Patent ID: 7876890

Claim:
A method of controlling teleconference signals, comprising the steps of: receiving, at a teleconference bridge, endpoint-generated audio signals from each of a plurality of participating endpoints arranged at a plurality of locations, at least two of the participating endpoints being acoustically collocated at one of the locations; and for each of the participating endpoints, generating, at the teleconference bridge, a bridge-generated audio signal based on a set of signals, wherein the set of signals excludes the ones of the endpoint-generated audio signals from the location at which the each of the participating endpoints is arranged, wherein said step of generating a bridge-generated audio signal comprises first forming the super-sum of all transmitted signals SS = ∑ k = 1 , … ⁢ , ⁢ N ⁢ ⁢ ∑ l = 1 , … ⁢ , M k ⁢ s k , l , where s i,j , i=1, . . . , N, j=1, . . . , M, denote the audio signals transmitted by endpoint J in location i; and M i denotes the number of endpoints in room I, N denotes the number of rooms or locations, and then for each location i, subtracting the transmissions generated in that location i by computing r i , j = SS - ∑ l = 1 , … ⁢ , M i ⁢ s i , l . where r i,j , i=1, . . . , N, j=1, . . . , M i , denote the audio signals received by endpoint j in location i.