Privacy modes in an open-air multi-port conferencing device

Abstract

Conferencing products for conducting a conference between a local and two or more distant parties through an electronic channel, wherein distant party audio is routed to the distant parties to provide full audio. These conferencing products are capable of open-air interaction with participants in the locality of a product. Acoustic echo cancellation is applied, which may be accomplished through a single set of coefficients or by a plurality of coefficients and/or echo cancelers on different incoming audio streams and speaker combinations. Privacy modes are provided, whereby one distant party cannot hear the communications of another distant party; those modes including a coaching mode where the privacy is one-way and a mediation mode where the privacy is two-way. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.