Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding successive frames of an ambisonics representation of a 2- or 3-dimensional sound field

US9397771B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation · US

Inventors

• Peter Jax · Hannover, DE
• Johann-Markus Batke · Hannover, DE
• Johannes Boehm · Göttingen, DE
• Sven Kordon · Wunstorf, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 21, 2011
• Grant date: Jul 19, 2016
• Expiry date: Dec 19, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G10L19/008
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Representations of spatial audio scenes using higher-order Ambisonics HOA technology typically require a large number of coefficients per time instant. This data rate is too high for most practical applications that require real-time transmission of audio signals. According to the invention, the compression is carried out in spatial domain instead of HOA domain. The (N+1)2 input HOA coefficients are transformed into (N+1)2 equivalent signals in spatial domain, and the resulting (N+1)2 time-domain signals are input to a bank of parallel perceptual codecs. At decoder side, the individual spatial-domain signals are decoded, and the spatial-domain coefficients are transformed back into HOA domain in order to recover the original HOA representation.