Patent ID: 8488745

Claim:
An echo management system, comprising: a signal component for generating a signal for input to an endpoint of a communications session; a detection component for detecting the signal via one or more other endpoints of the session; and a control component for controlling the endpoint to manage echo based on detection of the signal via the one or more other endpoints of the session; wherein the signal component, the detection component, and the control component are part of a central conferencing component, the central conferencing component automatically sends the signal through the endpoint, automatically detects for an offending endpoint based on the signal from the endpoint as an input to one or more of the other endpoints, and automatically controls an audio device of the endpoint or audio devices of the other endpoints to reduce the echo, the signal component adds unique watermark audio signals to corresponding session endpoint communications, each endpoint communication uniquely identified by the corresponding watermark audio signal, the offending endpoint is signaled using a notification message to mute an audio device when the detection component detects that the watermark audio signal corresponds to the offending endpoint.