US Patent 7400340 Data mixer for portable communications devices

Methods and systems are provided for combining a plurality of data streams into a single data stream for sending to a wireless user. According to the invention, using one or more data mixers, two or more video streams are combined into a single video stream and provided to a wireless user, and/or two or more audio streams are combined into a single audio stream and provided to a wireless user. The streams are optionally decoded and handled in raw format by the data mixer, and at least some of the streams may be buffered in a queue so that “slipping” or synchronization problems can be addressed. The method and system can process media data such as video, audio, text, or other media data.