Audio Scene Description and Control

A method for processing digital audio content for input to a spatial audio renderer, the method comprising:

• receiving digital audio content from a producer, wherein the digital audio content comprises a plurality of scene components and a scene description, wherein the scene description defines which of the plurality of scene components are modifiable by a user via a player application, and which of the plurality of scene components cannot be modified, the scene description contains a tag payload that conveys one or more tag indices that point to one or more tags, respectively, wherein an association between indices and their tags is in a string table that is known to the producer and to the player application;
• extracting one or more parts of the scene description and forwarding one or more extracted parts to a user interface, wherein the one or more forwarded extracted parts include the one or more tag indices;
• receiving a user input from the user interface in response to one of the tags being selected by the user;
• and
• modifying at least some of the plurality of scene components in accordance with the scene description and in accordance with the user input to produce modified scene components for input to the spatial audio renderer.

A playback system for processing digital audio content, the playback system comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• memory having stored therein instructions that configure the at least one processor to:
• receive digital audio content from a producer, wherein the digital audio content comprises a plurality of scene components and a scene description, wherein the scene description defines which of the scene components are modifiable by a user and which of the scene components cannot be modified, the scene description defines a plurality of presets, wherein each preset comprises:
• one or more parameters that determine a selection from amongst alternative versions of a scene component associated with an object in a scene, and
• one or more parameters that control attenuation or position of the object in the scene;
• extract one or more parts of the scene description and forwarding the extracted parts to a user interface, wherein the forwarded extracted parts include one or more of the plurality of presets that the user interface exposes to the user as a control;
• receive user input from the user interface in response to one of the plurality of presets being selected by the user;
• and
• modify at least some of the scene components in accordance with the scene description and in accordance with the user input to produce modified scene components.