Patent ID: 9009341
Filing Date: 2015-04-14
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method for managing bandwidth comprising: receiving at a network interface, N video streams from N video terminals, wherein N is 3 or more video streams; sending from the network interface, N−1 video streams to each of the N video terminals to form a video conference, wherein the N−1 video streams sent to each of the N video terminals comprise video streams from other video terminals in the video conference; receiving in a video controller via the network interface, an indication of a change in how at least one of the N video terminals is displaying a received one of the N−1 video streams sent from the network interface; and responsive to receiving the indication of the change in how the at least one of the N video terminals is displaying the received one of the video streams, causing a change to a bit rate of the received one of the N−1 video streams, wherein causing the change to the bit rate comprises determining a highest common bit rate for the N video terminals that are displaying the received one of the N−1 video streams and, after determining the highest common bit rate, sending a message to a video terminal that is a source of the received one of the N−1 video streams lowering the bit rate to the highest common bit rate when the indication indicates a decrease in the display size of the received one of the video streams.