WIRELESS CONFERENCE CALL TELEPHONE
A wireless conference call telephone system uses body-worn wired or wireless audio endpoints comprising microphones and, optionally, speakers. These audio-endpoints, which include headsets, pendants, and clip-on microphones to name a few, are used to capture the user's voice and the resulting data may be used to remove echo and environmental acoustic noise. Each audio-endpoint transmits its audio to the telephony gateway, where noise and echo suppression can take place if not already performed on the audio-endpoint, and where each audio-endpoint's output can be labeled, integrated with the output of other audio-endpoints, and transmitted over one or more telephony channels of a telephone network. The noise and echo suppression can also be done on the audio-endpoint. The labeling of each user's output can be used by the outside caller's phone to spatially locate each user in space, increasing intelligibility.
1 . A system comprising:
at least one wireless communication device (WCD) worn by at least one near-end participant during a telephone call with a far-end participant, each WCD comprises a body-worn pendant having a pendant body,
the pendant body including a first and second connecting structures coupled with the pendant body and operative to mount the body-worn pendant like a necklace when the first and second connecting structures are connected to each other, a radio, a battery, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microphone array coupled with the DSP, a multi-use button, and a plurality of vents; and
a telephony gateway remote to the at least one WCD and including an audio processor coupled to at least one wireless radio that forms at least one audio channel with the at least one WCD,
wherein the audio processor generates an integrated audio signal from signals received from the at least one WCD,
wherein the telephony gateway comprises a connection component coupled to the audio processor and to a network carrying the telephone call,
wherein the connection component couples the integrated audio signal to the network for transmission to the far-end participant,
wherein the telephony gateway including a processor that is separate and distinct from the audio processor, and the processor electronically labels each incoming signal from at least one WCD.