Teleconferencing system

• US 7,245,710 B1
• Filed: 04/07/1999
• Issued: 07/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Hughes, Peter James
• Primary Examiner(s): Escalante; Ovidio
• Application Number:
  US09/623,977
• Time in Patent Office: 3,023 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202.01, 379/203.01, 379/204.01, 379/205.01, 379/206.01, 379/207.01, 379/158, 379/93.21, 379/387.01, 709/204, 370260-270
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/002 Applications of echo suppressors or cancellers in telephonic connections in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/08, echo suppressors or cancellers per se H04B3/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 9/082 using echo cancellers echo cancellers per se H04B3/23
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/02 for preventing acoustic reaction , i.e. acoustic oscillatory feedback specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/453

Abstract

A teleconferencing system comprises a conference bridge having a multichannel connection to each customer equipment. The customer equipment has a unit to separately process each channel to provide one output representing each of the other participants. These outputs can be combined in a spatializer to provide a spatialized output in which each participant is represented by a virtual sound source. The conference bridge comprises a concentrator, having a unit to identify the currently active input channels and to transmit only those active channels over the multichannel connection, together with control information identifying the transmitted channels.

Claims

1. A teleconferencing system comprising a conference bridge having a multichannel audio connection to each of a plurality of terminal equipments, each multichannel audio connection comprising a plurality of individual audio channels, and each of the terminal equipments receiving the individual audio channels through a respective one of the multichannel audio connections, each of the terminal equipments having means to separately process each received audio channel to provide a plurality of outputs, each output representing one of the other terminal equipments;

wherein the conference bridge comprises a concentrator, having means to identify the currently active input channels, and to transmit only those active channels over the multichannel audio connections as the plurality of individual audio channels, together with control information identifying the transmitted channels.

2. A system as in claim 1, wherein the currently active input audio channels form a subset of input audio channels of the conference bridge.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the terminal equipments has spatializer to combine the outputs representing each terminal equipment to provide a spatialized audio in which each terminal equipment is represented by a virtual sound source.

4. A system as in claim 1, wherein each of the terminal equipments includes a demultiplexer for separating the individual audio channels received through a respective one of the multichannel audio connections.

5. A method of providing teleconferencing services to a plurality of terminal equipments, in which a multichannel audio connection is provided from a conference bridge to each of the plurality of terminal equipments, each multichannel audio connection comprising a plurality of individual audio channels, in which each of the plurality of terminal equipments receives individual audio channels through a respective one of the multichannel audio connections, and processes each received individual audio channel separately to provide a plurality of outputs, such output each representing a respective one of the other terminal equipments;

wherein the conference bridge identifies the currently active input channels and transmits only those active channels over the multichannel audio connections as the plurality of individual audio channels, together with control information identifying the transmitted channels.

6. A method as in claim 5, wherein the currently active input audio channels form a subset of input audio channels of the conference bridge.

7. A method according to claim 5, wherein the outputs are processed to generate a spatialized audio output in which at least one of the terminal equipments is represented by a virtual sound source.

8. A method as in claim 5, wherein each of the terminal equipments includes a demultiplexer for separating the individual audio channels received through a respective one of the multichannel audio connections.