Patent ID: 7822811

Claim:
A method in a multi-participant video conference, comprising: a conference server receiving and processing audio information from all conference participants and receiving and processing a video stream comprising I-frames and P-frames from a first conference participant identified as a most active participant; the conference server providing a frame request for requesting an I-frame from a second conference participant that is not communicating a video stream in response to determining that the second conference participant should become the most active participant, the frame request causing the second conference participant to send an I-frame to the conference server and to start communicating a video stream comprising I-frames and P-frames; the conference server identifying the second conference participant as the most active participant in response to receiving an I-frame from the second conference participant; the conference server signaling the first participant to stop communicating P-frames but to continue sending I-frames; the conference server receiving and processing the video stream comprising I-frames and P-frames from the second participant identified as the most active participant; the conference server receiving and caching the I-frames received from the first participant; the conference server requesting a super-P frame from the first conference participant in response to determining that the first conference participant should become the most active participant again; and the conference server combining the super-P frame received from the first conference participant with a cached I-frame to produce a video image to be provided to the second conference participant.