Patent ID: 7590692

Claim:
A system for controlling a conference, comprising: a computer network; a plurality of user agents; a media server operative to establish, in a media plane, said conference, each of said plurality of user agents being, at least at some times, a participant in said conference; and an application server communicably coupled to said plurality of user agents via said computer network, said application server being operative to forward, in a signaling plane, at least one first message to said media server via a session based protocol, the forwarded first message including a payload in a markup language format that includes a conference specific command, wherein said media server is further operative, in response to receipt of the respective command included in said payload of said forwarded first message, to control said conference as specified in the respective command, and wherein said conference specific command is one of: a first command operative to request access to said conference; a second command operative to request notification of at least one conference event; a third command operative to request modification of at least one feature of said conference; a fourth command operative to request modification of at least one feature of at least one media conference leg in said media plane; a fifth command operative to request addition of at least one media conference leg in said media plane; a sixth command operative to request playing of audio data over at least one media conference leg in said media plane; and a seventh command operative to request recording of audio data over at least one media conference leg in said media plane.