Ceiling tile microphone system

A method to make a ceiling tile microphone array system, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of microphones arranged together as a microphone array and configured to be used for beamforming, the plurality of microphones are positioned at predetermined locations and produce audio signals that can used to form a directional pickup pattern;
• electrically connecting one or more processing devices to the microphone array, wherein said one or more processing devices are configured to perform the beamforming to form the directional pickup pattern;
• combining a single ceiling tile with the microphone array as a single unit wherein an outer surface on a front side of the ceiling tile is acoustically transparent and the single unit is mountable in a drop ceiling in place of a single ceiling tile included in the drop ceiling;
• physically locating the microphone array behind the front side of the ceiling tile;
• and
• wherein the ceiling tile microphone array system is mountable in a drop ceiling mounting configuration such that all or part of the ceiling tile microphone array system is in a drop space of the drop ceiling.

A method to use a ceiling tile microphone array system, the method comprising:

• producing audio signals with a plurality of microphones arranged together at predetermined locations as a microphone array;
• performing, via one or more processing devices electrically connected to the microphone array, using some or all of the audio signal, beamforming to form a directional pickup pattern;
• wherein the microphone array is combined with a single ceiling tile, an outer surface on a front side of the ceiling tile is acoustically transparent, and the microphone array is combined with the ceiling tile as a single unit, the single unit being mountable in a drop ceiling in place of a single ceiling tile included in the drop ceiling;
• wherein the ceiling tile microphone array system is configured to be used in a drop ceiling mounting configuration;
• and
• wherein the microphone array is located behind the front side of the ceiling tile and all or part of the ceiling tile microphone array system is in a drop space of the drop ceiling.

A non-transitory program storage device readable by a computing device, the storage device tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computing device to perform a beamforming method using a ceiling tile beamforming microphone array system comprising a plurality of microphones arranged together at predetermined locations as a microphone array, the microphones producing audio signals, the instructions comprising:

• instructions to perform beamforming to form a directional pickup pattern using some or all of the audio signals produced by the plurality of microphones arranged together at predetermined locations as a microphone array;
• wherein the microphone array is combined with a single ceiling tile with an outer surface on a front side of the ceiling tile that is acoustically transparent, the microphone array is combined with the ceiling tile as a single unit, and the single unit is mountable in a drop ceiling in place of a single ceiling tile included in the drop ceiling;
• wherein the ceiling tile beamforming microphone array system is configured to be used in a drop ceiling mounting configuration;
• and
• wherein the microphone array is located behind the front side of the ceiling tile and all or part of the ceiling tile beamforming microphone array system is in a drop space of the drop ceiling.

A ceiling tile beamforming microphone array system comprising:

• a plurality of microphones arranged together as a microphone array and configured to be used for beamforming, the plurality of microphones are positioned at predetermined locations, the plurality of microphones producing audio signals that can be used to form a directional pickup pattern;
• means for combining the microphone array with a single ceiling tile as a single unit, the single unit being mountable in a drop ceiling in place of a single ceiling tile included in the drop ceiling, the ceiling tile having an outer surface on a front side of the ceiling tile that is acoustically transparent, wherein the ceiling tile beamforming microphone array system is configured to be used in a drop ceiling mounting configuration, and wherein all or part of the ceiling tile beamforming microphone array system is in a drop space of the drop ceiling;
• and
• means, electrically connected to the microphone array, for performing beamforming on the audio signals to form the directional pickup pattern.