The invention relates to management of talk groups in a telecommunications system at the dispatcher station of the telecommunications system.
The method according to the invention is intended for use particularly in PMR (Private Mobile Radio or Professional Mobile Radio) networks, i.e. in trunking networks, which are typically company networks or authority networks in which all channels are used by one or more companies or authorities. In these networks the subscribers have, in addition to their personal subscriber numbers, group numbers which indicate the group call group (talk group) to which the subscriber in question belongs so that calls intended for all subscribers of the group concerned can be transmitted to the subscribers of this group.
Group call is one of the most important functions of the PMR network. The group call is used e.g. in all kinds of activities in which several persons participate, particularly when the whole group needs to be aware of the course of events all the time. The group call is a conference call during which all participants may speak in turn and listen to each other. In group calls the whole group is called with one call number.
Here a call or a group call refers to complete information exchange between two or more parties. The call may consist of one or more turns.
One example of a digital radio telephone or a mobile communication system in which the present invention can be applied is the TETRA system (Terrestrial Trunked Radio). In the TETRA system management of talk groups belongs to the responsibilities of a dispatcher. The dispatcher can perform different control functions related to talk groups and individual talk group users, i.e. subscribers. The dispatcher may, for example, create talk groups, change the composition of talk groups, add users to the system or change the users"" priority information. The dispatcher has a dispatcher workstation DWS at his disposal from which he receives all the information needed for managing talk groups. The workstation usually comprises a display and sound reproducers, e.g. headphones.
The problem associated with the system described above is that the dispatcher must look at the display to find out the group (or user) to which the talk heard at a given time belongs if the dispatcher does not recognize the speaker because the voices of all talk groups and subscribers are heard from the same source. One prior art solution to this problem is to use several sound reproducers, e.g. loudspeakers, so that the talk of one group is heard from a certain loudspeaker. The problem of this arrangement is that it requires several loudspeakers. Furthermore, if one wants to change the place from which the sound is heard, the physical location of the loudspeakers has to be changed.
The object of the invention is to provide a method and an arrangement implementing the method to solve the above-mentioned problems. The objects of the invention are achieved with a method of managing talk groups of a telecommunications system at the dispatcher station of the telecommunications system which comprises one or more talk groups which may consist of one or more users and which are controlled by a dispatcher at the dispatcher station, the system being characterized by creating an artificial acoustic space at the dispatcher station by means of a two-channel or a multichannel sound reproducing system and reproducing the voices of each talk group from a certain position of the acoustic space so that the dispatcher can recognize the talk group to which the voice belongs on the basis of the location of the voice. The preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.
The invention is based on the idea of creating an acoustic impression of space artificially by means of a two-channel or a multichannel sound reproduction system, e.g. by loudspeakers or headphones, so that the voices belonging to different talk groups or users are heard from different positions at the dispatcher station. The acoustic space can be created e.g. as a three-dimensional space in which case voices can be arranged so that they are heard from any point of the dispatcher station.
An advantage of the method and arrangement of the invention is that the dispatcher can conclude the talk group or the user to which/whom the voice belongs on the basis of the virtual location of the voice. Thus the dispatcher does not need to look at the display to obtain this information.
The invention also relates to an arrangement for managing talk groups of a telecommunications system at the dispatcher station of the telecommunications system which comprises one or more talk groups which consist of one or more users and which are controlled by a dispatcher at the dispatcher station, the arrangement being characterized in that it comprises a two-channel or a multichannel sound reproducing system which is arranged to create an artificial acoustic space at the dispatcher station and reproduce the voices of each talk group so that they are heard from a certain point of the acoustic space and the dispatcher can recognize the talk group to which the voice belongs on the basis of the location of the voice. This kind of arrangement provides a simple solution for achieving the advantages of the method of the invention.