Patent ID: 7206808

Claim:
A video conference network platform for managing at least two video conference network devices each having unique operational attributes, the video conference network platform comprising: a video conference network interface module operable to interface with the at least two video conference network devices and to represent of the at least two video conference network devices as corresponding interface objects; an adapter engine associated with the video conference network interface module and operable to create a corresponding application object for each of said at least two video conference network devices, each application object corresponding to a respective interface object and having a common format, each application object including operational attributes obtained via an interrogation of the respective video conference device by the adapter engine; one or more management applications operable to manage the at least two video conference network devices via their respective application and interface objects; and a discovery engine associated with the video conference network interface, the discovery engine operable to detect each of the at least two video conference network devices and initiate creation of an object to represent each detected video conference network device; wherein the discovery engine initiates creation of an application object by the adapter engine, the adapter engine further operable to initiate creation of a corresponding interface object by the video conference network interface.