Teleconferencing method and system

Abstract

Control of teleconference is facilitated so as to allow relatively unskilled operators to implement such control. The invention includes at least a pair of teleconferencing sites, each of which includes at least a pair of controllable video sources for deriving video signals from controllable regions of the associated site, an audio source for deriving an audio signal from the associated site, at least a pair of video displays for controllably displaying either locally or remotely generated images, an audio transducer responsive to a remotely generated audio signal for generating perceptible sound, an interface for coupling digital representations of locally generated audio and video signals to a communication link linking the sites and for coupling digital representations of remotely generated audio and video signals, a control device including a digital microprocessor and controlling, among other things, a video matrix switch, the video matrix switch having plural video inputs and outputs for controllably coupling at least a locally generated video signal to the interface and for controllably coupling locally and/or remotely generated video to said displays. The control device also includes a control video display with a touch sensitive screen for controlling the video sources and video matrix switch in response to touches on the touch sensitive screen by an operator and further including, in the form of a program in said microprocessor, apparatus to interpret commands initiated by operator touches of the touch sensitive screen and for thereafter implementing the commands if elements of the command are consistent with each other and with available resources as well as message formatting which are responsive to the logic for formatting digital messages destined for the video sources and the video matrix switch.