On April 25, 2017, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued United States Patent number 9,635,186 entitled “A Conferencing Apparatus that combines a Beamforming Microphone Array with an Acoustic Echo Canceller.” The ‘186 patent covers, among other things, the method of first using a beamforming algorithm to generate several fixed beams, followed by performing acoustic echo cancellation on each beam, selecting a beam for transmission and inhibiting the system from switching beams when the remote party speaks. Without this protection, whenever the remote party speaks they may hear noise fluctuations, distortions and/or ambient sound changes that detract from conference quality and clarity.