Abstract: A video subsystem resides partially on a host processor and partially on a video board. Audio and communications subsystems reside partially on the host processor and partially on a audio/communications board. The video subsystem generates and passes local compressed video signals corresponding to local analog video signals to the communications subsystem. The audio subsystem receives and generates local compressed audio signals corresponding to local analog audio signals to the communications subsystem. The communications subsystem transmits the local compressed video and audio signals over a communications link to a remote computer system. The communications subsystem also receives remote compressed video and audio signals over the communications link from the remote computer system, and passes the remote compressed video and audio signals to the video and audio subsystems, respectively.

Abstract: An audio task residing on an audio/communications board of an audio subsystem in a computer conferencing system. An audio manager and an audio applications programming interface reside on a host processor of the computer conferencing system. The audio task receives local analog audio signals, generates local compressed audio signals corresponding to the local analog audio signals, and passes the local compressed audio signals to a communications subsystem of the computer conferencing system for transmission over a communications link to a remote computer conferencing system. The audio task receives remote compressed audio signals from the communications subsystem and generates remote decompressed audio signals corresponding to the remote compressed audio signal for local playback.