An audio encoder for encoding an audio signal includes: a first encoding processor for encoding a first audio signal portion in a frequency domain, wherein the first encoding processor includes: a time frequency converter for converting the first audio signal portion into a frequency domain representation having spectral lines up to a maximum frequency of the first audio signal portion; a spectral encoder for encoding the frequency domain representation; a second encoding processor for encoding a second different audio signal portion in the time domain; a cross-processor for calculating, from the encoded spectral representation of the first audio signal portion, initialization data of the second encoding processor, so that the second encoding processing is initialized to encode the second audio signal portion immediately following the first audio signal portion in time in the audio signal; a controller configured for analyzing the audio signal and for determining, which portion of the audio signal is the first audio signal portion encoded in the frequency domain and which portion of the audio signal is the second audio signal portion encoded in the time domain; and an encoded signal former for forming an encoded audio signal including a first encoded signal portion for the first audio signal portion and a second encoded signal portion for the second audio signal portion.

A method, computer program product, and computing system for selecting a reference audio acquisition device from a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system. Audio encounter information of the reference microphone may be encoded, thus defining encoded reference audio encounter information. A plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions between the reference microphone and the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system may be generated. The encoded reference audio encounter information and a representation of the plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions may be transmitted.

A method, computer program product, and computing system for generating a plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions associated with a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system deployed in an acoustic environment. Acoustic relative transfer functions of at least a pair of audio acquisition devices of the plurality of audio acquisition devices may be compared. Location information associated with an acoustic source within the acoustic environment may be determined based upon, at least in part, the comparison of the acoustic relative transfer functions of the at least a pair of audio acquisition devices of the plurality of audio acquisition devices.

A method, computer program product, and computing system for generating a plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions between a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system based upon, at least in part, one or more of a predefined speech processing application and a predefined acoustic environment. An acoustic relative transfer function codebook may be generated using the plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions. One or more channels from the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system may be encoded using the acoustic relative transfer function codebook.

A method, computer program product, and computing system for generating a plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions for a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system deployed in an acoustic environment. The plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions may be encoded into a first embedding of acoustic relative transfer functions and at least a second embedding of acoustic relative transfer functions. Information may be extracted from at least the first embedding of acoustic relative transfer functions.

A method, computer program product, and computing system for encoding audio encounter information of a reference audio acquisition device of a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system, thus defining encoded reference audio encounter information. Location information may be estimated, via a machine vision system, for an acoustic source within an acoustic environment. One or more acoustic relative transfer functions may be selected from a plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions for the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system based upon, at least in part, the location information. The encoded reference audio encounter information and a representation of the selected one or more acoustic relative transfer function may be transmitted.

A method, computer program product, and computing system for obtaining machine vision encounter information using one or more machine vision systems. Audio encounter information may be obtained using a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system. The audio encounter information may be encoded using an audio codec. The encoding of the audio encounter information by the audio codec may be adapted based upon, at least in part, the machine vision encounter information.

A method, computer program product, and computing system for generating a plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions associated with a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system deployed in an acoustic environment. At least a pair of the plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions from time frames may be compared. A change in the acoustic environment may be detected based upon, at least in part, the comparison of the plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions from at least the pair of time frames.

Examples of the disclosure relate to apparatus, methods and computer programs for encoding spatial metadata. The example apparatus includes circuitry configured for obtaining spatial metadata associated with spatial audio content and obtaining a configuration parameter indicative of a source format of the spatial audio content. The circuitry is also configured to use the configuration parameter to select a method of compression of the spatial metadata associated with the spatial audio content.

A plurality of types of audio signals is satisfactorily transmitted. An audio signal of each block including a plurality of frames is sequentially transmitted via a predetermined transmission line to a reception side. The audio signal in each of the blocks is a mixed signal of a plurality of types of audio signals. For example, the plurality of types of audio signals includes a plurality of types of compressed audio signals. In this case, for example, the plurality of types of compressed audio signals varies in a transfer speed or a codec. Furthermore, for example, the plurality of types of audio signals includes a compressed audio signal and a linear PCM signal.