Higher Order Ambisonics represents three-dimensional sound independent of a specific loudspeaker set-up. However, transmission of an HOA representation results in a very high bit rate. Therefore, compression with a fixed number of channels is used, in which directional and ambient signal components are processed differently. The ambient HOA component is represented by a minimum number of HOA coefficient sequences. The remaining channels contain either directional signals or additional coefficient sequences of the ambient HOA component, depending on what will result in optimum perceptual quality. This processing can change on a frame-by-frame basis.

The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.

The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.

The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.

The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.

The present technology relates to a sound field collecting apparatus and method, a sound field reproducing apparatus and method and a program which enable a sound field to be reproduced accurately at lower cost. Each linear microphone array outputs a sound collection signal obtained by collecting a sound field. A spatial frequency analysis unit performs spatial frequency transform on each sound collection signal to calculate spatial frequency spectra. A space shift unit performs space shift on the spatial frequency spectra so that central coordinates of the linear microphone arrays become the same, to obtain spatially shifted spectra. A space domain signal mixing unit mixes a plurality of spatially shifted spectra to obtain a single microphone mixed signal. By mixing the sound collection signals of the plurality of linear microphone arrays in this manner, it is possible to reproduce a sound field accurately at low cost. The present technology can be applied to a sound field reproducer.

An apparatus for generating a plurality of loudspeaker signals from two or more audio source signals is provided. Each of the two or more audio source signals shall be reproduced in one or more of two or more sound zones, and at least one of the two or more audio source signals shall not be reproduced in at least one of the two more sound zones. An audio preprocessor is configured to modify each initial audio signal of the two or more initial audio signals depending on a signal power or a loudness of another initial audio signal of the two or more initial audio signals. A filter is configured to generate the plurality of loudspeaker signals depending on in which of the two or more sound zones the two or more audio source signals shall be reproduced and depending on in which of the two or more sound zones the two or more audio source signals shall not be reproduced.

Provided is a signal processing device including a display control unit for causing a display to display an image corresponding to a specified place, a sound-collection-signal input unit for inputting a sound collection signal of a sound collection unit that collects a user sound produced with microphones surrounding the user, an acoustic-signal processing unit for performing a first acoustic-signal process for reproducing a sound field where the user sound is sensed as if the sound were echoing in the place on the signal input by the sound-collection-signal input unit, based on a first transfer function measured in the place to indicate how a sound emitted on a closed surface inside the place echoes in the place and then is transferred to the closed-surface side, and a sound-emission control unit for causing a sound based on the processed signal to be emitted from speakers surrounding the user.

The disclosure relates to an apparatus for processing soundfield data, the soundfield data defining a soundfield within a spatial reproduction region comprising at least one bright zone and at least one quiet zone. The apparatus comprises an applicator configured to apply a spatially continuously varying weighting function to the soundfield data in order to obtain weighted soundfield data defining a weighted soundfield, wherein the spatially continuously varying weighting function is configured to enhance the soundfield in at least one of the bright zone and the quiet zone.

Embodiments are described for an adaptive audio system that processes audio data comprising a number of independent monophonic audio streams. One or more of the streams has associated with it metadata that specifies whether the stream is a channel-based or object-based stream. Channel-based streams have rendering information encoded by means of channel name; and the object-based streams have location information encoded through location expressions encoded in the associated metadata. A codec packages the independent audio streams into a single serial bitstream that contains all of the audio data. This configuration allows for the sound to be rendered according to an allocentric frame of reference, in which the rendering location of a sound is based on the characteristics of the playback environment (e.g., room size, shape, etc.) to correspond to the mixer's intent. The object position metadata contains the appropriate allocentric frame of reference information required to play the sound correctly using the available speaker positions in a room that is set up to play the adaptive audio content.