Patent ID: 7991163

Claim:
An audio system for enhancing verbal communications between a presenter and an audience at a plurality of tables in a meeting facility, comprising: a presenter device comprising a microphone and a speaker, the microphone being adapted to generate an audio signal corresponding to a verbal input from the presenter in a meeting room to transmit to at least one audience array at one or more of the tables in the meeting room and the speaker being adapted to receive an audio signal corresponding to a verbal input from at least one microphone on at an audience array at one of the plurality of tables in the meeting room; a plurality of audience arrays associated with the plurality of tables in the meeting room, each array comprising a plurality of microphones adapted to generate an audio signal corresponding to a verbal input associated with one or more of a plurality of members of the audience in an area proximate a microphone on the array, wherein the audio signal associated with the one or more members of the audience is selectively transmitted according to a routing to at least one of the speakers on the presenter device and other arrays in the system in the meeting room, and a plurality of speakers adapted to selectively receive the audio signal generated by at least one of the microphones on the presenter device and the plurality of arrays in the meeting room, wherein the speakers on the array are adapted to broadcast the audio signal to a plurality of members of the audience proximate the speakers on the array; and a processor communicatively coupled to the presenter device and the plurality of arrays for processing audio signals between the presenter device and the arrays in the meeting room.