Collection and analysis of muted audio

1. An apparatus for audio communication between a local and a remote party, comprising:

a microphone configured to produce audio comprising speech or sounds produced by the local party;

a mute control configured to select a microphone open selection or a microphone muted selection;

a processor configured to identify the audio produced during the microphone open selection as primary audio, and to identify the audio produced during the microphone muted selection as secondary audio; and

a transceiver configured to transmit the primary audio to a remote audio channel for passing to the remote party and to transmit the secondary audio to an analytics engine for analysis, the analytics engine determining, in use, metrics based on characteristics of the secondary audio and alerting a supervisor when a metric threshold is exceeded.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:

the transceiver is further configured to transmit the primary audio over a first link, and to transmit the secondary audio over a second link.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein:

the first link is an audio link; and

the second link is a data link.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein:

the first link is a Bluetooth Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) link; and

the secondary link is a Bluetooth Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) link.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver comprises:

a first transceiver configured to transmit the primary audio according to a first protocol; and

a second transceiver configured to transmit the secondary audio according to a second protocol.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a memory configured to store the secondary audio prior to the transceiver transmitting the secondary audio.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:

the processor is further configured to packetize the primary audio and the secondary audio, and to mark at least one of (i) packets of the primary audio and (ii) packets of the secondary audio.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a headset.

9. A method for audio communication between a local party and a remote party, comprising:

producing audio responsive to speech or sounds produced by the local party;

determining a selection of a mute control configured to select a microphone open selection or a microphone muted selection;

identifying the audio produced during the microphone open selection as primary audio;

identifying the audio produced during the microphone muted selection as secondary audio;

transmitting the primary audio to a remote audio channel for passing to the remote party;

transmitting the secondary audio to an analytics engine for analysis;

determining, by the analytics engine, metrics based on characteristics of the secondary audio; and

alerting a supervisor when a metric threshold is exceeded.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

transmitting the primary audio over a first link; and

transmitting the secondary audio over a second link.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

transmitting the primary audio according to a first protocol; and

transmitting the secondary audio according to a second protocol.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

packetizing the primary audio and the secondary audio; and

marking at least one of (i) packets of the primary audio and (ii) packets of the secondary audio.

13. An apparatus for audio communication between a local and a remote party, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive audio produced by a headset, the audio comprising speech or sounds produced by the remote party, wherein the headset has a mute control configured to select a microphone open selection or a microphone muted selection, and wherein the audio includes primary audio and secondary audio, wherein the primary audio is generated by a microphone of the headset during a microphone open selection, and wherein the secondary audio is generated by the microphone of the headset during the microphone muted selection;

a switch configured to pass the primary audio and the secondary audio, the switch in use passing the primary audio to an audio communications channel for transmission to the remote party; and

an analytics engine, the analytics engine in use receiving the secondary audio from the switch, monitoring the secondary audio for call metrics as indicators and providing an alert to a supervisor if a particular call metric is exceeded.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein:

the switch is further configured to pass the primary audio to the analytics engine.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein:

the receiver is further configured to receive the primary audio over a first link, and to receive the secondary audio over a second link.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein:

the first link is an audio link; and

the secondary link is a data link.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein:

the first link is a Bluetooth Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) link; and

the secondary link is a Bluetooth Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) link.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the receiver comprises:

a first receiver configured to receive the primary audio according to a first protocol; and

a second receiver configured to receive the secondary audio according to a second protocol.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein:

the audio comprises packets of the primary audio and packets of the secondary audio;

at least one of (i) the packets of the primary audio and (ii) the packets of the secondary audio include marks; and

the switch is further configured to distinguish the (i) the packets of the primary audio and (ii) the packets of the secondary audio based on the marks.