US 11,968,504 B1Granted

Hearing-assist systems and methods for audio quality enhancements in performance venues

AssigneeThe Epstein Hear Us Now Foundation

InventorsBarry Epstein, Christopher Ryan Knox

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Abstract

To enable a patron of a venue attending a performance to feel as if he or she is ‘front and center’ even if located much farther away or angled from a stage of the venue, system and methods that enhance audio quality of audio signals especially over the voice frequency spectrum to generate a processed audio signal including an increased voice frequency spectrum are provided. The processed audio signal may be communicated to a receiving system with a headset or other transducer (e.g., loudspeakers) that allows for ambient sounds to be heard by a patron and for the patron to control volume of the processed audio signal, thereby mixing the processed audio signal with the ambient sounds. The receiving system may be rented and an operator may control usage for both performance or long-term rentals using various control features of the processed audio signals and/or receiving system.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method for enhancing audio quality of audio signals in venues hosting sound programs, the method comprising:

reducing, by a computer system, amplitudes of one or more segments of an audio signal to generate a first audio signal, the amplitudes of the one or more segments determined to be below a first threshold;
applying, by the computer system, multi-band compression to the first audio signal to generate a second audio signal, applying the multi-band compression includes reducing dynamic ranges of the first audio signal within multiple frequency bands;
reducing, by the computer system, a dynamic range of the second audio signal to generate a third audio signal;
generating, by the computer system, an output audio signal using a sum of the second audio signal and the third audio signal;
and
transmitting, by the computer system, the output signal over one or more communication channels to a plurality of receivers, each receiver communicatively coupled to a corresponding output component.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.