Patent ID: 8452027

Claim:
An audio conference system comprising a controller, a primary microphone, a plurality of general microphones, and an antenna that makes the controller and the microphones communicate via radio communication, wherein the controller includes: an utterance permitting unit that, in response to utterance request information received from any microphone, transmits utterance permission information to the microphone requesting an utterance; an utterance inhibiting unit that, in response to utterance inhibition request information received from the primary microphone, transmits utterance inhibition information to the general microphones; an operating mode control unit that switches an operating mode of the general microphones when the response of the utterance inhibition request information is received, and maintains the operating mode, that has been switched, of the general microphones, after the utterance inhibition information is transmitted, and wherein each of the general microphones includes: an utterance stopping unit that stops transmission of a speech signal to the controller upon receiving the utterance inhibition information from the controller.