Video multicast engine

摘要

Introduction of one or more multicast engines to a video conferencing system permits an improvement of overall network bandwidth used for a video conference. A video stream is received at a multicast engine connected to a participant of a plurality of participants in the conference where the video stream is supplied by the participant. The multicast engine selectively transmits the video stream to a server station based on determining whether the video stream is a candidate for a conference video stream to be transmitted to at least some of the plurality of participants. The conference video stream is received at the multicast engine from the server station, and the stream is transmitted from the multicast engine to any participants in the video conference that are connected to the multicast engine.

主权项

1. A method of conducting a video conference with reduced bandwidth usage, comprising:
receiving a video stream at a multicast engine connected to a participant of a plurality of participants in the video conference, the video stream being supplied by the participant, the multicast engine including a first memory and a first processor configured to execute instructions stored in the first memory; selectively transmitting the video stream of the participant from the multicast engine to a server station based on a determination of whether the video stream is a candidate for a conference video stream to be transmitted to at least some of the plurality of participants from the server station, the server station including a second memory and a second processor configured to execute instructions stored in the second memory; receiving the conference video stream at the multicast engine from the server station; and transmitting the conference video stream to any participants in the video conference that are connected to the multicast engine.