METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR ECHO CANCELATION WITH BEAMFORMING MICROPHONE ARRAYS

Embodiments include methods and apparatuses for sensing acoustic waves for a conferencing application. A conferencing apparatus includes a plurality of microphones oriented to cover a corresponding plurality of direction vectors and to develop a corresponding plurality of microphone signals. A processor is operably coupled to the plurality of microphones. The processor is configured to perform a beamforming operation to combine the plurality of microphone signals to a plurality of combined signals that is greater in number than one and less in number than the plurality of microphone signals. The processor is also configured perform an acoustic echo cancelation operation on the plurality of combined signals to generate a plurality of combined echo-canceled signals and select one of the plurality of combined echo-canceled signals for transmission.