Parametric Coding of Spatial Audio with Cues Based on Transmitted Channels

Abstract

A binaural cue coding scheme in which cue codes are derived from the transmitted audio signal. In one embodiment, an encoder downmixes C input channels to generate E transmitted channels, where C>E>1. A decoder derives cue codes from the transmitted channels and uses those cue codes to synthesize playback channels. For example, in one 5-to-2 BCC embodiment, the encoder downmixes a 5-channel surround signal to generate left and right channels of a stereo signal. The decoder derives stereo cues from the transmitted stereo signal, maps those stereo cues to surround cues, and applies the surround cues to the transmitted stereo channels to generate playback channels of a 5-channel synthesized surround signal.