Patent ID: 8438226

Claim:
A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising: computer usable program code stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium, when said computer usable program code is executed by a processor it is operable to define a real time communication session having more than two communication participants, wherein the real time communication session comprises at least two distinct communication types that include audio and video, wherein said real time communication session has an upper audio threshold of N representing a maximum number of the communication session participants that receive a bidirectional audio channel of the communication session, wherein said real time communication session has an upper video threshold of M representing a maximum number of communication session participants that receive a bidirectional video channel, wherein N and M are integers greater than two; computer usable program code stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium, when said computer usable program code is executed by a processor it is operable to, while the number of session participants utilizing the audio channel and the video channel is M, add at least one additional session participant to the communication session; computer usable program code stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium, when said computer usable program code is executed by a processor it is operable to, responsive to the adding, demote at least one of the M session participants from participating within the communication session via both the audio channel and the video channel so that the one session participant communicates within the communication session through the audio channel only; computer usable program code stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium, when said computer usable program code is executed by a processor it is operable to, responsive to the demoting, permit the additional session participant to join the communication session via both the audio and the video channels; and comprising computer usable program code stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium, when said computer usable program code is executed by a processor it is operable to determine computing resources available for the real-time communication session; automatically change the values of N and M responsive to a determined change in the computing resources available; and demote at least one session participant responsive to the automatic change of the value of M.