VIDEO CONFERENCING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• Main Authors: POOLE, ANDREW D, ENGEL, GERNOT MICHAEL
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 30.04.2002
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

Video conferencing system including stations at a plurality of different sites, and in which system first and second video channels are simultaneousl y displayed at each site station on a picture-in-picture video monitor (24), a site controller (28) causes a video decoder (14) at the site to decode eithe r a video signal generated at the site or a video signal received from another site via the first video channel. The site controller (28) also responds to a channel assignment signal generated by a system controller by assigning the first video channel to either a first predetermined broadcast frequency or t o a second predetermined broadcast frequency and by assigning a second video channel carrying a video signal received from another site to the other available broadcast frequency. The system controller processes channel allocation requests signals with a predetermined priority from the different sites to generate the channel assignment signals.