Patent ID: 6850266

Claim:
A process for carrying out and managing a videoconference among a plurality of user locations, the process comprising the steps of: linking a direction room to a plurality of user locations from which audiovisual signals originate; converting the audiovisual signals from their respective signal formats to at least one transmission signal format before transmission of the audiovisual signals to the direction room and then transmitting the audiovisual signals from the user locations to the direction room using the at least one transmission signal format; prior to using the audiovisual signals at the direction room, converting all of the received audiovisual signals into a common audio video format; at the direction room, selecting the audiovisual signals in the common audio video format to send to the user locations employing an input audio video matrix; adding further information in the common audio video format to the selected audiovisual signals to form complete outgoing signals in the common audio video format; and converting the complete outgoing signals from the common audio video format to the at least one transmission signal format before transmission of the complete outgoing signals to the user locations and then transmitting the complete outgoing signals from the direction room to the user locations using the at least one transmission signal format, wherein the selecting step selects a first complete outgoing signal to a speaker at a videoconference and selects a second complete outgoing signal different from the first complete outgoing signal for videoconference attendees other than the speaker, and wherein the speaker receives an overview of the attendees by employment of a selection device that selects one or more signals from among the user locations and routes the selected signals through the input audio video matrix for delivery to the speaker.