ATTENUATING ACOUSTIC ECHO SIGNALS ON A FREQUENCY DIVISIONAL MANNER

For use in combination with a loudspeaker and at least one microphone, for example, by attendants in an auditorium, an echo cancelling circuit comprises a self-adaptive echo canceller responsive to a lower frequency component, such as below 1.7 kHz, of a receive-in signal for self-adatively cancelling a corresponding component of a reverberation signal included in a send-in signal during each interval during which an audio signal reaches the circuit from a remote party. For a higher frequency reverberation signal component, an echo suppressor or a voice switch may reduce a weaker one of two signals which are either the higher frequency send-in and receive-in signal components or a combination of a reverberation component cancelled signal with the higher frequency send-in signal component and the whole receive-in signal. Alternatively, a less expensive echo canceller non-adaptively cancels a part of the reverberation signal in response to the receive-in signal. The lower frequency component of the partially reverberation cancelled signal is used by the self-adaptive echo canceller as the lower frequency send-in signal component. An acoustic output may once be reproduced by the loudspeaker in response to the receive-in signal and then converted to an electric signal for supply to the echo cancelling circuit.