JP2006080784A - Media information distribution apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to maintain the quality of an entire community that a communicator feels subjectively in a situation where network resources are limited even when packet loss occurs.
A speaker determination unit of a media information distribution device determines whether any of the media information belongs to a speaker based on the media information from each communication terminal. The encoding unit 15 generates encoded data obtained by encoding the media information from the correspondent terminals 30A to 30C. Then, the redundant data processing unit 16 generates redundant data for the encoded data of the speaker determined by the speaker determining unit 14 among the encoded data generated by the encoding unit 15, and adds the redundant data to the encoded data. The encoded data of the speaker to which the redundant data is added and the encoded data of the listener are distributed to each of the communication terminal 30A to 30C.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, media information delivery services including streaming video and audio with a relatively large capacity are being provided in accordance with broadband access lines in communication networks represented by the Internet. In particular, in the Internet, a multipoint video communication service such as a so-called video conference, in which video / audio media are exchanged between a plurality of terminals using the access line, has attracted attention.

In this type of multi-point video communication service, when a communication person has a conversation, the conversation often proceeds with attention to the video of the speaker without much attention to the video of the listener. The importance of the video is different.
Conventionally, paying attention to such characteristics of multi-point video communication, media information distribution device that relays video and audio from each communication terminal, expands the video of the speaker from the video of other listeners. What has been distributed has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

According to this, for example, during the period in which the communication person A is speaking, the video of the communication person A is displayed larger on the screen than the other communication persons, and for the period in which the communication person B is speaking, the communication is performed. The video of the party B is displayed larger on the screen than other communication parties.
As a result, a communication system with a sense of presence can be realized by obtaining clearer images in a situation where network resources are limited.

The applicant has not yet found prior art documents related to the present invention by the time of filing other than the prior art documents specified by the prior art document information described in this specification.
JP-A-5-103324

  However, in such a conventional technique, when a packet loss occurs in the media information of the speaker in the communication network, the voice and video of the highly important speaker are distorted, and further due to retransmission of the lost packet. Since the interruption occurs, there is a problem that the communication cannot be smoothly performed, and the quality of the entire community that the communicator feels subjectively is deteriorated in the multi-point video communication service.

  The present invention is to solve such a problem. In a multipoint video communication service, even when packet loss occurs, the entire community feels subjectively by a communicator in a situation where network resources are limited. It is an object of the present invention to provide a media information distribution apparatus and method capable of maintaining quality.

  In order to achieve such an object, a media information distribution apparatus according to the present invention is connected to a plurality of communicator terminals arranged at multiple points via a communication network, and images transmitted from these communicator terminals. Media information distribution apparatus that provides a multipoint video communication service to each communicator terminal by performing relay distribution processing of media information including audio and audio, and based on the media information from each communicator terminal Generated by a speaker discriminating unit for discriminating which of the information belongs to the speaker, an encoding unit for generating encoded data obtained by encoding media information from each communication terminal, and an encoding unit Among the encoded data, redundant data is generated for the encoded data of the speaker determined by the speaker determining unit and added to the encoded data. And a control unit that distributes the encoded data of the speaker to which redundant data is added by the redundant data processing unit and the encoded data of a listener other than the speaker from the encoding unit to each communication terminal. It has.

  At this time, a code amount determination unit for determining a code amount for the media information according to whether the media information from each communicator terminal belongs to the speaker or the listener is further provided. You may make it produce | generate the encoding data which encoded media information based on the code amount determined by the determination part.

  Also, the media information distribution method according to the present invention is used in a media information distribution apparatus connected to a plurality of communication terminals arranged at multiple points via a communication network, and images transmitted from these communication terminals. Information distribution method for providing a multipoint video communication service to each communicator terminal by performing relay distribution processing on media information including audio and audio, and based on the media information from each communicator terminal Generated by an encoding unit, an encoding step for generating encoded data obtained by encoding media information from each communication terminal, and an encoding unit that determines which of the information belongs to the speaker Among the encoded data, redundant data is generated for the encoded data of the speaker determined by the speaker determining unit, and the encoded data is generated. Redundant data processing step to be added to the data, the encoded data of the speaker to which the redundant data was added in the redundant data processing step, and the encoded data of the listener other than the speaker from the encoding step to each communicator terminal And a control step for distribution.

  At this time, a code amount determining step for determining a code amount for the media information according to whether the media information from each communicator terminal belongs to the speaker or the listener is further provided, and the encoding step You may make it produce | generate the encoding data which encoded media information based on the code amount determined by the determination part.

According to the present invention, when media information received from each communicator terminal is encoded and distributed to each communicator terminal in the media information distribution apparatus, only the media information of the speaker among the media information is encoded. Since the redundant data is added to the data and distributed, the media information of the speaker can be distributed with redundancy.
As a result, the media information of the speaker can be distributed with higher communication quality than that of the listener, so that the media information is distorted or interrupted due to the occurrence of packet loss in the communication network. Even in such a case, distortion and discontinuity can be suppressed for the media information of the speaker who is important in communication.

  Therefore, even when packet loss occurs in the multipoint video communication service, it is possible to maintain the quality of the entire community that the communicator feels subjectively in a situation where network resources are limited.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[First Embodiment]
First, a media information distribution apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the media information distribution apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

A media information distribution device (multipoint communication unit / MCU: Multipoint Communication Unit) 10 is composed of an information processing device such as a server as a whole, and is arranged at different points via a communication network 20 represented by the Internet. Is a device that provides a multipoint video communication service by connecting to the communication terminal 30 (30A to 30C) and relaying and distributing media information including video and audio from the communication terminal.
The communicator terminal 30 is an information processing terminal device such as a personal computer, and is a device that uses a multipoint video communication service provided by the media information distribution device 10 by executing a predetermined application program.

  In the present embodiment, when media information received from each communicator terminal 30 is encoded and distributed to each communicator terminal 30 in this media information distribution device 10, communication of each media information transmission source communicator terminal 30 is performed. Only when the person is a speaker, the encoded data obtained by encoding the media information is delivered with redundancy.

  Next, the configuration of the media information distribution apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Hereinafter, a case where the three communicator terminals 30A to 30C use the multipoint video communication service provided by the media information distribution apparatus 10 will be described as an example.

  The media information distribution apparatus 10 includes a communication interface unit (hereinafter referred to as a communication I / F unit) 11, a control unit 12, a decoding unit 13, a speaker discriminating unit 14, an encoding unit 15, and a redundant data processing unit 16. Is provided.

The communication I / F unit 11 receives media information from the communicator terminals 30A to 30C by transmitting and receiving various data to and from the communicator terminals 30A to 30C via the communication network 20, and media information obtained by combining these media information. Is a circuit unit that distributes to the correspondent terminals 30A to 30C.
The control unit 12 includes a microprocessor such as a CPU and its peripheral circuits, and reads and executes a predetermined program from a storage unit (not shown), thereby causing the hardware and the program to cooperate with each other. It is a functional part which performs various communication processes according to the communication protocol.

The decoding unit 13 is a circuit unit that decodes media information from each of the correspondent terminals 30 </ b> A to 30 </ b> C received via the communication I / F unit 11 and the control unit 12.
The speaker discriminating unit 14 includes the media information in accordance with the audio level included in the media information from each communicator terminal 30 obtained by the decoding unit 13 or the bit stream of the media information included in the packet. It is a circuit unit that determines which one belongs to the speaker.
The encoding unit 15 is a circuit unit that generates encoded data obtained by encoding the media information from each communication terminal 30A to 30C obtained by the decoding unit 13 based on a preset code amount.

The redundant data processing unit 16 is a circuit unit that generates and adds redundant data to the encoded data of the speaker among the media information encoded by the encoding unit 15.
These redundant data are information used for error correction on the receiving side, and are generated based on a known error correction method (for example, FEC: Forward Error Correction) that is applicable to streaming data communication and does not require retransmission control. do it. In the communication terminals 30A to 30C on the receiving side, when the original video or audio encoded data is lost, the lost encoded data is restored using the redundant data based on the error correction method.

  In the above description, the decoding unit 13, the speaker discriminating unit 14, the encoding unit 15, and the redundant data processing unit 16 are described as examples. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Any or all of these units may be configured by a part or all of the functional units realized by the control unit 12 described above.

[Operation of First Embodiment]
Next, the operation of the media information distribution apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing relay distribution processing of the media information distribution apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. Here, a case will be described as an example where redundant data is added to the encoded data of both video and audio in the media information of the speaker for distribution.

In the media information distribution apparatus 10, first, the control unit 12 receives media information from the correspondent terminals 30 </ b> A to 30 </ b> C via the communication network 20 and the communication I / F unit 11 (step 100), and sends the media information to the decoding unit 13. Output.
The decoding unit 13 decodes the media information for each communicator (step 102), outputs the media information to the encoding unit 15, and outputs the voice of the media information to the speaker discriminating unit 14. The speaker discriminating unit 14 discriminates a communication person having a high volume as a speaker (step 103), and outputs the discrimination result to the encoding unit 15 and the redundant data processing unit 16.

The encoding unit 15 encodes media information from each communicator using a quantization step width corresponding to a predetermined code amount set in advance (step 104), and converts the obtained encoded data into redundant data. Output to the processing unit 16.
The redundant data processing unit 16 generates and adds redundant data only to the encoded data of the speaker among the input encoded data, and outputs the redundant data to the control unit 12 (step 105). The redundant data processing unit 16 outputs the encoded data of the listener to the control unit 12 without adding redundant data.

  The control unit 12 receives the encoded data of the speaker to which the redundant data is added, receives the encoded data of the listener to which the redundant data is not added, and transmits the encoded data to the communication I / F unit 11 and Distribution is made to each of the correspondent terminals 30A to 30C via the communication network 20 (step 106).

In this way, the media information transmitted from each of the correspondent terminals 30A to 30C is sequentially distributed to the correspondent terminals 30A to 30C through the above-described relay distribution processing by the media information distribution apparatus 10. The At this time, the media information of the speaker is distributed with redundancy.
As a result, even when packet loss occurs in the communication network, each of the communication terminals 30A to 30C performs error correction processing on the speaker's media information based on the redundant data, and the original media information is normally restored. Decrypted and provided to the correspondent.

  Therefore, the media information distributed from the media information distribution apparatus 10 is controlled as shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing media information distribution control in the media information distribution apparatus according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 3, in a period TA in which the communication person A speaks, redundant data is added to the encoded data of the communication person A and distributed, and the encoded data of the communication persons B and C who are listeners are Delivered without redundant data.
Thereafter, when the speaker is switched from the communicator A to the communicator B at time T, redundant data is added to the encoded data of the communicator B in the period TB during which the communicator B speaks thereafter. The encoded data of the communication persons A and C who are the listeners are distributed without redundant data.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, when the media information received from each communicator terminal 30 is encoded and distributed to each communicator terminal 30 in the media information distribution device 10, the sender communicator of each media information Only when the communicator of the terminal 30 is a speaker, redundant data is added to the encoded data for distribution, so that the media information of the speaker can be distributed with redundancy.

As a result, the media information of the speaker can be distributed with higher communication quality than that of the listener, so that the media information is distorted or interrupted due to the occurrence of packet loss in the communication network. Even in such a case, distortion and discontinuity can be suppressed for the media information of the speaker who is important in communication.
Therefore, even in the case of packet loss in multi-point video communication services, the quality of the entire community felt by the communicator subjectively without requiring an increase in network resources in a situation where network resources are limited. Can be maintained.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a media information distribution apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the media information distribution apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
In the first embodiment described above, a case has been described in which media information of a speaker is distributed with redundancy. In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which when the media information of a speaker is delivered with redundancy, the code amount of the media information of the communicator is adjusted according to whether or not the speaker is a speaker.

  When the network information is distributed from the media information distribution device 10 and the redundant data of the speaker is distributed from the media information distribution apparatus 10 in a situation where the network resources are limited, it is more than the case where the redundant data is not distributed. Requires network resources. Therefore, a method of adjusting the quantization step width and the like to uniformly reduce the code amount of media information of each communicator and distributing redundant data with the network resources corresponding to the reduction is conceivable. However, when the code amount of the media information of each communicator is uniformly reduced, the media information of the speaker deteriorates, so the quality of the entire community that the communicator feels subjectively decreases.

In this embodiment, when media information is distributed with redundancy, the code amount of the media information of the correspondent is adjusted according to whether or not the speaker is a speaker, and the message information is compared with the code amount of the listener. The code amount is adjusted so as to increase the code amount.
The media information distribution apparatus 10 (see FIG. 4) according to the present embodiment is added with a code amount determination unit 17 as compared with the media information distribution apparatus 10 (see FIG. 1) according to the first embodiment described above. Has been. In FIG. 4, the same or equivalent parts as in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

The code amount determination unit 17 is a circuit unit that determines the code amount for the media information from each communication terminal according to the determination result in the speaker determination unit 14.
For example, in the case of video (image), the code amount is the number of bits (bits / pel: pel = pixel element) used per pixel (one pixel) constituting the video, and the definition of the video (image) is It depends on you. When this code amount is large, the amount of data used to represent one pixel increases and the video becomes finer. Conversely, when the code amount is small, the amount of data used to represent one pixel is reduced and the video becomes rough.

  In coding methods such as MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) widely used as digital video coding methods, input video data is subjected to frequency conversion processing such as DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) processing. The original video data is compressed by later quantizing and assigning it to a two-dimensional Huffman code. The same applies to coding schemes such as the 26X series, motion JPEG (Motion-JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group), or JPEG2000.

  In the quantization process, each DCT coefficient obtained by the DCT process is quantized by dividing it by the corresponding quantization coefficient of the quantization table set by default. Therefore, by increasing the quantization coefficient corresponding to the high frequency component, the division result for the DCT coefficient of the high frequency component among the division results is reduced, and the amount of information necessary to express the value is also reduced. As a result, it is compressed.

  In the quantization process, a code amount control method for controlling the degree of compression by adjusting the quantization coefficient of the quantization table is used. For example, if the default quantization coefficient is slightly increased, the number of DCT coefficients that reduce the division result increases, the compression rate increases, and the code amount decreases as a result. On the contrary, if the default quantization coefficient is slightly reduced, the DCT coefficients that reduce the division result are reduced, the compression rate is lowered, and as a result, the code amount is increased.

In the present embodiment, the code amount for the speaker and the listener is controlled by controlling the adjustment width of the quantization coefficient, that is, the quantization step width, according to the code amount determined by the code amount determination unit 17. I have control.
Note that, in encoding methods other than MPEG, parameters for controlling the code amount in the quantization process are prepared in the same manner as described above, and the code amount may be controlled using these parameters. For example, in JPEG2000, wavelet transform processing is used instead of DCT processing. In this case as well, the code amount can be controlled using the same quantization step width as described above.

[Operation of Second Embodiment]
Next, the operation of the media information distribution apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing relay distribution processing of the media information distribution apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. Compared with the relay distribution process in FIG. 2 described above, step 110 is added between step 103 and step 104 as a process for determining the code amount of the media information. In FIG. 5, the same or equivalent parts as in FIG. Here, a case will be described as an example where redundant data is added to the encoded data of both video and audio in the media information of the speaker for distribution.

In the media information distribution apparatus 10, first, the control unit 12 receives media information from the correspondent terminals 30 </ b> A to 30 </ b> C via the communication network 20 and the communication I / F unit 11 (step 100), and sends the media information to the decoding unit 13. Output.
The decoding unit 13 decodes the media information for each communicator (step 102), outputs the media information to the encoding unit 15, and outputs the voice of the media information to the speaker discriminating unit 14. The speaker discriminating unit 14 discriminates a speaker having a high volume as a speaker (step 103), and outputs the discrimination result to the encoding unit 15, the redundant data processing unit 16, and the code amount determining unit 17.

Here, the code amount determination unit 17 sets the code amount used for encoding the media information of the listener among the communicators based on the determination result from the speaker determination unit 14 to be smaller than the code amount of the speaker. (Step 110).
The encoding unit 15 individually encodes media information from the speaker and the listener by using a quantization step width corresponding to the code amount set by the code amount determination unit 17 for each speaker and listener. (Step 104), the obtained encoded data is output to the redundant data processing unit 16.

The redundant data processing unit 16 generates and adds redundant data only to the encoded data of the speaker among the input encoded data, and outputs the redundant data to the control unit 12 (step 105). The redundant data processing unit 16 outputs the encoded data of the listener to the control unit 12 without adding redundant data.
The control unit 12 receives the encoded data of the speaker to which the redundant data is added, receives the encoded data of the listener to which the redundant data is not added, and transmits the encoded data to the communication I / F unit 11 and Distribution is made to each of the correspondent terminals 30A to 30C via the communication network 20 (step 106).

  In this way, the media information transmitted from each of the correspondent terminals 30A to 30C is sequentially distributed to the correspondent terminals 30A to 30C through the above-described relay distribution processing by the media information distribution apparatus 10. The At this time, it is distributed so that the code amount of the media information of the listener is smaller than that of the speaker, and the media information of the speaker is distributed with redundancy.

  Therefore, the media information distribution apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention that does not adjust the code amount, and the media information according to the second embodiment of the present invention that adjusts the code amount as described above. The distribution apparatus 10 performs control as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 when adding redundant data. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing redundant data addition control when the code amount is not adjusted (first embodiment). FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing redundant data addition control when the code amount is adjusted (second embodiment). 6 and 7, assuming that the network resources are limited, the network resources (communication bandwidth) are not expanded even when redundant data is added, and the total amount of codes that can be distributed cannot be increased. Is assumed.

  First, as shown in FIG. 6, when redundant data is not added, the total code amount that can be distributed from the media information distribution apparatus 10 to each communication terminal 30A to 30C is W, and this is the code of the media information from each communication party. When the equalized data is used evenly, the code amount WD of each communicator is WD = W / 3. At this time, let S be the quantization step width of each communicator.

  Next, when adding redundant data without adjusting the code amount of each communicator, the code amount of each communicator is smaller than the above WD by using a quantization step width S ′ larger than the same S by each communicator. In this case, the redundant data of the communicator A is distributed by using WD ′ and the surplus. Therefore, when the code amount of redundant data is WP, the code amount WA of the communication person A who is the speaker when the redundant data is added is WD ′ = (W−WP) / 3, and no redundant data is added. In this case, the code amount WD becomes smaller. As a result, the amount of code of the speaker is reduced as compared with the case where redundant data is not added, and the media information of the speaker becomes low definition on the receiving side as well as the listener.

  On the other hand, in FIG. 7, in the case where redundant data is added by adjusting the code amount of each communicator, communication is performed by using the quantization step width S ′ (> S) larger than S by the communicators B and C serving as listeners. The code amounts of the parties B and C are set to WD ′ smaller than the WD, and the surplus is used to distribute the code data and redundant data of the speaker A who is the speaker. At this time, if the listener's S ′ is adjusted, the communication person A who is the speaker can use the quantization step width S ″ (= S) equal to S. Therefore, the message when the redundant data is added. The code amount WA of the communication person A, who is a user, is expressed by WD ′ = W−2 · WD′−WP, and is equal to the code amount WD when no redundant data is added.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the media information distribution apparatus 10 distributes media information with redundancy, the code amount of the media information of the communicator is adjusted according to whether or not the speaker is a speaker. Since the code amount of the listener is reduced compared to the code amount of the speaker, the definition of the media information of the listener is reduced on the receiving side, but the media information of the speaker is desired. Can be obtained. Therefore, compared with the case where the amount of code of media information of each communicator is reduced uniformly, even when redundant data is added, deterioration of the media information of the talker can be suppressed, and the entire community that the communicator feels subjectively A reduction in quality can be suppressed.

  In each of the embodiments described above, an example has been described in which redundant data is generated and added to both video and audio in the media information of a speaker. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, redundant data is provided. In the data processing unit 16, redundant data may be generated and added only for one of video and audio, and the same effect as described above can be obtained.

  Further, in the second embodiment described above, in FIG. 7, a case has been described in which the quantization step width S ″ of a speaker when adding redundant data is equal to S when no redundant data is added. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and if the quantization step width S ″ <S ′ smaller than the quantization step width S ′ of the listener is used, the above-described effects can be obtained. Therefore, the relationship between S ″ and S is not so important and may be S ″ <S <S ′ or S <S ″ <S ′. When S ″> S is used, the code amount WD ″ of the speaker becomes larger than the WD when W is equally divided, and finer media information can be distributed as the media information of the speaker.

When there is a period during which redundant data is not added at the time of media information distribution, it is not necessary to equalize the code amount WD of each communicator as shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. The quantity WD may be used.
In addition, when adding redundant data, FIG. 6 illustrates the case where the code amount WD ′ of each communicator is made equal, and FIG. 7 illustrates the case where the code amount WD ′ of each listener is made equal. For example, an individual code amount WD ′ may be used for each communicator or for each listener, and the same effect as described above can be obtained.

  Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the case where there is one speaker has been described as an example. However, even when there are a plurality of speakers, each embodiment can be applied in the same manner as described above, and the same operation as described above. An effect is obtained. In particular, in the second embodiment, even when there are a plurality of speakers, even if redundant data is added by adjusting S ″ and S ′ while maintaining the relationship of S ″ <S ′. The deterioration of the media information can be suppressed, and the deterioration of the quality of the entire community that the communication person feels subjectively can be suppressed.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the media information delivery apparatus concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the relay delivery process of the media information delivery apparatus concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. 5 is a timing chart showing video / audio distribution control in the media information distribution apparatus according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the media information delivery apparatus concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the relay delivery process of the media information delivery apparatus concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows addition control of the redundant data in the media information delivery apparatus concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows addition control of the redundant data in the media information delivery apparatus concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Media information delivery apparatus, 11 ... Communication I / F part, 12 ... Control part, 13 ... Decoding part, 14 ... Speaker discrimination | determination part, 15 ... Encoding part, 16 ... Redundant data processing part, 17 ... Code amount determination Part, 20 ... communication network, 30A-30C ... communicator terminal.

Claims (4)

Connect to a plurality of communicator terminals arranged at multiple points via a communication network, and relay and distribute media information including video and audio transmitted from these communicator terminals to each communicator terminal. Media information distribution device providing multi-point video communication service,
Based on the media information from each of the correspondent terminals, a speaker discriminator for discriminating whether any of these media information belongs to the speaker,
An encoding unit that generates encoded data obtained by encoding media information from each of the communication terminal;
A redundant data processing unit that generates redundant data for the encoded data of the speaker determined by the speaker determining unit among the encoded data generated by the encoding unit and adds the redundant data to the encoded data;
A controller that distributes the encoded data of the speaker to which redundant data is added by the redundant data processing unit and the encoded data of a listener other than the speaker from the encoding unit to each of the communication terminal. A media information distribution apparatus characterized by the above. The media information distribution apparatus according to claim 1,
According to whether the media information from each communicator terminal is that of a speaker or a listener, further comprises a code amount determination unit that determines a code amount for the media information,
The said encoding part produces | generates the encoding data which encoded the said media information based on the code amount determined by the said code amount determination part. The media information delivery apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. Used in media information distribution devices connected to a plurality of communicator terminals arranged at multiple points via a communication network, and relaying and distributing media information including video and audio transmitted from these communicator terminals A media information distribution method for providing a multipoint video communication service to each of the communication terminal,
Based on the media information from each communicator terminal, a speaker determination step of determining whether any of these media information belongs to the speaker;
An encoding step for generating encoded data obtained by encoding the media information from each of the correspondent terminals;
A redundant data processing step of generating redundant data for the encoded data of the speaker determined by the speaker determining unit among the encoded data generated by the encoding unit and adding the redundant data to the encoded data;
A control step of delivering the encoded data of the speaker to which the redundant data is added in the redundant data processing step and the encoded data of a listener other than the speaker from the encoding step to each of the communication terminal. A media information delivery method characterized by the above. In the media information delivery method according to claim 3,
A code amount determination step of determining a code amount for the media information according to whether the media information from each communicator terminal belongs to a speaker or a listener;
The encoding step generates encoded data obtained by encoding the media information based on the code amount determined by the code amount determination unit.

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