Audio objects are associated with positional metadata. A received downmix signal comprises downmix channels that are linear combinations of one or more audio objects and are associated with respective positional locators. In a first aspect, the downmix signal, the positional metadata and frequency-dependent object gains are received. An audio object is reconstructed by applying the object gain to an upmix of the downmix signal in accordance with coefficients based on the positional metadata and the positional locators. In a second aspect, audio objects have been encoded together with at least one bed channel positioned at a positional locator of a corresponding downmix channel. The decoding system receives the downmix signal and the positional metadata of the audio objects. A bed channel is reconstructed by suppressing the content representing audio objects from the corresponding downmix channel on the basis of the positional locator of the corresponding downmix channel.

Audio objects are associated with positional metadata. A received downmix signal comprises downmix channels that are linear combinations of one or more audio objects and are associated with respective positional locators. In a first aspect, the downmix signal, the positional metadata and frequency-dependent object gains are received. An audio object is reconstructed by applying the object gain to an upmix of the downmix signal in accordance with coefficients based on the positional metadata and the positional locators. In a second aspect, audio objects have been encoded together with at least one bed channel positioned at a positional locator of a corresponding downmix channel. The decoding system receives the downmix signal and the positional metadata of the audio objects. A bed channel is reconstructed by suppressing the content representing audio objects from the corresponding downmix channel on the basis of the positional locator of the corresponding downmix channel.

A computer program product having a non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon that, when performed on a surround sound audio system that is configured to render left front, right front, and center front audio signals, and also render left and right near-field binaurally-encoded audio signals, causes the surround sound audio system to develop the left and right near-field binaurally-encoded audio signals, and provide the left near-field binaurally-encoded audio signal to a left non-occluding near-field driver and provide the right near-field binaurally-encoded audio signal to a right non-occluding near-field driver.

The present disclosure provides methods, devices and computer program products for encoding and decoding of a vector of parameters in an audio coding system. The disclosure further relates to a method and apparatus for reconstructing an audio object in an audio decoding system. According to the disclosure, a modulo differential approach for coding and encoding a vector of a non-periodic quantity may improve the coding efficiency and provide encoders and decoders with less memory requirements. Moreover, an efficient method for encoding and decoding a sparse matrix is provided.

The present disclosure provides methods, devices and computer program products for encoding and decoding of a vector of parameters in an audio coding system. The disclosure further relates to a method and apparatus for reconstructing an audio object in an audio decoding system. According to the disclosure, a modulo differential approach for coding and encoding a vector of a non-periodic quantity may improve the coding efficiency and provide encoders and decoders with less memory requirements. Moreover, an efficient method for encoding and decoding a sparse matrix is provided.

When compressing an HOA data frame representation, a gain control (15, 151) is applied for each channel signal before it is perceptually encoded (16). The gain values are transferred in a differential manner as side information. However, for starting decoding of such streamed compressed HOA data frame representation absolute gain values are required, which should be coded with a minimum number of bits. For determining such lowest integer number (β.sub.e) of bits the HOA data frame representation (C(k)) is rendered in spatial domain to virtual loudspeaker signals lying on a unit sphere, followed by normalisation of the HOA data frame representation (C(k)). Then the lowest integer number of bits is set to

β.sub.e=┌log.sub.2(┌log.sub.2(√{square root over (K.sub.MAX)}.Math.O)┐+1)┐.

When compressing an HOA data frame representation, a gain control (15, 151) is applied for each channel signal before it is perceptually encoded (16). The gain values are transferred in a differential manner as side information. However, for starting decoding of such streamed compressed HOA data frame representation absolute gain values are required, which should be coded with a minimum number of bits. For determining such lowest integer number (β.sub.e) of bits the HOA data frame representation (C(k)) is rendered in spatial domain to virtual loudspeaker signals lying on a unit sphere, followed by normalisation of the HOA data frame representation (C(k)). Then the lowest integer number of bits is set to

β.sub.e=┌log.sub.2(┌log.sub.2(√{square root over (K.sub.MAX)}.Math.O)┐+1)┐.

When compressing an HOA data frame representation, a gain control (15, 151) is applied for each channel signal before it is perceptually encoded (16). The gain values are transferred in a differential manner as side information. However, for starting decoding of such streamed compressed HOA data frame representation absolute gain values are required, which should be coded with a minimum number of bits. For determining such lowest integer number (β.sub.e) of bits the HOA data frame representation (C(k)) is rendered in spatial domain to virtual loudspeaker signals lying on a unit sphere, followed by normalisation of the HOA data frame representation (C(k)). Then the lowest integer number of bits is set to

β.sub.e=┌log.sub.2(┌log.sub.2(√{square root over (K.sub.MAX)}.Math.O)┐+1)┐.

When compressing an HOA data frame representation, a gain control (15, 151) is applied for each channel signal before it is perceptually encoded (16). The gain values are transferred in a differential manner as side information. However, for starting decoding of such streamed compressed HOA data frame representation absolute gain values are required, which should be coded with a minimum number of bits. For determining such lowest integer number (β.sub.e) of bits the HOA data frame representation (C(k)) is rendered in spatial domain to virtual loudspeaker signals lying on a unit sphere, followed by normalisation of the HOA data frame representation (C(k)). Then the lowest integer number of bits is set to

β.sub.e=┌log.sub.2(┌log.sub.2(√{square root over (K.sub.MAX)}.Math.O)┐+1)┐.

An audio metadata providing apparatus and method and a multichannel audio data playback apparatus and method to support a dynamic format conversion are provided. Dynamic format conversion information may include information about a plurality of format conversion schemes that are used to convert a first format set by an author of multichannel audio data into a second format that is based on a playback environment of the multichannel audio data and that are each set for corresponding playback periods of the multichannel audio data. The audio metadata providing apparatus may provide audio metadata including the dynamic format conversion information. The multichannel audio data playback apparatus may identify the dynamic format conversion information from the audio metadata, may convert the first format of the multichannel audio data into the second format based on the identified dynamic format conversion information, and may play back the multichannel audio data in the second format.