Pet er Heit k b p e r Michael Walker Institut fur Netzwerk-und Signdtheorie ALCATEL-SEL Technische Hochschule D t t a d t Merckstr. 25 D-6100 D m t a d t , Germmy Abstract Spes& quality in hands-free telephone rete can be improved and acoustic echos can be ruppreued by gain control in the tranrmirsion path of such telephone syrtama. The gain factor b uomputed as a function of the short-term l e d of the input signal which allows the separation of rpeech from background nobe and can cope with differeat speech intensities. hrthermore, the gain tactor ir Muemced by an estimation of the backgaupd noise level and the level of the l o u d s e dgrml. All environmemt parametem are adapted prky the near-end and far-end rig". For that purpora, a method of speech detection and a doublstnlk d e tector based on a c c o s s -c o~t i o n estimate are introduced. The algorithm was implemented on a digital rignal procesror, and operation with a wide bandwidth of 12 kH5 in v a r i d environments was satiafactory.