Conference searching and playback of search results

An apparatus, comprising:

• an interface system;
• and
• a control system capable of:
• receiving, via the interface system, audio data corresponding to a recording of at least one conference involving a plurality of conference participants, the audio data including at least one of:
• (a) conference participant speech data from multiple endpoints, recorded separately or (b) conference participant speech data from a single endpoint corresponding to multiple conference participants and including spatial information for each conference participant of the multiple conference participants;
• determining search results of a search of the audio data based on one or more search parameters, the search results corresponding to at least two instances of conference participant speech in the audio data, the at least two instances of conference participant speech including at least a first instance of speech uttered by a first conference participant and at least a second instance of speech uttered by a second conference participant;
• rendering the instances of conference participant speech to at least two different virtual conference participant positions of a virtual acoustic space, such that the first instance of speech is rendered to a first virtual conference participant position and the second instance of speech is rendered to a second virtual conference participant position;
• and
• scheduling at least a portion of the instances of conference participant speech for simultaneous playback, to produce playback audio data.

A non-transitory medium having software stored thereon, the software including instructions for controlling one or more devices for:

• receiving audio data corresponding to a recording of at least one conference involving a plurality of conference participants, the audio data including at least one of:
• (a) conference participant speech data from multiple endpoints, recorded separately or (b) conference participant speech data from a single endpoint corresponding to multiple conference participants and including spatial information for each conference participant of the multiple conference participants;
• determining search results of a search of the audio data based on one or more search parameters, the search results corresponding to at least two instances of conference participant speech in the audio data, the at least two instances of conference participant speech including at least a first instance of speech uttered by a first conference participant and at least a second instance of speech uttered by a second conference participant;
• rendering the instances of conference participant speech to at least two different virtual conference participant positions of a virtual acoustic space, such that the first instance of speech is rendered to a first virtual conference participant position and the second instance of speech is rendered to a second virtual conference participant position;
• and
• scheduling at least a portion of the instances of conference participant speech for simultaneous playback, to produce playback audio data.