Conversation Analysis of Multi-Party Conferencing and Its Relation to Perceived Quality

This paper investigates interactivity in multi-party conferencing. To this aim the state model often used to descibe two-party telephone conversations is redefined for more than two interlocutors. We adapt and apply statistical measures such as conversation state probabilities to recordings made during a three-party conferencing quality test, which was designed to evaluate the perceived quality under various speech transmission properties. In a second step, we associate the different observed degrees of interactivity to the quality test ratings. Results give a first insight into the co-dependence of transmission properties, the interlocutors' communication behavior and their integral quality judgment.