CONFERENCE BRIDGE FOR PACKETIZED SPEECH-SIGNAL NETWORKS

A conference bridge that receives speech data in the form of data packets, and transmits data in the same form, without transforming the data in the conference bridge. The conference bridge according to this invention includes a plurality of inputs that have speech detectors that detect the presence of speech data. The speech detectors report the presence of speech to a controller. The controller causes data packets from one of the inputs detecting speech to be replicated for all outputs. If there is speech at more than one input at a time, then a decision is made as to which input to replicate. Advantageously, the decision is based on who is the loudest speaker. Further, the data that is replicated is not sent to the output for the originator in order to prevent echo.