Ceiling microphone assembly

US7660428B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Polycom, LLC · US

Inventors

• Jeffrey Rodman · San Francisco, US
• Peter L. Chu · Lexington, US
• Alain Nimri · Austin, US
• Stephen Schaefer · Cedar Park, US
• Martin Sexton · Round Rock, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 20, 2005
• Grant date: Feb 9, 2010
• Expiry date: Jul 12, 2027

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04R3/005
• WIPO field: Audio-visual technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

An overhead microphone assembly using multiple unidirectional microphone elements. The microphone assembly is installed overhead, generally above all the desired sound sources and below the undesired sound sources. The signals from these multiple microphone elements are fed into a microphone steering processor which can mix and gate the signals to ensure the best signal/noise ratio. The steering processor may also track the sound source dynamically when such tracking (source locating) is desired. The resulting audio signal from the steering processor may be further processed, such as echo canceling, noise reduction and automatic gain control.