Abstract: Methods and systems for providing a virtual reality environment are disclosed. The environment includes shared information that is presented by a user interface to all of the participants to a meeting held within the virtual reality environment. In addition, information that is personal to particular participants can be displayed by the user interface to those participants. Accordingly, the user interface provides shared information and personal information areas. In addition, a user can interact with both the shared and personal information areas, without needing to leave the virtual reality environment.

Abstract: A conference system is provided with enhanced settings capabilities. A controller can poll for settings at each endpoint in a conference system and be able via the video stream to selectively display and compare settings among the endpoints. One location can push its settings to one or more locations to overcome failures or degradation in the conference. The settings between different controllers may be rationalized via a common denominator method or tabular method to build a knowledge of how to configure conferences and to automate responses to problems.

Abstract: A conference system is provided with enhanced settings capabilities. A controller can poll for settings at each endpoint in a conference system and be able via the video stream to selectively display and compare settings among the endpoints. One location can push its settings to one or more locations to overcome failures or degradation in the conference. The settings between different controllers may be rationalized via a common denominator method or tabular method to build a knowledge of how to configure conferences and to automate responses to problems.

Abstract: A conference system provides metadata about the display of a multimedia stream to allow communication endpoints to control the format of a video conference. A multipoint control unit (MCU) can provide metadata that describes the display layout and other information about the multimedia stream. After setting up the conference, the MCU can generate a layout description in eXstensible Markup Language (XML) that can be sent to and understood by the communication endpoints. The communication endpoints can read and interpret the XML metadata to determine how the display layout is configured. If desired by the user, the communication endpoint can change the display layout or other multimedia stream function based on the received metadata.

Abstract: A conference system is provided with enhanced settings capabilities. A controller can poll for settings at each endpoint in a conference system and be able via the video stream to selectively display and compare settings among the endpoints. One location can push its settings to one or more locations to overcome failures or degradation in the conference. The settings between different controllers may be rationalized via a common denominator method or tabular method to build a knowledge of how to configure conferences and to automate responses to problems.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for enhancing a video conference break. The method can be implemented on any or all participants' client device or on a network-based device. A client-side system configured to practice the method detects, at a client device of a participant in a video conference, a beginning of a break in the video conference, gathers information describing a current status of the video conference, and displays, at the client device of the participant, the information. A network-based system maintains a current status of a video conference connecting a group of client devices, monitors the video conference to detect a beginning of a break, and, when the beginning of the break is detected, transmits at least part of the current status to each of the group of client devices for display to respective users of the group of client devices.