Patent ID: 7804954

Claim:
A communications system, comprising: a media server configured to be inserted into a communication path between at least one personal computer having VoIP capability and at least one communication gateway; wherein the media server is configured to improve quality of audio data received in media communications from the personal computer having VoIP capability and quality of media communications received by the communication gateway; and wherein the media server is to: receive a first media communication comprising encoded audio data from the personal computer having VoIP capability, decode the encoded audio data of the first media communication with a first audio codec that was used by the personal computer to generate the encoded audio data, determine a limited group of audio codecs supported by the communication gateway based on a codec protocol requested by the communication gateway, select a second audio codec that is different from the first audio codec from the limited group of audio codecs supported by the communication gateway when the limited group of audio codecs supported by the communication gateway does not include the first audio codec that was used by the personal computer to generate the encoded audio data, translate the audio data that has been decoded at the media server into higher quality audio data when the second audio codec that was selected from the limited group of audio codecs supported by the communication gateway is of equal or lower quality than the first audio codec that was used by the personal computer to generate the encoded audio data, encode the higher quality audio data with the second audio codec, and forward the encoded higher quality audio data to the communication gateway in a second media communication having a higher quality than the first communication.