Centralized Media Control in Multi-Party Video Conferencing

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Solution Overview

Problem

In multi-party video conferencing scenarios, the central node lacks effective control over media streams due to increased information complexity, leading to disordered media management and reduced centralized control.

Innovation Solution

A media control method and device that obtain and process media information and session requests to send media operation instructions based on media control policies, establishing centralized control over media streams by mapping media object identifiers, attribute information, and channel information.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If each participant dominates media according to their own capability in multi-party sessions, then participants can freely select and control media streams, but centralized control over media at the whole site becomes weak and disordered

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveparticipant media selection freedomVSAvoidcentralized media control
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a central node as an intermediary between participants and media streams. The central node receives media information from participants, reconstructs it according to conference policies, and distributes it to participants. This mediator enables both participant freedom in media selection and centralized control by the conference system, resolving the contradiction between individual autonomy and overall coordination.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If the quantity of participant terminals increases to support more participants, then conference scalability is improved, but the amount of media information to be managed increases, leading to stronger disorder in media control

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveconference capacityVSAvoidmedia information management complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments media information management into two parts: participants independently manage their own media streams according to their capabilities, while the central node manages the overall coordination and policy enforcement. This segmentation allows the system to scale to more participants without proportionally increasing the complexity of media information management, as each participant only needs to handle their own media while the central node handles the coordination.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Loss of information

If participants announce media information using CLUE protocol to enable multi-perspective selection, then media information completeness is improved, but control over media at the whole site becomes relatively disordered

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemedia information completenessVSAvoidcentralized media control
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements preliminary action by having the central node pre-configure media control policies before participants announce their media information. These policies define how media should be selected, prioritized, and distributed. When participants announce their media capabilities via CLUE protocol, the central node already has the framework in place to process this information according to conference policies, maintaining control while ensuring complete media information is captured and properly managed.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3182643B1Media control method and device
Publication Date: 2019.08.07 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP3182643B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3182643B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3182643B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The present invention discloses a media control method and a media control device. The media control method includes: obtaining, by a conference center, media information sent from user equipment and receiving a session request sent by the user equipment; obtaining, according to a media object identifier carried in a media control policy, attribute information of a media object corresponding to the media object identifier carried in the media control policy, from the media information, and obtaining a session identifier and channel information that are corresponding to the media object identifier carried in the media control policy, from the session request; and sending a media operation instruction included in the media control policy, the obtained attribute information of the media object, and the obtained channel information to the user equipment that sends the session identifier, where the media operation instruction is used to instruct the user equipment to operate the received attribute information of the media object and the received channel information. A currently existing situation that control over media at a whole site is relatively disordered is avoided, and the control over the media in a whole site scenario by the conference center is improved.