The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for improving the intelligibility of a group of persons engaged in conversation, each person in the group being able at times to be a speaker and at times to be a listener. The persons are situated at two or more positions P. For this purpose, a
system (1) is used comprising: two or more directional microphones M which are directed towards the positions P; two or more directional loudspeakers L which are likewise directed towards the positions P; and a
digital signal processor DSP which is capable of
processing and forwarding acoustic signals in real time. Each
microphone M continuously receives acoustic signals Ai and forwards them to the DSP. The DSP identifies, in real time, a speech
signal Si1 from each acoustic
signal Ai and generates therefrom a processed speech
signal aSi1. The DSP transmits the processed speech signal aSi1 to one or more other loudspeakers L. The DSP detects later-arriving speech signals Si2, Si3 having the same characteristics as reflections of the speech signal Si1, and generates therefrom, in real time, processed reflected signals aSi2, aSi3, which the DSP transmits to another
loudspeaker L within a predetermined time window (4) having a duration of at most 40 ms.