US 5,689,641 A · Multimedia collaboration system arrangement for routing compressed AV signal through a participant site without decompressing the AV signal

Abstract

A multimedia collaboration system that integrates separate real-time and asynchronous networks--the former for real-time audio and video, and the latter for control signals and textual, graphical and other data--in a manner that is interoperable across different computer and network operating system platforms and which closely approximates the experience of face-to-face collaboration, while liberating the participants from the limitations of time and distance. These capabilities are achieved by exploiting a variety of hardware, software and networking technologies in a manner that preserves the quality and integrity of audio/video/data and other multimedia information, even after wide area transmission, and at a significantly reduced networking cost as compared to what would be required by presently known approaches. The system architecture is readily scalable to the largest enterprise network environments. It accommodates differing levels of collaborative capabilities available to individual users and permits high-quality audio and video capabilities to be readily superimposed onto existing personal computers and workstations and their interconnecting LANs and WANs. In a particular preferred embodiment, a plurality of geographically dispersed multimedia LANs are interconnected by a WAN. The demands made on the WAN are significantly reduced by employing multi-hopping techniques, including dynamically avoiding the unnecessary decompression of data at intermediate hops, and exploiting video mosaicing, cut-and-paste and audio mixing technologies so that significantly fewer wide area transmission paths are required while maintaining the high quality of the transmitted audio/video.

Claims43

Dependent claims

A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants comprising:

(a) first, second and third locations;
(b) at least one workstation at each of the first, second and third locations, each workstation including audio and video capture and reproduction capabilities arranged to capture and reproduce participant video images and spoken audio;
(c) a codec associated with each of the first, second and third locations;
(d) an AV path linking the three locations;
(e) a network switch associated with at least one of the first and second locations and designed to route codec compressed AV signals representing captured participant video images and spoken audio along the AV path;
(f) a switch in communication with the third location to route compressed AV signals, destined for the second location, from the first location to the second location without the compressed AV signals being decompressed or reproduced at said third location;
and
(g) a Local Area Network switch functionally positioned between the workstation at and the codec associated with one of the first and second locations to route signals to the workstation at that location,
wherein the location at which the Local Area Network switch is positioned is a multi-participant location having a plurality of workstations, and
wherein the Local Area Network switch is arranged to receive signals from the codec at that location and route the received signals to a destination workstation of the workstation plurality.

7 more elements

A method of conducting a teleconference among at least one participant at each of first and second locations, each location having at least one associated workstation with audio and video capture and reproduction capabilities and a codec and one of of the locations having a Local Area Network switch, the method comprising the steps

(a) linking the first and second locations with a third location including at least one workstation with audio and video reproduction capabilities and at least one codec;
(b) capturing video images and spoken audio of a participant at the first location;
(c) compressing signals representing the captured video and audio at the first location;
(d) routing compressed signals, destined for the second location, to the third location;
(e) receiving the routed signals at the third location and routing the received signals from the third to the second location without decompressing the received signals or reproducing the audio or video represented by the received signals at the workstation at the third location;
(f) receiving the signals from the third location and reproducing the audio and video, captured at the fast location, at the second location;
and
(g) using the Local Area Network switch to route signals representing captured participant audio and video between the workstation and the codec at the location having the switch.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Multimedia collaboration system arrangement for routing compressed AV signal through a participant site without decompressing the AV signal

Life of this patent

Multimedia collaboration system arrangement for routing compressed AV signal through a participant site without decompressing the AV signal

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims43