Method and apparatus for virtual auditorium usable for a conference call or remote live presentation with audience response thereto

摘要

A method and apparatus are disclosed for providing a virtual auditorium for a remote, live performance to a remote, distributed audience, wherein the performers receive the reaction of the audience members in substantially real time. The live performance can itself be distributed geographically, as taught in the prior art, and may be multimedia in nature, for example audio (monophonic, stereo, or multi-channel) can be augmented by images, video, MIDI, text (e.g., commentary, lyrics), etc. Further, the distributed audience members can receive each other's reaction, also in substantially real time, whereby the virtual auditorium is created wherein the distributed audience members constitute a virtual assembly.;The same virtual auditorium, sans performers, can be used as a venue to conduct a conference call of arbitrary size without the expense of a central voice bridge.