A General Compression Approach to Multi-Channel Three-Dimensional Audio

• Published in: IEEE transactions on audio, speech, and language processing Vol. 21; no. 8; pp. 1676 - 1688
• Main Authors: Cheng, Bin, Ritz, Christian, Burnett, Ian, Zheng, Xiguang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway, NJ IEEE 01.08.2013; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: 3D audio; Applied sciences; Audio coding; Azimuth; Bit rate; Coding, codes; Encoding; Exact sciences and technology; Information, signal and communications theory; Loudspeakers; Miscellaneous; Quantization (signal); Signal and communications theory; Signal processing; Telecommunications and information theory; Three-dimensional displays; Time-frequency analysis; Time-frequency analysis; Audio signal processing; Acoustic signal; Information rate; Sound source; Acoustic signal processing; 3D audio; Loudspeaker; Information transmission; Three dimensional model; Audio coding; Audio signal; Low bit rate; Localization; Multiple channel
• ISSN: 1558-7916; 1558-7924
• DOI: 10.1109/TASL.2013.2260156

This paper presents a technique for low bit rate compression of three-dimensional (3D) audio produced by multiple loudspeaker channels. The approach is based on the time-frequency analysis of the localization of spatial sound sources within the 3D space as rendered by a multi-channel audio signal (in this case 16 channels). This analysis results in the derivation of a stereo downmix signal representing the original 16 channels. Alternatively, a mono-downmix signal with side information representing the location of sound sources within the 3D spatial scene can also be derived. The resulting downmix signals are then compressed with a traditional audio coder, resulting in a representation of the 3D soundfield at bit rates comparable with existing stereo audio coders while maintaining the perceptual quality produced from separate encoding of each channel.