[Problem] To provide a relaying device and a voice communication system with which calling and listening among a plurality of talk groups is possible.

[Solution] The relaying device is provided with: a relaying device which stores a plurality of groups and terminal devices belonging to each of the groups, and, when a voice signal is received from one or more of the terminal devices (calling terminal devices), transfers the voice signal to the terminal devices other than the calling terminal device in the group to which the calling terminal device belongs; and the plurality of terminal devices which are connected to the relay device over a communication network. The relaying device also stores the master-slave relationship among the plurality of groups, transfers the voice signal to the terminal devices belonging to a master group if the group to which the calling terminal device belongs is a slave group, and transfers the voice signal to the terminal devices belonging to slave groups if the group to which the calling terminal device belongs is the master group.

A gateway is configured to be situated in a local area network (LAN) of Internet Protocol (IP)-based units having a serverless page party (SP2) function that employs multicast technology for page/party audio. The gateway converts multicast call traffic to unicast call traffic for transmission over the Internet to one or more IP units with SP2 function in different LANs. These different LANs are each provided with respective gateways that are configured to convert the unicast traffic back to multicast traffic to connect the page/party audio of an SP2 system among disparate facilities having different LANs, obviating the need for a dedicated and expensive wide area network for inter-LAN communication among IP units with SP2 function. A license and configuration server is configured to maintain a database of IP addresses of each gateway assigned to the respective inter-LAN or Internet groups and to communicate group IP addresses to the gateways.

A portable communication device provides a pseudo full-duplex communication mode by unmuting a microphone, enabling acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) and decreasing speaker volume when a push-to-talk (PTT) button is pressed, and by muting the microphone during release of the PTT button.

While in a full-duplex live audio communication session with an external device, an electronic device receives control signal data from the external device. In response, the electronic device issues a perceptual notification. After a first predetermined time period since receiving the control signal data, the electronic device receives audio data from the external device. After a second predetermined time period since issuing the perceptual notification, the electronic device outputs the audio data from the speaker.

A system and method for improving media delivery and display. By utilizing a memory buffer in a DVR or similar device, and broadcasting linear content at a rate other than 1?, services like video on demand or regular broadcasters can be more versatile. For example viewers can start over without launching a separate VOD session. If part of the linear content requested is not in the buffer, a switched multicast stream can be sent to with the proper section of content. Other receivers on the network may also receive the stream and buffer the content if the content is related to what a viewer is viewing.

A system and method for improving media delivery and display. By utilizing a memory buffer in a DVR or similar device, and broadcasting linear content at a rate other than 1?, services like video on demand or regular broadcasters can be more versatile. For example viewers can start over without launching a separate VOD session. If part of the linear content requested is not in the buffer, a switched multicast stream can be sent to with the proper section of content. Other receivers on the network may also receive the stream and buffer the content if the content is related to what a viewer is viewing.

Methods and apparatus for providing a messaging server within a premises device e.g., a home or enterprise gateway device. In one embodiment, a system is described that includes a premises device that acts as a centralized client messaging platform providing messaging services between a content provider and client devices, and also between client devices within a premises network. The premises device enables client-to-client communication that bypasses the long trip and propagation delay over the Internet by connecting the message across the premises network within the home or building. The premises device enables messages to be communicated between a content provider outside the premises network and the client devices via a single connection to minimize the number of Internet connections that need to be opened, and the number of messages communicated with servers outside of the premises network via both upstream aggregation and downstream dis-aggregation, which collectively save both network bandwidth and device reaction time.

A telephone call is elevated to a virtual meeting while maintaining the telephone call as an audio channel of the virtual meeting for an audio-only caller. During a telephone call, one of the participants of the telephone call requests to switch the telephone call to a virtual meeting. To enable an audio-only caller participating in the telephone call to switch to the virtual meeting, a message is transmitted to the phone device of the audio-only caller. Responsive to an interaction with the message at the phone device, the phone device is connected to the virtual meeting in which the telephone call is maintained as the audio channel at least for the audio-only caller. The specific form and content of the message is based on whether a client application associated with a web service used to implement the virtual meeting is installed on the phone device.

Provided is a voice communication system that notifies a terminal device of transmission restriction information when the number of received voice signals reaches a predetermined number. A server device continuously counts the number of simultaneously received voice signals. A first terminal device transmits, to the server device, a voice signal with identification information of a second terminal device. The server device transfers, to the second terminal device, the voice signal transmitted from the first terminal device. However, when the number of simultaneous receptions of the voice signals reaches a predetermined restriction value, the server device transfers, to the second terminal device, the received voice signal with transmission restriction information attached thereto. The second terminal device does not transmit a voice signal, even if a user performs a transmission operation, during reception of the voice signal with the attached transmission restriction information.

A communication system broadcasts utterance voice data of one of users to mobile communication terminals carried by respective users. Responsive to pressing an utterance button during a group calling communication mode in which a reception channel is established for utterance voice data transmitted from a server, the mobile communication terminal establishes a transmission channel transmitting utterance voice data to the server independently of the established reception channel, transmits utterance voice data from that mobile communication terminal, and receives utterance voice data within the communication group simultaneously. The mobile communication terminal stores a simultaneous connection upper limit in full-duplex transmission and a full-duplex transmission log including simultaneously connecting users and number of simultaneously connecting users. Limited full-duplex transmission control is performed on each terminal not permitting establishment of the transmission channel to the server based on the full-duplex transmission log and simultaneous connection upper limit.