TECHNICAL FIELD

The present document relates to methods and apparatuses for layered audio coding. In particular, the present document relates to methods and apparatuses for layered audio coding of compressed sound (or sound field) representations, for example Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA) sound (or sound field) representations.

BACKGROUND

For the streaming of a sound (or sound field) representation over a transmission channel with time-varying conditions, layered coding is a means to adapt the quality of the received sound representation to the transmission conditions, and in particular to avoid undesired signal dropouts.

For layered coding, the sound (or sound field) representation is usually subdivided into a high priority base layer of a relatively small size and additional enhancement layers with decremental priorities and arbitrary sizes. Each enhancement layer is typically assumed to contain incremental information to complement that of all lower layers in order to improve the quality of the sound (or sound field) representation. The amount of error protection for the transmission of the individual layers is controlled based on their priority. In particular, the base layer is provided with a high error protection, which is reasonable and affordable due to its low size.

However, there is a need for layered coding schemes for (extended versions of) special types of compressed representations of sound or sound fields, such as, for example, compressed HOA sound or sound field representations.

The present document addresses the above issues. In particular, methods and encoders/decoders for layered coding of compressed sound or sound field representations are described.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect, a method of layered encoding of a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field is described. The compressed sound representation may include a basic compressed sound representation that includes a plurality of components. The plurality of components may be complementary components. The compressed sound representation may further include basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to a basic reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field. The compressed sound representation may yet further include enhancement side information including parameters for improving (e.g., enhancing) the basic reconstructed sound representation. The method may include sub-dividing (e.g., grouping) the plurality of components into a plurality of groups of components. The method may further include assigning (e.g., adding) each of the plurality of groups to a respective one of a plurality of hierarchical layers. The assignment may indicate a correspondence between respective groups and layers. Components assigned to a respective layer may be said to be included in that layer. The number of groups may correspond to (e.g., be equal to) the number of layers. The plurality of layers may include a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers. The plurality of hierarchical layers may be ordered, from the base layer, through the first enhancement layer, the second enhancement layer, and so forth, up to an overall highest enhancement layer (overall highest layer). The method may further include adding the basic side information to the base layer (e.g., including the basic side information in the base layer, or allocating the basic side information to the base layer, for example for purposes of transmission or storing). The method may further include determining a plurality of portions of enhancement side information from the enhancement side information. The method may yet further include assigning (e.g., adding) each of the plurality of portions of enhancement side information to a respective one of the plurality of layers. Each portion of enhancement side information may include parameters for improving a reconstructed (e.g., decompressed) sound representation obtainable from data included in (e.g., assigned or added to) the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. The layered encoding may be performed for purposes of transmission over a transmission channel or for purposes of storing in a suitable storage medium, such as a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Disc™, for example.

Configured as above, the proposed method enables to efficiently apply layered coding to compressed sound representations comprising a plurality of components as well as first and enhancement side information (e.g., independent basic side information and enhancement side information) having the properties set out above. In particular, the proposed method ensures that each layer includes suitable side information for reconstructing a reconstructed sound representation from the components included in any layers up to the layer in question. Therein the layers up to the layer in question are understood to include, for example, the base layer, the first enhancement layer, the second enhancement layer, and so forth, up to the layer in question. Thus, regardless of an actual highest usable layer (e.g., the layer below the lowest layer that has not been validly received, so that all layers below the highest usable layer and the highest usable layer itself have been validly received), a decoder would be enabled to improve or enhance a reconstructed sound representation, even though the reconstructed sound representation may be different from the complete (e.g., full) sound representation. In particular, regardless of the actual highest usable layer, it is sufficient for the decoder to decode a payload of enhancement side information for only a single layer (i.e., for the highest usable layer) to improve or enhance the reconstructed sound representation that is obtainable on the basis of all components included in layers up to the actual highest usable layer. That is, for each time interval (e.g., frame) only a single payload of enhancement side information has to be decoded. On the other hand, the proposed method allows fully taking advantage of the reduction of required bandwidth that may be achieved when applying layered coding.

In embodiments, the components of the basic compressed sound representation may correspond to monaural signals (e.g., transport signals or monaural transport signals). The monaural signals may represent either predominant sound signals or coefficient sequences of a HOA representation. The monaural signals may be quantized.

In embodiments, the basic side information may include information that specifies decoding (e.g., decompression) of one or more of the plurality of components individually, independently of other components. For example, the basic side information may represent side information related to individual monaural signals, independently of other monaural signals. Thus, the basic side information may be referred to as independent basic side information.

In embodiments, the enhancement side information may represent enhancement side information. The enhancement side information may include prediction parameters for the basic compressed sound representation for improving (e.g., enhancing) the basic reconstructed sound representation that is obtainable from the basic compressed sound representation and the basic side information.

In embodiments, the method may further include generating a transport stream for transmission of the data of the plurality of layers (e.g., data assigned or added to respective layers, or otherwise included in respective layers). The base layer may have highest priority of transmission and the hierarchical enhancement layers may have decremental priorities of transmission. That is, the priority of transmission may decrease from the base layer to the first enhancement layer, from the first enhancement layer to the second enhancement layer, and so forth. An amount of error protection for transmission of the data of the plurality of layers may be controlled in accordance with respective priorities of transmission. Thereby, it can be ensured that at least a number of lower layers is reliably transmitted, while on the other hand reducing the overall required bandwidth by not applying excessive error protection to higher layers.

In embodiments, the method may further include, for each of the plurality of layers, generating a transport layer packet including the data of the respective layer. For example, for each time interval (e.g., frame), a respective transport layer packet may be generated for each of the plurality of layers.

In embodiments, the compressed sound representation may further include additional basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to the basic reconstructed sound representation. The additional basic side information may include information that specifies decoding of one or more of the plurality of components in dependence on respective other components. The method may further include decomposing the additional basic side information into a plurality of portions of additional basic side information. The method may yet further include adding the portions of additional basic side information to the base layer (e.g., including the portions of additional basic side information in the base layer, or allocating the portions of additional basic side information to the base layer, for example for purposes of transmission or storing). Each portion of additional basic side information may correspond to a respective layer and may include information that specifies decoding of one or more components assigned to the respective layer in dependence (only) on respective other components assigned to the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. That is, each portion of additional basic side information specifies components in the respective layer to which that portion of additional basic side information corresponds without reference to any other components assigned to higher layers than the respective layer.

Configured as such, the proposed method avoids fragmentation of the additional basic side information by adding all portions to the base layer. In other words, all portions of additional basic side information are included in the base layer. The decomposition of the additional basic side information ensures that for each layer a portion of additional basic side information is available that does not require knowledge of components in higher layers. Thus, regardless of an actual highest usable layer, it is sufficient for the decoder to decode additional basic side information included in layers up to the highest usable layer.

In embodiments, the additional basic side information may include information that specifies decoding (e.g., decompression) of one or more of the plurality of components in dependence on other components. For example, the additional basic side information may represent side information related to individual monaural signals in dependence on other monaural signals. Thus, the additional basic side information may be referred to as dependent basic side information.

In embodiments, the compressed sound representation may be processed for successive time intervals, for example time intervals of equal size. The successive time intervals may be frames. Thus, the method may operate on a frame basis, i.e., the compressed sound representation may be encoded in a frame-wise manner. The compressed sound representation may be available for each successive time interval (e.g., for each frame). That is, the compression operation by which the compressed sound representation has been obtained may operate on a frame basis.

In embodiments, the method may further include generating configuration information that indicates, for each layer, the components of the basic compressed sound representation that are assigned to that layer. Thus, the decoder can readily access the information needed for decoding without unnecessary parsing through the received data payloads.

According to another aspect, a method of layered encoding of a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field is described. The compressed sound representation may include a basic compressed sound representation that includes a plurality of components. The plurality of components may be complementary components. The compressed sound representation may further include basic side information (e.g., independent basic side information) and third information (e.g., dependent basic side information) for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to a basic reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field. The basic side information may including information that specifies decoding of one or more of the plurality of components individually, independently of other components. The additional basic side information may include information that specifies decoding of one or more of the plurality of components in dependence on respective other components. The method may include sub-dividing (e.g., grouping) the plurality of components into a plurality of groups of components. The method may further include assigning (e.g., adding) each of the plurality of groups to a respective one of a plurality of hierarchical layers. The assignment may indicate a correspondence between respective groups and layers. Components assigned to a respective layer may be said to be included in that layer. The number of groups may correspond to (e.g., be equal to) the number of layers. The plurality of layers may include a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers. The method may further include adding the basic side information to the base layer (e.g., including the basic side information in the base layer, or allocating the basic side information to the base layer, for example for purposes of transmission or storing). The method may further include decomposing the additional basic side information into a plurality of portions of additional basic side information and adding the portions of additional basic side information to the base layer (e.g., including the portions of additional basic side information in the base layer, or allocating the portions of additional basic side information to the base layer, for example for purposes of transmission or storing). Each portion of additional basic side information may correspond to a respective layer and include information that specifies decoding of one or more components assigned to the respective layer in dependence on respective other components assigned to the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer.

Configured as such, the proposed method ensures that for each layer, appropriate additional basic side information is available for decoding the components included in any layer up to the respective layer, without requiring valid reception or decoding (or in general, knowledge) of any higher layers. In the case of a compressed HOA representation, the proposed method ensures that in vector coding mode a suitable V-vector is available for all component belonging to layers up to the highest usable layer. In particular, the proposed method excludes the case that elements of a V-vector corresponding to components in higher layers are not explicitly signaled. Accordingly, the information included in the layers up to the highest usable layer is sufficient for decoding (e.g., decompressing) any components belonging to layers up to the highest usable layer. Thereby, appropriate decompression of respective reconstructed HOA representations for lower layers is ensured even if higher layers may not have been validly received by the decoder. On the other hand, the proposed method allows fully taking advantage of the reduction of required bandwidth that may be achieved when applying layered coding.

Embodiments of this aspect may relate to the embodiments of the foregoing aspect.

According to another aspect, a method of decoding a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field is described. The compressed sound representation may have been encoded in a plurality of hierarchical layers. The plurality of hierarchical layers may include a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers. The plurality of layers may have assigned thereto components of a basic compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field. In other words, the plurality of layers may include the components of the basic compressed side information. The components may be assigned to respective layers in respective groups of components. The plurality of components may be complementary components. The base layer may include basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation. Each layer may include a portion of enhancement side information including parameters for improving a basic reconstructed sound representation obtainable from data included in the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. The method may include receiving data payloads respectively corresponding to the plurality of hierarchical layers. The method may further include determining a first layer index indicating a highest usable layer among the plurality of layers to be used for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to the basic reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field. The method may further include obtaining the basic reconstructed sound representation from the components assigned to the highest usable layer and any layers lower than the highest usable layer, using the basic side information. The method may further include determining a second layer index that is indicative of which portion of enhancement side information should be used for improving (e.g., enhancing) the basic reconstructed sound representation. The method may yet further include obtaining a reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field from the basic reconstructed sound representation, referring to the second layer index.

Configured as such, the proposed method ensures that the reconstructed sound representation has optimum quality, using the available (e.g., validly received) information to the best possible extent.

In embodiments, the components of the basic compressed sound representation may correspond to monaural signals (e.g., monaural transport signals). The monaural signals may represent either predominant sound signals or coefficient sequences of a HOA representation. The monaural signals may be quantized.

In embodiments, the basic side information may include information that specifies decoding (e.g., decompression) of one or more of the plurality of components individually, independently of other components. For example, the basic side information may represent side information related to individual monaural signals, independently of other monaural signals. Thus, the basic side information may be referred to as independent basic side information.

In embodiments, the enhancement side information may represent enhancement side information. The enhancement side information may include prediction parameters for the basic compressed sound representation for improving (e.g., enhancing) the basic reconstructed sound representation that is obtainable from the basic compressed sound representation and the basic side information.

In embodiments, the method may further include determining, for each layer, whether the respective layer has been validly received. The method may further include determining the first layer index as the layer index of a layer immediately below the lowest layer that has not been validly received.

In embodiments, determining the second layer index may involve either determining the second layer index to be equal to the first layer index, or determining an index value as the second layer index that indicates not to use any enhancement side information when obtaining the reconstructed sound representation. In the latter case, the reconstructed sound representation may be equal to the basic reconstructed sound representation.

In embodiments, the data payloads may be received and processed for successive time intervals, for example time intervals of equal size. The successive time intervals may be frames. Thus, the method may operate on a frame basis. The method may further include, if the compressed sound representations for the successive time intervals can be decoded independently of each other, determining the second layer index to be equal to the first layer index.

In embodiments, the data payloads may be received and processed for successive time intervals, for example time intervals of equal size. The successive time intervals may be frames. Thus, the method may operate on a frame basis. The method may further include, for a given time interval among the successive time intervals, if the compressed sound representations for the successive time intervals cannot be decoded independently of each other, determining, for each layer, whether the respective layer has been validly received. The method may further include determining the first layer index for the given time interval as the smaller one of the first layer index of the time interval preceding the given time interval and the layer index of a layer immediately below the lowest layer that has not been validly received.

In embodiments, the method may further include, for the given time interval, if the compressed sound representations for the successive time intervals cannot be decoded independently of each other, determining whether the first layer index for the given time interval is equal to the first layer index for the preceding time interval. The method may further include, if the first layer index for the given time interval is equal to the first layer index for the preceding time interval, determining the second layer index for the given time interval to be equal to the first layer index for the given time interval. The method may further include, if the first layer index for the given time interval is not equal to the first layer index for the preceding time interval, determining an index value as the second layer index that indicates not to use any enhancement side information when obtaining the reconstructed sound representation.

In embodiments, the base layer may include at least one portion of additional basic side information corresponding to a respective layer and including information that specifies decoding of one or more components among the components assigned to the respective layer in dependence on other components assigned to the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. The method may further include, for each portion of additional basic side information, decoding the portion of additional basic side information by referring to the components assigned to its respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. The method may further include correcting the portion of additional basic side information by referring to the components assigned to the highest usable layer and any layers between the highest usable layer and the respective layer. The basic reconstructed sound representation may be obtained from the components assigned to the highest usable layer and any layers lower than the highest usable layer, using the basic side information and corrected portions of additional basic side information obtained from portions of additional basic side information corresponding to layers up to the highest usable layer.

In embodiments, the additional basic side information may include information that specifies decoding (e.g., decompression) of one or more of the plurality of components in dependence on other components. For example, the additional basic side information may represent side information related to individual monaural signals in dependence on other monaural signals. Thus, the additional basic side information may be referred to as dependent basic side information.

According to another aspect, a method of decoding a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field is described. The compressed sound representation may have been encoded in a plurality of hierarchical layers. The plurality of hierarchical layers may include a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers. The plurality of layers may have assigned thereto components of a basic compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field. In other words, the plurality of layers may include the components of the basic compressed side information. The components may be assigned to respective layers in respective groups of components. The plurality of components may be complementary components. The base layer may include basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation. The base layer may further include at least one portion of additional basic side information corresponding to a respective layer and including information that specifies decoding of one or more components among the components assigned to the respective layer in dependence on other components assigned to the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. The method may include receiving data payloads respectively corresponding to the plurality of hierarchical layers. The method may further include determining a first layer index indicating a highest usable layer among the plurality of layers to be used for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to the basic reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field. The method may further include, for each portion of additional basic side information, decoding the portion of additional basic side information by referring to the components assigned to its respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. The method may further include, for each portion of additional basic side information, correcting the portion of additional basic side information by referring to the components assigned to the highest usable layer and any layers between the highest usable layer and the respective layer. The basic reconstructed sound representation may be obtained from the components assigned to the highest usable layer and any layers lower than the highest usable layer, using the basic side information and corrected portions of additional basic side information obtained from portions of additional basic side information corresponding to layers up to the highest usable layer. The method may further comprise determining a second layer index that is either equal to the first layer index or that indicates omission of enhancement side information during decoding.

Configured as such, the proposed method ensures that the additional basic side information that is eventually used for decoding the basic compressed sound representation does not include redundant elements, thereby rendering the actual decoding of the basic compressed sound representation more efficient.

Embodiments of this aspect may relate to the embodiments of the foregoing aspect.

According to another aspect, an encoder for layered encoding of a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field is described. The compressed sound representation may include a basic compressed sound representation that includes a plurality of components. The plurality of components may be complementary components. The compressed sound representation may further include basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to a basic reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field.

The compressed sound representation may yet further include enhancement side information including parameters for improving (e.g., enhancing) the basic reconstructed sound representation. The encoder may include a processor configured to perform some or all of the method steps of the methods according to the first-mentioned above aspect and the second-mentioned above aspect.

According to another aspect, a decoder for decoding a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field is described. The compressed sound representation may have been encoded in a plurality of hierarchical layers. The plurality of hierarchical layers may include a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers. The plurality of layers may have assigned thereto components of a basic compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field. In other words, the plurality of layers may include the components of the basic compressed side information. The components may be assigned to respective layers in respective groups of components. The plurality of components may be complementary components. The base layer may include basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation. Each layer may include a portion of enhancement side information including parameters for improving (e.g., enhancing) a basic reconstructed sound representation obtainable from data included in the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer. The decoder may include a processor configured to perform some or all of the method steps of the methods according to the third-mentioned above aspect and the fourth-mentioned above aspect.

According to other aspects, methods, apparatuses and systems are directed to decoding a compressed Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) sound representation of a sound or sound field. The apparatus may have a receiver configured to or the method may receive a bit stream containing the compressed HOA representation corresponding to a plurality of hierarchical layers that include a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers. The plurality of layers have assigned thereto components of a basic compressed sound representation of the sound or sound field, the components being assigned to respective layers in respective groups of components. The apparatus may have a decoder configured to or the method may decode the compressed HOA representation based on basic side information that is associated with the base layer and based on enhancement side information that is associated with the one or more hierarchical enhancement layers. The basic side information may include basic independent side information related to first individual monaural signals that will be decoded independently of other monaural signals. Each of the one or more hierarchical enhancement layers may include a portion of the enhancement side information including parameters for improving a basic reconstructed sound representation obtainable from data included in the respective layers and any layers lower than the respective layer.

The basic independent side information may indicate that the first individual monaural signals represents a directional signal with a direction of incidence. The basic side information may further include basic dependent side information related to second individual monaural signals that will be decoded dependently of other monaural signals. The basic dependent side information may include vector based signals that are directionally distributed within the sound field, where the directional distribution is specified by means of a vector. The components of the vector are set to zero and are not part of the compressed vector representation.

The components of the basic compressed sound representation may correspond to monaural signals that represent either predominant sound signals or coefficient sequences of an HOA representation. The bit stream includes data payloads respectively corresponding to the plurality of hierarchical layers. The enhancement side information may include parameters related to at least one of: spatial prediction, sub-band directional signals synthesis, and parametric ambience replication. The enhancement side information may include information that allows prediction of missing portions of the sound or sound field from directional signals. There may be further determined, for each layer, whether the respective layer has been validly received and a layer index of a layer immediately below a lowest layer that has not been validly received.

According to another aspect, a software program is described. The software program may be adapted for execution on a processor and for performing some or all of the method steps outlined in the present document when carried out on a computing device.

According to yet another aspect, a storage medium is described. The storage medium may comprise a software program adapted for execution on a processor and for performing some or all of the method steps outlined in the present document when carried out on a computing device.

Statements made with regard to any of the above aspects or its embodiments also apply to respective other aspects or their embodiments, as the skilled person will appreciate. Repeating these statements for each and every aspect or embodiment has been omitted for reasons of conciseness.

The methods and apparatuses including their preferred embodiments as outlined in the present document may be used stand-alone or in combination with the other methods and systems disclosed in this document. Furthermore, all aspects of the methods and apparatus outlined in the present document may be arbitrarily combined. In particular, the features of the claims may be combined with one another in an arbitrary manner.

Method steps and apparatus features may be interchanged in many ways. In particular, the details of the disclosed method can be implemented as an apparatus adapted to execute some or all or the steps of the method, and vice versa, as the skilled person will appreciate.

