Multimedia coordination system

Abstract

In a network, a media coordination system provides secure multimedia communication channels in a collaborative network environment. The media coordination system provides automatic encryption, dynamic interconnection of streams of data, and user interface elements that provide users with control over the ultimate destination of their audio and video data. The infrastructure of the system includes a plurality of client workstations that are connected to a central server using point-to-point network connections. The central server maintains a persistent virtual world of network places with objects located therein. Streams of audio and video data are coordinated between client workstations operating in the persistent virtual world by a key manager object using channels, transmitters, and receivers. The client workstations multicast their audio and video data over the network to defined recipients after receiving a multicast address and an encryption key for a specific multicast channel. In order to protect the privacy of all communications and the integrity of the coordination system, each client workstation retains significant control over distribution and reception of audio and video data since multicast transmission is tied to specific user interface elements. The multimedia user interface elements include cameras, speakers, microphones, and video panes. Since the central server only coordinates where audio and video data is broadcast for a particular interface element, each client workstation ultimately controls the destination of multimedia data through selection of the element at the user interface.