In a video conference facility, an echo cancelling device is provided which
comprises an adaptive finite impulse response filter operable to sample
the input signal to a loudspeaker and to model, on the basis of that
signal, the signal fed back to a microphone. The echo cancelling device
further comprises a combiner for subtracting the model feedback signal
from the microphone output signal and to provide a corrected microphone
output signal, and a microprocessor programmed to read the corrected and
uncorrected microphone output signal and to compute updates to the weights
of the filter, the computation including a multiplication by a variable
scaling factor which varies in accordance with the ratio of a first value
indicative of the long-term average power of the sound being fed back to a
second value indicative of the short-term average power of the sound being
fed back. In this way, undesirable fluctuations in the modelled output
signal which cause unnatural sounding echoes at the other video conference
site are reduced.