Communication system and method of using the same

A communication system, comprising:

• a terminal device;
• at least one conference appliance that is communicatively connectable to the terminal device,
• a server computer device configured to provide at least one social network service, the server computer device being communicatively connectable to at least one of the terminal device and the conference appliance;
• the terminal device being configured to communicate with one of the server computer device and the conference appliance to join the conference appliance to a conference communication session for providing at least one service for that conference communication session such that a graphical user interface is displayable by the terminal device to communicate a request to join the conference appliance to the conference communication session in a same way as a human user of the social network service is invited to join the conference communication session, the graphical user interface having icons, each icon representing an entity that is joinable to a conference communication session, each conference appliance being represented as a respective one of the icons for joining to the conference communication session such that input for selection of the conference appliance for utilization of the conference appliance in the conference communication session is providable via selection of the icon representing that conference appliance and moving icon along the graphical user interface to a graphical element of the graphical user interface to actuate the joining of the conference appliance to the conference communication session;
• wherein the conference appliance is configured to receive audio from conference participants within a conference room for the conference communication session and the conference appliance is configured to output audio of the conference communication session in the conference room during the conference communication session;
• and
• the conference appliance is configured to communicate with terminal devices of conference participants within the conference room to deactivate microphones and speakers of the terminal devices during the conference communication session at a time the conference appliance is joined to the conference communication session.

A method of facilitating a conference communication session via a communication network, the method comprising:

• a terminal device having a processor and non-transitory memory registering with the at least one server computer device to utilize a social networking service hosted by the at least one server computer device, the terminal device communicating authentication information to the at least one server computer device before establishing a connection for use of the social networking service;
• the terminal device generating a graphical user interface after registration with the at least one server device to display the graphical user interface to a user to facilitate receipt of input from the user for communicating requests for social network services to the at least one server computer device, the graphical user interface having icons, each icon representing an entity that is joinable to a conference communication session, each conference appliance being represented as a respective one of the icons for joining to the conference communication session such that input for selection of the conference appliance for utilization of the conference appliance in the conference communication session is providable via selection of the icon representing that conference appliance and moving icon along the graphical user interface to a graphical element of the graphical user interface to actuate the joining of the conference appliance to the conference communication session;
• and
• in response to receiving a communication from the terminal device initiated via the graphical user interface relating to a scheduling of the conference communication session, the server computer device:
• communicating with a communication device to automatically schedule use of resources for the conference communication session based on information included in the communication from the terminal device such that the communication device reserves conference communication session resources so that the conference communication resources are available for the conference communication session when that conference communication session is scheduled to occur,
• communicating with terminal devices of users to be invited to the conference communication session identified in the communication from the terminal device relating to the scheduling of the conference communication session or a calendar server computer device that manages calendars for different users to have calendars associated with the users to be invited to the conference communication session updated to identify the scheduled conference communication session,
• sending information to the terminal device such that a conference appliance is identifiable to the terminal device for the terminal device to establish a connection with that conference appliance for use of at least one service for the conference communication session;
• and
• in response to receipt of input provided via movement of the icon representing the conference appliance to the graphical element transmitted to the server computer device via the terminal device, the server computer device communicating with the conference appliance to join the conference appliance to the conference communication session.