Reflected sound rendering for object-based audio

A system for rendering sound using reflected sound elements, comprising:

• an array of audio drivers for distribution around a listening environment, wherein at least one driver of the array of audio drivers is an upward-firing driver, which is configured to project sound waves toward a ceiling of the listening environment for reflection to a listening area within the listening environment;
• a renderer configured to receive and process a bitstream including audio streams and one or more metadata sets that are associated with each of the audio streams and that specify a playback location in the listening environment of audio objects in a respective audio stream, wherein the audio streams comprise one or more reflected audio streams and one or more direct audio streams, the renderer further configured to render one or more of the audio objects that should be rendered above a head of a listener at the listening area in the listening environment using an upward-firing driver and height information related to the one or more audio objects;
• and
• a playback component coupled to the renderer and configured to render the audio streams to a plurality of audio feeds corresponding to the array of audio drivers in accordance with the one or more metadata sets, and wherein the one or more reflected audio streams are transmitted to the at least one upward-firing driver;
• characterized in that the system performs signal processing to introduce perceptual height cues into the reflected audio streams fed to the at least one upward-firing driver, the perceptual height cues derived by at least partially removing from the reflected audio streams a first height cue for a physical speaker location in the listening environment and at least partially inserting in the reflected audio streams a second height cue for a reflected speaker location.