Meetings held in large rooms involving two or more individuals can be facilitated using an audio conferencing system. Audio conferencing systems typically include some number of microphones, at least one loudspeaker and a base station which may or may not be linked to a network. The microphones can operate to pick up local acoustic audio signals (speech) and transmit the signals to the base station which generally operates to provide session control and to process the audio signals in a number of ways before sending the signals to a far end system to be played. Among other things, the base station can be configured to track the operational state characteristics of each of the portable devices. Recently, some audio conferencing systems have been designed with wireless or portable microphones, speakers and control devices. Such wireless audio conferencing systems afford much greater flexibility with respect to the conduct of a meeting, permitting individuals to participate in a meeting while moving around the conference room and permitting the optimal placement of the speaker so that it can be heard by everyone in the room.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing functional components comprising a commercially available room audio system 100. The system 100 can be comprised of a fixed base station 102 and several different types of wireless or portable devices. In this case, the system 100 has a number of wireless microphones 110, one or more loudspeakers 108, a wireless control device 106, and a charging tray 104. The charging tray 104 has a charging receptacle for each of the portable devices such that when a portable device is placed in the tray an electrical potential will be applied to the portable device and it's battery will start charging.