A system and method for enabling an audio conference server (ACS) to
provide an application program with multi-point weight controllable audio
conferencing. The ACS manages a plurality of audio conferences, receives
audio data from a plurality of audio clients, mixes the audio data to
provide distance-based attenuation according to decay characteristics for
each sound, and delivers the mixed audio data to a plurality of audio
clients. Audio clients include set-top box (STB) audio clients and point
source audio (PSA) audio clients. The ACS mixes the audio data by
identifying a decay factor. Pre-defined decay factors include an audio
big decay factor, an audio small decay factor, an audio medium decay
factor, and a constant decay factor. One can also develop a customized
decay factor. A weighted value for a source audio client based on the
identified decay factor and the distance between the source audio client
and a target audio client is determined. A mix table is generated using
the weighted values for each source/target audio client pair. Then an
actual mix value for each target audio client is calculated using the mix
table. The present invention also includes means for refining the actual
mix value.