Method and system for controlling communications for video/audio-conferencing

A communications controller comprising at least one processor configured to:

• coordinate, during an online meeting including multiple stages, transmission of audio from each of a plurality of user devices participating in the online meeting to the other user devices participating in the online meeting via a communications system, wherein each user device is associated with a different participant of the meeting;
• progress through the multiple stages of the online meeting, wherein each stage defines a controlled interaction between the plurality of user devices and is associated with audio configuration data;
• at each stage, automatically mute audio from one or more of the plurality of user devices in accordance with the audio configuration data associated with that stage such that the muted audio is not generated at the other user devices;
• wherein, at each stage, the audio is received at each of the plurality of user devices from one or more of the plurality of participants via a microphone associated with the respective user device;
• during the online meeting, display, on at least some of the user devices, a user interface progressing through the multiple stages of the online meeting, the user interface including (1) representations of the plurality of participants, (2) an audio indicator, for each displayed representation of the participant, which changes depending on whether or not that participant is muted based on the audio configuration data, and (3) question indicators for two or more participants displayed in the user interface and muted, when the requests for questions are made by the two or more participants, in accordance with the audio configuration data.

A controller for managing communication between a plurality participants associated with respective user devices during an online meeting including a plurality of stages, the controller comprising:

• memory storing audio configuration data for the plurality of stages of the online meeting;
• a communications interface for coupling the controller to the user devices via a network;
• and
• a processing system including at least one processor coupled to the memory and the communications interface, the processing system configured to, during the online meeting:
• receive audio from each of the user devices participating in the online meeting, wherein each user device is associated with a different participant of the meeting;
• progress through the plurality of stages of the online meeting, wherein each stage defines a controlled interaction between the participants and includes a respective audio configuration data defining how the received audio is to be distributed to the user devices during the meeting;
• at each stage, coordinate transmission, via the network, of received audio from one or more of the plurality of user devices to the other user devices in accordance with the audio configuration data associated with that stage, wherein during at least one of the stages the received audio from two or more user devices is not transmitted to the other user devices and received audio from one or more user devices is transmitted to the other user devices;
• and
• control display of a user interface on each of the user devices, wherein the user interface includes (1) representations of the plurality of participants, and (2) an audio indicator, for each displayed representation of the participant, which changes depending on whether or not that participant's audio is transmitted or not according to the audio configuration data,
• wherein at least one of the user devices is associated with a participant who organized the online meeting and the user interface displayed on the user device associated with the participant who organized the online meeting includes an option to override the audio configuration data for one or more stages.