JPH0818676A - Conference call equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] It is possible to make individual calls to specific conference participants during a conference, to prevent specific participants from hearing the conference contents, and to forcibly prohibit speech. Provided is a conference call device that displays the control result. A voice call adding / distributing means for distributing to a plurality of two-line communication lines is connected to the four-line side of the two-line to four-line converting circuit of each line so that a conference call can be made between multiple points. In addition to the conference call between the multipoints, an individual call means capable of individually making a call with the plurality of two-line communication lines, and a key operation unit for designating one of the plurality of two-line communication lines The key operation and the off-hook of the individual call means control the switching of the communication line between the multipoint conference call and the individual call, and display the control result.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a telephone conference apparatus for connecting a plurality of telephones via a communication line to hold a telephone conference between multiple points.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a communication line is connected and a conference call is made between multiple points, a method of adding input signals from other lines other than one's own line to the participants of each conference and sending back the so-called (N
-1) The addition method is generally used. FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a conference call circuit using the (N-1) addition method. In FIG. 3, 1 is a voice input / output terminal connected to a line for contacting conference participants, 2 is a 2-line to 4-line conversion circuit, 3 is a subtraction circuit, 4 is an input speech path, 5 is an output speech path, Reference numeral 6 is an all-signal addition circuit. The input signals input from the communication line are added by the all-signal addition circuit 6 via the voice input / output terminals 1, 2-4 conversion circuit 2 and the input communication path 4, and the subtraction circuit 3 adds the own line (hereinafter referred to as own line). The input voice signal is subtracted from (abbreviated) and is output to the communication line via the output communication path 5, the 2-line to 4-line conversion circuit 2 and the voice input / output terminal 1.

[0003]

Further, in such a conference call circuit, the input signal is output to all the lines except the line to which the input signal is input. Therefore, the voice spoken by the participants of the conference can be heard by all the participants. Conventionally, in the conference call device configured in this way, it is possible to make a call with a specific conference participant individually during a conference call, or to prevent a specific participant from hearing the contents of the conference. There wasn't.

The present invention makes it possible to individually talk with a specific conference participant during a conference, to prevent the specific participant from hearing the conference contents, and to forcibly prohibit speech. It is an object of the present invention to provide a conference call device that displays results.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] To achieve this purpose,
In the telephone conference device according to the present invention, a 2-wire to 4-wire conversion circuit is connected to each of the connected two-wire communication lines for each communication line, and the voice of the subscriber input from the plurality of two-wire communication lines. A voice signal adding / distributing means for adding signals and distributing again to the plurality of two-wire communication lines is provided in the 4-wire conversion circuit of the 2-wire-4 wire conversion circuit.
An individual call means configured to make a conference call between multiple points by connecting to the line side and capable of making an individual call with the plurality of two-wire communication lines in addition to the conference call between the multiple points. An off-hook detection means for detecting off-hook of the individual call means, a switch circuit for switching between the individual call means and the conference call between the multipoints on the side of the plurality of two-wire communication lines, and the plurality of two Between a call by the individual call means and the multipoint conference call when there is a key operation for designating any one of the line communication lines and the off-hook detection means detects the off-hook And a means for displaying the control result of the switching circuit and a means for displaying the control result.

[0006]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an embodiment according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a voice input / output terminal connected to each of a plurality of lines for contacting each participant of the conference, 2 is a 2-line to 4-line conversion circuit, 12 is a voice signal addition / distribution circuit, and 4 is an input call. , 5 is an output speech path, 56 is an input speech path mute circuit, 57 is an output speech path mute circuit, 58 is a status indicator, 59 is a control circuit, 60 is a key operation section, 61-1 is a connection terminal for conference call , 61-2 is a connection terminal for individual call, 62-1 is a telephone for conference call which is connected to this apparatus to make a conference call, 62-2 is a telephone for individual call which is connected to this apparatus and is made an individual call, 63 Is a capacitor, 64 is a current source that supplies the call current to the individual call telephone 62-2, 65 is a current detection circuit that detects the call current supplied to the individual call telephone, and 66 is individual for each voice input terminal 1. Telephone for call
It is a switch for switching between the 62-2 side (b side) and the conference call circuit (which is composed of the circuits after the 2-wire-4 wire conversion circuit 2) side (a side).

In FIG. 1, the control circuit 59 switches the switch 66 to the a side during a conference call and the input call path mute circuit 56.
The output speech path mute circuit 57 is set to the non-mute state (speech state) as shown. When a voice signal is input from the voice input / output terminal 1 during a conference call, the input voice signal passes through the switch 66 (a side), the 2-wire-4 wire conversion circuit 2 and the input communication path 4 and the addition / distribution circuit 12 Leading to. Addition distribution circuit
12 outputs the voice signal to the output speech path 5 of all the lines except the line to which the voice signal is input.
The output voice signal is output to the line via the output communication path 5, the 2-line to 4-line conversion circuit 2, the switch 66 (a side) and the voice input / output terminal 1. At this time, the conference call connection terminal 61-
If the telephone 62-1 is connected to the telephone 1, the telephone 62-1 can listen to the voice signal.

Next, the operation of the individual call will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the telephone 62-2 is connected to the individual call connection terminal 61-2. Next key operation section
Select the line you want to call individually with 60 key operations,
Off-hook the connected telephone 62-2. Telephone 62-2
When off-hook, the call current is transferred from the current source 64 to the telephone 62.
-2. At this time, the call current is detected by the current detection circuit (off-hook detection means) 65 (S ₁₁ ), and the call current presence information is read into the control circuit 59. Control circuit 59
Switches the switch 66 of the selected line to the b side based on the key information by the key operation and (S ₁₂ ) the call current presence information, and enables the individual call between the partner of the selected line and the telephone 62-2. It becomes (S ₁₃ ).

At this time, the status display 58 displays the individual call status and the line number of the individual call.
(S ₁₄ ). When the telephone 62-2 is on-hook when the individual call is completed, the current supplied to the telephone 62-2 is cut off, so that the current detection circuit 65 outputs the information indicating no call current (S ₁₁ ). When the individual call is not in progress (S ₁₅ ), the control circuit 59 switches the switch 66, which has been switched to the b side for the individual call, to the a side according to the information indicating no call current (S ₁₆ ). After switching the switch 66 to the a side is enabled again conference call, and displays the conference call state by the state indicator 58 (S _17).

Next, the functions of the input speech path mute circuit 56 and the output speech path mute circuit 57 will be described. When it is not desired to let the specific conference participant hear the contents of the conference, the output channel muting circuit 57 of the line corresponding to the participant is muted by the key operation of the key operation unit 60 (output channel disconnection state). When the output speech path 5 is in the mute state, the voice signals from the respective lines added and distributed by the addition / distribution circuit 12 cannot pass through the output speech path in the muted state. The conference content cannot be transmitted to the muted line. At this time, it is also possible to mute the output speech path 5 for a plurality of lines at the same time.

When the input call path mute circuit 56 is muted by key operation, the voice signal input from the line cannot pass through the input call path, so that the voice signal spoken by the conference participants of the line is It will not be communicated to all other conference participants. In this way, by muting the receiving call path, the speech of the conference participant who is not allowed to speak can be forcibly invalidated. Like the mute function of the output call path, the mute function of the input call can also mute the input call path for a plurality of lines at the same time. When using this device in the broadcast format, the mute function of the input speech path is enabled. In addition, when the input speech path is muted and the output speech path is muted,
Since the muted line is displayed on the status display 58,
It is possible to easily determine which line is in the mute state. A liquid crystal display, an LED or the like is used as the status display 58.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to call specific conference participants individually during the conference, and it is also possible to prohibit specific conference participants from speaking or not to hear the conference contents,
Furthermore, since the state of the device at that time can be confirmed on the display, the convenience of the telephone conference can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional conference call device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 voice input / output terminal 2 2-4 line conversion circuit 4 input communication path 5 output communication path 12 addition distribution circuit 56 input communication path mute circuit 57 output communication path mute circuit 58 status indicator 59 control circuit 60 key operation unit 61 -1 Conference call control terminal 61-2 Individual call connection terminal 62-1 Conference call telephone 62-2 Individual call telephone 63 Capacitor 64 Current source 65 Current detection circuit 66 Switch

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Hideaki Matsuzaki, Inventor Hideaki Matsuzaki, 1-74-1, Kugayama, Suginami-ku, Tokyo Within Iwasaki Tsushinki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Toshio Hosokawa 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A two-wire to four-wire conversion circuit is connected to each of a plurality of connected two-wire communication lines for each communication line, and a voice signal of a subscriber input from the plurality of two-wire communication lines is added. Then, the voice signal adding / distributing means for distributing to the plurality of two-wire communication lines is again connected to the four-wire side of the two-wire-four-wire conversion circuit so that a conference call can be made between multiple points. In addition to the conference call between the multipoints, an individual call means capable of making an individual call with the plurality of two-wire communication lines, an off-hook detection means for detecting an off-hook of the individual call means, and the individual call means A switch circuit for switching between the multipoint conference call and the two-line communication line side;
A key operation unit for designating any of the plurality of two-wire communication lines, and a call by the individual call unit and the multipoint conference when the key operation is performed and the off-hook detection unit detects the off-hook. A telephone conferencing apparatus comprising: means for controlling switching by the switch circuit between a telephone call and means for displaying the control result.