Hearing assistance system in a multi-talker acoustic network

Abstract

There is provided a multi-talker acoustic network system for providing hearing assistance to a user, comprising at least two table microphone units () for capturing audio signals from a speaker's voice, each comprising a microphone arrangement () having an omnidirectional characteristic, a VAD () for detecting voice activity of the microphone arrangement and a transmitter () for transmitting the captured audio signals via a wireless audio link (), a control unit () for selecting one of tire table microphone units as the presently active microphone unit, wherein the control unit is configured to select, in case that at a time only for one of the table microphone units voice activity is detected, that one of the table microphone units as the presently active microphone unit, and to select, in case that at a time for more than one of the table microphone units voice activity is detected, at least for a certain time period that one of the table microphone units as the presently active microphone unit which has detected the voice activity first as the presently active microphone unit, wherein the system is configured to maintain the selection of the presently active microphone unit with a release time, and a hearing assistance device () to be worn by the user, comprising a receiver unit () for receiving audio signals captured by the presently active microphone unit and an output transducer () for stimulation of the user's hearing according to the received audio signals, wherein the system is configured to prevent audio signals of the table microphone unit(s) not being the presently active microphone unit from being supplied to the output transducer.