Patent ID: 8208000

Claim:
A video conference system in which multiple users communicate video and audio data to one another over a data network, the system comprising: at least one conference server linking the plurality of users over a data network whereby each of the plurality of users can communicate at least one video data stream and at least one audio data stream to others of the users; a hierarchical arrangement of communications control parameters that control communications between the users over the at least one conference server comprising: a first level of communications control parameters that apply to all audio and video communications occurring over the conference server between the users; a second level of communications control parameters that includes a subset of the first level parameters that cannot violate the first level parameters, the second level of parameters applying only to a selected portion of video and audio communications occurring over the server between the users; and, wherein at least one of the first and second level of control parameters include a bandwidth limit and a number of video data streams limit.