaving as ordinary conference members, the video processing module is responsible for video segmentation and display.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein calling protocol includes SIP, MGCP or H.248, the terminals are SIP terminal, H.248 terminal or MGCP terminal.

5. A media processing method of a multi-point video conference system, wherein a multi-point video conference request in existing networks is segmented as multiple groups of relatively independent SIP session between a conference chairman and a number of ordinary conference members, each group of session performs call process and media negotiation independently;

after the calling and called parties are connected successfully in the multiple groups of SIP calls, a terminal behaving as a conference chairman is for media controlling;

completing media processing, and transmitting the processed media stream to numbers of ordinary conference members respectively;

said media processing utilizes end-to-end architecture;

wherein the media processing includes audio processing steps and video processing steps, the audio processing steps are as follows;

the groups of SIP session performing audio media negotiation independently, after the session being started, the conference chairman receiving the audio from numbers of other conference members simultaneously, then decoding them according to corresponding coding format; and

the conference chairman capturing local audio and processing them according to different audio processing schemes for itself and other conference members;

when the conference members comprise a conference chairman and ordinary conference member 1, member 2 and member 3, then the audio processing scheme will be;

synthesizing the audio of member 1, member 2 and member 3 and then broadcasting it locally;

synthesizing the audio of the chairman, member 2 and member 3, encoding it according to the audio format negotiated between the chairman and member 1, and then transmitting it to member 1;

synthesizing the audio of the chairman, member 1 and member 3, encoding it according to the audio format negotiated between the chairman and member 2, and then transmitting it to member 2;

synthesizing the audio of the chairman, member 1 and member 2, encoding it according to the audio format negotiated between the chairman and member 3, and then transmitting it to member 3.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the video processing steps are as follows:

within the media negotiation process of multiple groups of SIP session, the conference chairman negotiates the video with a first format;

after the session has been set up, the chairman decodes the multi-channel video from other conference members and samples them into a second format the chairman also samples the locally captured video into the second format, then synthesizes the two into one complete frame of video of the first format and sends it to the numbers of other conference members;

the conference members decode the received video and then segment out other members'"'"' video and display it on multi-screens.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein when the conference members comprise a conference chairman and common conference member 1, member 2 and member 3, said first format is QCIF format, and said second format twe is one-fourth QCIF format.