Systems are disclosed including a television (TV) set having included audio system. The TV set permits control over various functions, at least including audio volume, via a remote control. When the viewer activates the remote volume control, a graphic appears indicating the state of the volume control and, optionally the mute status. The graphic can be presented on the TV screen. In alternate embodiments, the graphic may be presented on a display of the remote, or even some other location, e.g., a different remote control. If a mute button is provided on the remote control, when the viewer activates the mute button, a graphic appears indicating the state of muting and, optionally, the volume control status. The TV set also offers control over various aspects of the audio system, including settings which go beyond volume up/down, generally through some sort of menu system.

Example embodiments disclosed herein relate to orientation-aware surround sound playback. A method for processing audio on an electronic device that includes a plurality of loudspeakers is disclosed, the loudspeakers arranged in more than one dimension of the electronic device. The method includes, responsive to receipt of a plurality of received audio streams, generating a rendering component associated with the plurality of received audio streams, determining an orientation dependent component of the rendering component, processing the rendering component by updating the orientation dependent component according to an orientation of the loudspeakers and dispatching the received audio streams to the plurality of loudspeakers for playback based on the processed rendering component. Corresponding system and computer program products are also disclosed.

A method, a computer readable medium, and an apparatus for multichannel audio playback adaptation. A user input defining a listening region relative to a loudspeaker arrangement is received via an input. A distance calculating unit determines minimal distances between the listening region and the loudspeakers. A comparator compares the determined minimal distances with a critical distance. A parameter setting unit then adapts output parameters for those loudspeakers for which the determined minimal distance is below the critical distance.

An apparatus for generating an output downmix representation from an input downmix representation, wherein at least a portion of the input downmix representation is in accordance with a first downmixing scheme, includes: an upmixer for upmixing at least the portion of the input downmix representation using an upmixing scheme corresponding to the first downmixing scheme to obtain at least one upmixed portion; and a downmixer for downmixing the at least one upmixed portion in accordance with a second downmixing scheme different from the first downmixing scheme.

An audio processing apparatus and a control method thereof are provided. The method includes receiving an audio signal including audio data corresponding to each of a plurality of channels, generating a strobe signal for the audio data corresponding to each of the plurality of channels, converting a clock for the strobe signal corresponding to each of the plurality of channels to a master clock having preset multiple speeds, and outputting the audio signal based on the master clock. The simplification of the system configuration is accomplished by synchronizing an input and an output of the audio signal using hardware.

A system and method for generating a virtual soundstage in a listening environment having a compact speaker array centrally positioned in a listening environment. A listener is sitting offset from the speaker array and the virtual soundstage is generated in front of a listener. A signal processing unit is configured to receive an incoming audio signal, to process left and right channel signals of the incoming audio signal to generate a null, and to steer the null toward one ear of a listener thereby generating a virtual sound source that is offset from the center of the listening environment. Virtual sound sources are generated in front of, to the left of, and to the right of the listener.

An audio system can be configured to generate an audio heatmap for the audio emission potential profiles for one or more speakers, in specific or arbitrary locations. The audio heatmap maybe based on speaker location and orientation, speaker acoustic properties, and optionally environmental properties. The audio heatmap often shows areas of low sound density when there are few speakers, and areas of high sound density when there are a lot of speakers. An audio system may be configured to normalize audio signals for a set of speakers that cooperatively emit sound to render an audio object in a defined audio object location. The audio signals for each speaker can be normalized to ensure accurate rendering of the audio object without volume spikes or dropout.

Audio perception in local proximity to visual cues is provided. A device includes a video display, first row of audio transducers, and second row of audio transducers. The first and second rows can be vertically disposed above and below the video display. An audio transducer of the first row and an audio transducer of the second row form a column to produce, in concert, an audible signal. The perceived emanation of the audible signal is from a plane of the video display (e.g., a location of a visual cue) by weighing outputs of the audio transducers of the column. In certain embodiments, the audio transducers are spaced farther apart at a periphery for increased fidelity in a center portion of the plane and less fidelity at the periphery.

An audio receiver that receives left, right, and center audio channels for a piece of sound program content is described. A content processor in the audio receiver generates separate audio signals corresponding to each channel for driving corresponding transducers in left and right loudspeaker arrays. The content processor generates (1) first center audio signals for driving transducers in the left array to generate a first center pattern, (2) second center audio signals for driving transducers in the right array to generate a second center pattern, (3) left audio signals for driving transducers in the left array to generate a left pattern, and (4) right audio signals for driving transducers in the right array to generate a right pattern. The first and second center patterns collectively represent the center channel while the left and right patterns respectively represent the left and right channels.

Accurate modeling of acoustic reverberation can be essential to generating and providing a realistic virtual reality or augmented reality experience for a participant. In an example, a reverberation signal for playback using headphones can be provided. The reverberation signal can correspond to a virtual sound source signal originating at a specified location in a local listener environment. Providing the reverberation signal can include, among other things, using information about a reference impulse response from a reference environment and using characteristic information about reverberation decay in a local environment of the participant. Providing the reverberation signal can further include using information about a relationship between a volume of the reference environment and a volume of the local environment of the participant.