A videoconferencing apparatus includes a multi-point (MP) conference
application that enables the apparatus to combine and distribute audio
and video signals received from a plurality of remote conference
endpoints, thereby obviating the need to provide a separate multi-point
control unit having hardware-based inverse multiplexers (IMUXs). The MP
conference application is configured to generate, for each remote
conference endpoint participating in a conference, discrete instances of
a signal processing train by means of dynamically allocable IMUXs, each
processing train including a communication process and audio/video/data
codecs. The processed audio and video signals are subsequently conveyed
to an audio mixer and video switching module for combination with
locally-generated audio and video signals. The outputs of the audio mixer
and video switching module are sent to each of the plurality of signal
processing trains, which process the combined signals according to a
transmit mode for distribution to the remote endpoints over the network.