Conference calls allow multiple participants to join in a conference and may involve the sharing of data such as audio, video, web, and/or other data. A conference call that includes voice data is often referred to as a teleconference. Conferencing has become especially important for businesses as it enables them to reduce travel costs by allowing workers from different locations to participate in conference calls in lieu of face-to-face meetings. A typical business conference call may include a telephone call that is coordinated with the sharing of a presentation or document via the Internet or another computer network. The audio portion of the call may be carried over a conventional public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or shared through the use of a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service. Other resources such as video and web are typically provided via a computer network such as the Internet. In most systems, management of these resources is performed by a conference bridge.
A conference bridge is a machine that links conference participants and enables the sharing of resources between them. A conference bridge may also provide conferencing services such as recording and reporting functions. A conference bridge typically includes a number of ports each configured to provide one or more resources (e.g., audio, video, web and/or the like) to a conference participant. The number of participants that can join a conference call is typically limited by the number and configuration of the ports on the conference bridge hosting the conference combined with hardware and software limitations (e.g., CPU resources, available memory, and the like).
Due to the increasing importance of conferencing, methods are continuously desired to improve conferencing services.