Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation

Dolby International Ab

Michael Eckert

Glenn N Dickins

David S McGrath

Stefan Bruhn

Shen Huang

Xuejing Sun

Hannes Muesch

Heiko Purnhagen

David Gunawan

Juan Felix Torres

Gary Spittle

Paul Francis Holmberg

Erwin Goesnar

Stefanie Brown

Michael P Hollier

Richard James Cartwright

Feng Deng

Craig Johnston

Rishabh Tyagi

Poppy Crum

Jean-Francois Catz

David S Mcgrath

Paul Holmberg

The present document describes a method () for encoding a multi-channel input signal (). The method () comprises determining () a plurality of downmix channel signals () from the multi-channel input signal () and performing () energy compaction of the plurality of downmix channel signals () to provide a plurality of compacted channel signals (). Furthermore, the method () comprises determining () joint coding metadata () based on the plurality of compacted channel signals () and based on the multi-channel input signal (), wherein the joint coding metadata () is such that it allows upmixing of the plurality of compacted channel signals () to an approximation of the multi-channel input signal (). In addition, the method () comprises encoding () the plurality of compacted channel signals () and the joint coding metadata ().

Methods and devices for encoding and/or decoding immersive audio signals

Systems and methods for providing forward error correction for a multi-channel audio signal are described. Blocks of an audio stream are buffered into a frame. A transformation can be applied that compacts the energy of each block into a plurality of transformed channels. The energy compaction transform may compact the most energy of a block into the first transformed channel and to compact decreasing amounts of energy into each subsequent transformed channel. The transformed frame may be encoded using any suitable codec and transmitted in a packet over a network. Improved forward error correction may be provided by attaching a low bit rate encoding of the first transformed channel to a subsequent packet. To reconstruct a lost packet, the low bit rate encoding of the first channel for the lost packet may be combined with a packet loss concealment version of the other channels, constructed from a previously-received packet.

Selective forward error correction for spatial audio codecs

The disclosed embodiments enable converting audio signals captured in various formats by various capture devices into a limited number of formats that can be processed by an audio codec (e.g., an Immersive Voice and Audio Services (IVAS) codec). In an embodiment, a simplification unit of the audio device receives an audio signal captured by one or more audio capture devices coupled to the audio device. The simplification unit determines whether the audio signal is in a format that is supported/not supported by an encoding unit of the audio device. Based on the determining, the simplification unit, converts the audio signal into a format that is supported by the encoding unit. In an embodiment, if the simplification unit determines that the audio signal is in a spatial format, the simplification unit can convert the audio signal into a spatial 'mezzanine' format supported by the encoding.

Transforming audio signals captured in different formats into a reduced number of formats for simplifying encoding and decoding operations

A communication system, method, and computer-readable medium therefor comprise a media server configured to receive a plurality of audio streams from a corresponding plurality of client devices, the media server including circuitry configured to rank the plurality of audio streams based on a predetermined metric, group a first portion of the plurality of audio streams into a first set, the first portion of the plurality of audio streams being the N highest-ranked audio streams, group a second portion of the plurality of audio streams into a second set, the second portion of the plurality of audio streams being the M lowest-ranked audio streams, forward respective audio streams of the first set to a receiver device, and discard respective audio streams of the second set, wherein N and M are independent integers.

Scalable voice scene media server

Systems and methods are described for determining orientation of an external audio device in a video conference, which may be used to provide congruent multimodal representation for a video conference. A camera of a video conferencing system may be used to detect a potential location of an external audio device within a room in which the video conferencing system is providing a video conference. Within the detected potential location, a visual pattern associated with the external audio device may be identified. Using the identified visual pattern, the video conferencing system may estimate an orientation of the external audio device, the orientation being used by the video conferencing system to provide spatial audio video congruence to a far end audience.

Multimodal spatial registration of devices for congruent multimedia communications

A method for processing audio data, the method comprising: receiving audio data corresponding to a plurality of instances of audio, including at least one of: (a) audio data from multiple endpoints, recorded separately or (b) audio data from a single endpoint corresponding to multiple talkers and including spatial information for each of the multiple talkers; rendering the audio data in a virtual acoustic space such that each of the instances of audio has a respective different virtual position in the virtual acoustic space; and scheduling the instances of audio to be played back with a playback overlap between at least two of the instances of audio, wherein the scheduling is performed, at least in part, according to a set of perceptually-motivated rules.

Scheduling playback of audio in a virtual acoustic space

A method of outputting audio in a teleconferencing environment includes receiving audio streams, processing the audio streams according to information regarding effective spatial positions, and outputting, by at least three speakers arranged in more than one dimension, the audio streams having been processed. The information regarding the plurality of effective spatial positions corresponds to a perceived spatial scene that extends beyond the speakers in at least two dimensions. In this manner, participants in the teleconference perceive the audio from the remote participants as originating at different positions in the teleconference room.

System and method of speaker cluster design and rendering

Example embodiments disclosed herein relate to spatial congruency adjustment. A method for adjusting spatial congruency in a video conference is disclosed. The method in unwarping a visual scene captured by a video endpoint device into at least one rectilinear scene, the video endpoint device being configured to capture the visual scene in an omnidirectional manner, detecting spatial congruency between the at least one rectilinear scene and an auditory scene captured by an audio endpoint device that is positioned in relation to the video endpoint device. The spatial congruency being a degree of alignment between the auditory scene and the at least one rectilinear scene and in response to the detected spatial congruency being below the threshold, adjusting the spatial congruency. Corresponding system and computer program products are also disclosed.

Adjusting spatial congruency in a video conferencing system

The present document relates to setting up and managing two-dimensional or three-dimensional scenes for audio conferences. A conference controller () configured to place an upstream audio signal () associated with a conference participant within a 2D or 3D conference scene to be rendered to a listener () is described. An X-point conference scene with X different spatial talker locations () is set up within the conference scene, wherein the X talker locations () are positioned within a cone around a midline () in front of a head of the listener (). A generatrix () of the cone and the midline () form an angle which is smaller than or equal to a pre-determined maximum cone angle. The upstream audio signal () is assigned to one of the talker locations () and metadata identifying the assigned talker location () are generated, thus enabling a spatialized audio signal.

Placement of talkers in 2D or 3D conference scene

An audio processing apparatus and an audio processing method are described. In one embodiment, the audio processing apparatus include an audio masker separator for separating from a first audio signal an audio material comprising a sound other than stationary noise and utterance meaningful in semantics, as an audio masker candidate. The apparatus also includes a first context analyzer for obtaining statistics regarding contextual information of detected audio masker candidates, and a masker library builder for building a masker library or updating an existing masker library by adding, based on the statistics, at least one audio masker candidate as an audio masker into the masker library, wherein audio maskers in the maker library are used to be inserted into a target position in a second audio signal to conceal defects in the second audio signal.

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Ashfield, Australia

Michael Eckert