Patent ID: 8498389

Claim:
A system, comprising: a video teleconferencing system having a first link including a video channel and an audio channel, said video channel containing video signals sent from multiple locations that are merged in a manner to be presented in separate areas of a video display of the video teleconferencing system if none of said locations are active or that are individually presented in the video display based on an active location determined by a conference visualizer, and said audio channel merging audio signals from all conference participants located at said locations; the conference visualizer providing information via a second link to said video teleconferencing system indicating the active location, thereby enabling said video teleconferencing system to determine which of said video signals to individually present; a first keyboard connected to the conference visualizer to provide input to the conference visualizer; and a second keyboard connected to the video teleconferencing system to provide input to said video teleconferencing system; wherein the inputs of either keyboard select an operating mode for the conference visualizer.