Screen-relative rendering of audio and encoding and decoding of audio for such rendering

A method of rendering a speaker channel-based program including two or more selectable sets of speaker channels, at least one of the sets is indicative of unwarped audio content of an object based audio program, and another one of the sets is indicative of warped content, wherein the speaker channel-based program has been generated by processing the object based audio program including by warping audio content of the object based audio program to a degree determined at least in part by at least one warping degree parameter, to generate the set of speaker channels indicative of warped content, where each said warping degree parameter is indicative of a maximum degree of warping to be performed on corresponding audio content of the object based audio program by a playback system, said method of rendering including steps of:

• (a) parsing the speaker channel-based program to identify speaker channels of the speaker channel-based program, including each said set of speaker channels indicative of warped content;
• (b) selecting one of the sets which is indicative of warped content;
• and
• (c) generating speaker feeds, for driving loudspeakers positioned at predetermined locations relative to a playback screen, in response to at least some of the speaker channels of the speaker channel-based program, including at least said selected set of speaker channels indicative of warped content.

A system, including one or more components that:

• parse a multi-channel audio program to identify channels of the program;
• and
• perform warping on audio content of at least one channel of the program to a degree determined at least in part by at least one warping degree parameter corresponding to said channel, where each said warping degree parameter is indicative of a maximum degree of warping to be performed on corresponding audio content of the program by a playback system, wherein the warping includes determination of a value, Xs, which indicates unwarped position, along a width axis, of an audio element to be rendered at a warped position along the width axis, and generation of values:
• Xwarp,
• YFACTOR=yEXP, and
• X′=x*YFACTOR +(1−YFACTOR)*[XFACTOR*Xwarp+(1−XFACTOR)*x)],
• wherein
• Xwarp denotes raw warped position of the audio element along the width axis relative to an edge of a playback screen,
• EXP is an off-screen warping parameter,
• YFACTOR indicates degree of warping along the width axis as a function of warped position, y, of the audio element along a depth axis at least substantially perpendicular to the playback screen's plane,
• X′ denotes warped object position of the audio element along the width axis relative to the edge of the playback screen, and
• XFACTOR is one said warping degree parameter.

A system for rendering a speaker channel-based program including two or more selectable sets of speaker channels, at least one of the sets is indicative of unwarped audio content of an object based audio program, and another one of the sets is indicative of warped content, wherein the speaker channel-based program has been generated by processing the object based audio program including by warping audio content of the object based audio program to a degree determined at least in part by at least one warping degree parameter, to generate the set of speaker channels indicative of warped content, where each said warping degree parameter is indicative of a maximum degree of warping to be performed on corresponding audio content of the object based audio program by a playback system, said system including one or more components that:

• parse the speaker channel-based program to identify speaker channels of the program, including each said set of speaker channels indicative of warped content;
• select one of the sets which is indicative of warped content;
• and
• generate speaker feeds, for driving loudspeakers positioned at predetermined locations relative to a playback screen, in response to at least some of the speaker channels of the speaker channel-based program, including at least said selected set of speaker channels indicative of warped content.