Conferencing Apparatus that combines a Beamforming Microphone Array with an Acoustic Echo Canceller

The present disclosure discloses a conferencing apparatus that combines a beamforming microphone array (BMA) with an acoustic echo canceller where the BMA further comprises a plurality of microphones that are oriented to develop a corresponding plurality of microphone signals. The apparatus further includes a processor, memory, and storage where the processor is configured to execute program instructions. The processor performs a beamforming operation to create a plurality of combined signals. In addition, the processor performs an acoustic echo cancellation operation to generate a plurality of combined echo cancelled signals. Further, the processor selects one of the combined echo cancelled signals for transmission to the far end where the signal selection module uses the far end signal as information to inhibit the signal selection module from changing the selection of the combined echo cancelled signals while only the far end signal is active.