Distributed Echo Cancellation
One of the challenges in delivering good sound quality during a conference call is eliminating acoustical echo. Acoustical echo results when sound from the far end phone device is sent into the local conference room, where it is picked up by the microphones on the conference phone and then sent back to the far-end phone device. Because of this process, far-end participants hear their voice echoed as they speak. Distributed Echo Cancellation from ClearOne solves this problem. By assigning an acoustical echo canceller to each microphone, the echo canceller identifies the sound that would otherwise be returned to the far end as echo and eliminates it. ClearOne was the first to introduce Distributed Echo Cancellation in 1998, incorporates it into every audio conferencing system, and is the worldwide leader in this technology.

Noise Cancellation
Noise Cancellation stops ambient room noise from being picked up by the microphones on the conference phone. Examples of ambient noise sources include HVAC systems, laptop computers, projectors and fluorescent lights. Unlike competitive products which claim to have noise cancellation, ClearOne uses a spectral content analysis technique that discriminates a talker’s voice from ambient noise and only applies noise cancellation to ambient noise sources. This allows the voice signal to pass to the far-end phone device with pristine sound quality.

First Microphone Priority
When multiple microphones are active simultaneously in an audio conference phone, voice signals arrive at different microphones at different times due to the reflection of the sound from walls, ceilings or other surfaces. This causes sound distortion, which participants typically describe as a “hollow” or “tunnel” sound. ClearOne’s First Microphone Priority technology minimizes this distortion by using an intelligent voice detection method to activate only one microphone at a time based on its proximity to the person speaking.

Adaptive Modeling
In any conferencing environment, a number of factors can cause changes in the room’s ambient noise level, including the HVAC system cycling on and off, an increase or decrease in the number of people in the room, changes in seating arrangements and other similar acoustical events. These events can cause a variety of audio problems, such as feedback and residual echo. Adaptive Modeling monitors key acoustical elements to predict and adapt to such changes, ensuring high quality audio, regardless of varying room dynamics.

ClearEffect
Available on the Converge Pro, Converge 560/590, RAV and MAX product lines
The vast majority of conference calls are conducted using narrow-band telephony signals, which eliminate the high and low tones from participants’ voices. This causes listener fatigue due to participants straining to hear what is being said. ClearEffect creates natural, full-sounding audio by simulating the high and low tones that were eliminated by the narrow-band signal. The result is similar to moving from a clock radio to a full-room entertainment system.