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US 12,705,020 B2Granted
Primary-ambient playback on audio playback devices
AssigneeSonos, Inc.
InventorChristopher Pike
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Example techniques relate to primary-ambient playback of surround audio by audio playback devices. Example playback devices described herein may include multiple speakers, such as a forward-firing audio transducer and side-firing audio transducers. Using example techniques, such playback devices may perform primary-ambient decomposition to separate surround channels into primary′ and ambient channels. The playback devices play back the ambient channel(s) via the side-firing transducers and the primary channel via the forward-firing transducer.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- a first playback device including a forward-firing audio transducer and side-firing audio transducers;
- a second playback device including an additional forward-firing audio transducer and additional side-firing audio transducers;
- a third playback device;
- a network interface;
- at least one processor;
- and
- data storage including instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the system is configured to perform functions comprising:
- receiving data representing multi-channel audio content, the multi-channel audio content comprising a first audio signal representing a first surround channel, a second audio signal representing a second surround channel, and one or more third audio signals;
- performing primary-ambient decomposition on the first audio signal and the second audio signal to generate (i) a first primary signal and a first ambient signal and (ii) a second primary signal and a second ambient signal, wherein performing the primary-ambient decomposition on the first audio signal and the second audio signal comprises:
- determining first signals representing the first audio signal in respective frequency bands in the short time Fourier transform (STFT) domain, wherein each first signal comprises a respective series of first segments representing the first audio signal in respective time periods;
- determining second signals representing the second audio signal in respective frequency bands in the STFT domain, wherein each second signal comprises a respective series of second segments representing the second audio signal in the respective time periods;
- and
- performing the primary-ambient decomposition on the first signals and the second signals;
- causing the first playback device to play back the first primary signal via first forward-firing audio transducer and the first ambient signal via the side-firing audio transducers in synchrony with playback of the one or more third audio signals by the third playback device;
- and
- causing the second playback device to play back the second primary signal via the additional forward-firing audio transducer and the second ambient signal via the additional side-firing audio transducers in synchrony with playback of the one or more third audio signals by the third playback device.
13 more elements
A first playback device comprising:
- a forward-firing audio transducer and side-firing audio transducers;
- a network interface;
- at least one processor;
- and
- data storage including instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the first playback device is configured to perform functions comprising,
- receiving data representing multi-channel audio content, the multi-channel audio content comprising a first audio signal representing a first surround channel a second audio signal representing a second surround channel;
- performing primary-ambient decomposition on the first audio signal and the second audio signal to generate primary signal and a first ambient signal and (ii) a second primary signal and a second ambient signal, wherein performing the primary-ambient decomposition on the first audio signal and the second audio signal comprises:
- determining first signals representing the first audio signal in respective frequency bands in the short time Fourier transform (STFT) domain, wherein each first signal comprises a respective series of first segments representing the first audio signal in respective time periods;
- determining second signals representing the second audio signal in respective frequency bands in the STFT domain, wherein each second signal comprises a respective series of second segments representing the second audio signal in the respective time periods;
- and
- performing the primary-ambient decomposition on the first signals and the second signals;
- causing a second playback device to play back the second primary signal via an additional forward-firing audio transducer and the second ambient signal via an additional side-firing audio transducers in synchrony with playback of one or more third audio signals by a third playback device;
- and
- playing back the first primary signal via the forward-firing audio transducer and the first ambient signal via the side-firing audio transducers in synchrony with playback of the one or more third audio signals by the third playback device.
11 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving data representing multi-channel audio content, the multi-channel audio content comprising a first audio signal representing a first surround channel, a second audio signal representing a second surround channel, and one or more third audio signals;
- buffering the received data representing the multi-channel audio content into one or more buffers;
- as the received multi-channel audio content is buffered, performing primary-ambient decomposition on the first audio signal and the second audio signal to generate (i) a first primary signal and a first ambient signal and (ii) a second primary signal and a second ambient signal, wherein performing the primary-ambient decomposition on the first audio signal and the second audio signal comprises:
- determining first signals representing the first audio signal in respective frequency bands in the short time Fourier transform (STFT) domain, wherein each first signal comprises a respective series of first segments representing the first audio signal in respective time periods;
- determining second signals representing the second audio signal in respective frequency bands in the STFT domain, wherein each second signal comprises a respective series of second segments representing the second audio signal in the respective time periods;
- and
- performing the primary-ambient decomposition on the first signals and the second signals:
- causing a first playback device to play back the first primary signal via a first forward-firing audio transducer and the first ambient signal via-side-firing audio transducers in synchrony with playback of the one or more third audio signals by a second playback device;
- and
- causing a third playback device to play back the second primary signal via an additional forward-firing audio transducer and the second ambient signal via additional side-firing audio transducers in synchrony with playback of the one or more third audio signals by the second playback device.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.