Patent ID: 8494841

Claim:
A method implemented by a conference bridge for managing an audio scene comprising two or more participants, the participants using the same codec or different codecs, the method comprising: continuously detecting which of the participants are speaking participants and which of the participants are non-speaking participants, by using voice detection on an input signal received from each participant, continuously creating a 3D positional audio environment signal for each participant, including an individual 3D positional audio environment signal for each speaking participant and a common 3D positional audio environment signal for all non-speaking participants, by: rendering the speech of each of one or more other participants as a 3D positioned virtual sound source, excluding the speech of said participant if said participant is a speaking participant, and placing the 3D positioned virtual sound source corresponding to each of the one or more other participants at the same spatial position relative said participant as in every other created 3D positional audio environment signal, continuously distributing each created 3D positional audio environment signal to the corresponding participant, and encoding the common 3D positional audio environment signal only once for each codec used by the non-speaking participants.