Patent ID: 8384759

Claim:
A method of setting up communication sessions in a telepresence call between at least a first and a second telepresence (TP) system, each TP system having at least one transceiver, wherein information required for setting up the communication sessions is embedded in a control protocol message flow establishing a first communication session between a first transceiver of the first TP system and a first transceiver of the second TP system, the method comprising: transmitting a first message from the first transceiver of the first TP system to the first transceiver of the second TP system, the first message defining a TP call; transmitting a second message from the first transceiver of the first TP to the first transceiver of the second TP system, the second message defining one of the TPs as a master TP system of the TP call; transmitting a third message from the first transceiver of the first TP system to the first transceiver of the second TP system and a fourth message from the first transceiver of the second TP system to the first transceiver of the first TP system, wherein the third and the fourth messages include data instructions that respectively include the number of additional transceivers (sockets), addresses of the sockets, and positions of the sockets relative to the first transceiver of the TP from which it is transmitted; and initializing the telepresence call from the master TP system, including instructing the sockets associated with the master TP system to set up point-to-point communication sessions with corresponding sockets associated with other TP systems, which are not defined as the master TP system, based on the data instructions included in the third and fourth messages that respectively include the number of additional transceivers (sockets), the addresses of the sockets, and the positions of the sockets relative to the first transceiver of the TP from which it is transmitted.