Patent ID: 8583268

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for mixing audio streams from N senders, N at least two, the method comprising: receiving the N audio streams over a network, the audio streams divided into audio chunks; buffering the audio chunks; opening a mix; cycling through the N senders, for each sender: if the sender is not yet in the mix, and if a missing audio chunk is available from the buffer, adding the sender's audio chunk to the mix; if the sender is not yet in the mix and if the audio chunk is not available from the buffer, cycling through the remaining senders and rechecking whether the missing chunk is available from the buffer; on each cycle, if the sender's audio chunk is already in the mix and the sender has at least one additional audio chunk buffered, incrementing a wait counter for that sender; wherein a predetermined early close condition is based on a value of the wait counter(s); and closing the mix if either audio chunks from all N senders are in the mix or if the predetermined early close condition is met.