System and method for managing multi-media conferences using group segmentation

摘要

A conference management system that is capable of managing one or more panels within a teleconference. The conference manager is capable of receiving commands for the purposes of configuring one or more panels and, during a teleconference, activating various panels at various times. In particular, the conference manager is configured to add participants in a teleconference to a panel. The conference manager is also configured to activate a panel, which has the effect of unmuting the audio and video media of the participants previously identified as members of the panel. The conference manager can be further configured to restore the conference to its previous mode, such as a lecture mode in which a lecturer participant is identified as a permanent speaker such that activating and deactivating a panel does not result in the lecturer being muted. Muting treatments other than activating a panel can also be applied to the teleconference.

主权项

1. A method for controlling a teleconference comprising:
modifying, by a first data-processing system, a first database record to identify a first group of participants in a teleconference as belonging to a first panel, wherein the teleconference is preconfigured to have, in addition to the first group of participants, a second group of participants who are non-members of the first panel; receiving, by the first data-processing system, a first representational state transfer (REST) application program interface (API) call from a second data-processing system indicating that a first muting treatment is to be applied to the teleconference; and applying, by the first data-processing system to the teleconference, the first muting treatment such that i) a first muting state is applied to all of the participants in the first group as identified in the first database record and ii) a second muting state is applied to at least one of the participants in the second group, concurrently with each other.