Locally heated low temperature solder glass is used to permanently fix an optical fiber with sub-micron precision to a glass ceramic submount inside a high power pump laser module. An exemplary method generates a periodic stream of digital words at a clock frequency fclk wherein the words represent respective amplitudes of a predetermined periodic waveform, the periodic stream has a period P and the digital words are spaced by a phase step s. In one preferred embodiment, the audio identifying information is an audio feature signature that is based on audio content. By providing various rules for each endpoint in a conference, the endpoint can determine the importance of its signal to the conference and can select an appropriate bit rate, thereby conserving bandwidth andor processing power throughout the conference.