Apparatus and Method for Encoding a Spatial Audio Representation or Apparatus and Method for Decoding an Encoded Audio Signal Using Transport Metadata and Related Computer Programs

Simple SummaryContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

This invention provides a flexible and efficient method for encoding and decoding spatial audio signals, such as Ambisonics or microphone array recordings, for applications like immersive audio. The approach combines a reduced set of audio signals (called a transport representation) with additional metadata (transport metadata) describing how the signals were selected, combined, or their spatial characteristics (such as directional properties, microphone positions, or directivity patterns). This information allows the decoder to accurately reconstruct or render the spatial audio scene over different playback devices (e.g., speakers or headphones), even at low bit-rates. The use of adaptive, fine-grained metadata ensures high audio quality and flexibility while minimizing transmission bandwidth.

Use CasesContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Immersive audio experiences in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications.
• Efficient streaming or broadcasting of spatial audio for online media platforms (e.g., 3D music streaming, movies, live concerts).
• Teleconferencing and remote collaboration with spatialized audio to improve intelligibility and user presence.
• Sound rendering in gaming engines to provide realistic, dynamic environments with 3D positional audio.
• Archiving and transmitting high-quality spatial recordings from environments such as concerts, theaters, or environmental monitoring.
• Next-generation voice and audio services on mobile devices and networks (e.g., 3GPP Enhanced Voice Services).
• Flexible playback of recorded spatial audio on various speaker setups or headphones, including binaural rendering.

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Significantly reduces audio bit-rate requirements while maintaining high spatial fidelity and audio quality.
• Enables flexible adaptation to different playback setups, including multi-channel speakers, headphones, or object-based rendering.
• Highly adaptable – allows time/frequency-variant selection and combination of audio signals to optimally encode any given audio scene.
• Facilitates accurate spatial sound reproduction under various network constraints or device capabilities.
• Minimizes metadata overhead, so additional spatial metadata uses very little bandwidth while providing substantial quality improvements.
• Allows balance between audio quality and bandwidth to be fine-tuned per scene, frequency band, or time frame – making it optimal for both static and dynamic soundscapes.
• Supports different input formats (Ambisonics, microphone arrays, multichannel, or object-based audio), ensuring broad interoperability.

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Patent Abstract

An apparatus for encoding a spatial audio representation representing an audio scene to obtain an encoded audio signal, comprises: a transport representation generator (600) for generating a transport representation (611) from the spatial audio representation, and for generating transport metadata (610) related to the generation of the transport representation (611) or indicating one or more directional properties of the transport representation (611); and an output interface (640) for generating the encoded audio signal, the encoded audio signal comprising information on the transport representation (611), and information on the transport metadata (610).