Patent ID: 8861701

Claim:
A method of establishing a conference among a plurality of computers comprising at least first, second, and third computers, said method comprising: the first computer performing a focus-point assessment process including determining that a bandwidth capability of the first computer meets a predefined conferencing capability; the first computer determining that the first computer can serve as a central distributor for said conference based on the bandwidth capability of the first computer; in response to the determining that the first computer can serve as the central distributor, designating the first computer as the central distributor and designating the second and third computers as non-central distributors, wherein the second computer has a first set of default conferencing parameters including a first codec configuration and the third computer has a further set of default conferencing parameters including a further codec configuration; setting up among the plurality of computers said conference based on the first and further sets of default conferencing parameters and the focus-point assessment process, wherein said conference has the central distributor (i) receiving conference content from a first conference participant that is using the central distributor to participate in the conference, (ii) receiving conference content from the second and third computers, (iii) encoding the received conference content from the second computer based on the first codec configuration, (iv) encoding the received conference content from the third computer based on the further codec configuration, and (v) distributing the encoded conference content to the non-central distributors, wherein conference content sent between the central distributor and each of the non-central distributors does not pass through any other computer that is participating in the conference; after the conference is set up, measuring bandwidth between the central distributor and at least one of the non-central distributors; and adjusting at least one of said parameters based on said measured bandwidth.