Spatial audio processing system and method

A method of playback of an encoded audio bitstream, the bitstream including an encoding of an intermediate spatial format for playback over a series of virtual speakers arranged in a series of planes around a listener, with the virtual speakers within each plane having virtual speaker bitstreams formed using a series of panning curves which have been constructed from a Fourier series, the number of frequency components in the Fourier series being less than or equal to a number of virtual speakers in the series of virtual speakers, the method comprising:

• (a) decoding the bitstream into a first series of channels each defining a number of listening planes;
• and within each plane, a series of corresponding virtual speaker signals;
• (b) mixing the virtual speaker signals utilizing a weighted sum of the virtual speaker signals to produce a set of remapped speaker signals, corresponding to an output location of a series of real speakers;
• and
• (c) outputting the real speaker signals to a corresponding series of real speakers.