A distributed intelligence conferencing system is disclosed, having a plurality of conferencing nodes to connect groups of participants to a conference. Each of the conferencing nodes provides for the connection of one or more participants to the conference. Each node includes a DSP for distributed signal processing, eliminating the need for a central processor. The node DSP has a signal measuring device for measuring a significant characteristic of the signals from each of the participants, such as power; a processing device, interconnected with the signal measuring device, for determining the relative characteristics, such as power levels, of each of the number of participant input signals; a communication device, interconnected with the processing device, for communicating the measured signal characteristics for a plurality of participant input signals to all other conferencing nodes; muting means for muting individual participant input signals so that only selected signals are transmitted over the conference bus to the other participants.