Forwarding an audio signal in an immersive audio conference system

• US 8,515,091 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2008
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Inventors: Thomas, Jean-Philippe, Pallone, Grgory
• Primary Examiner(s): Loke, Steven
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CUONG B
• Application Number:
  US12/215,226
• Publication Number:
  US 20090010441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,881 Days
• Field of Search: 381/2, 381/55, 381/66, 381/57, 379/201.1, 379/203.1, 379/204.1, 379/205.1, 379/206.1, 79/24, 792/05
• US Class Current: 381/74
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4053 without floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30

Abstract

A conference bridge of a conference system having a plurality of conference stations, the bridge comprising: reception means for receiving dual-channel audio signals coming from the conference station; determination means for determining at least one processing function per conference station of the conference system; application means for applying respective weighing functions to the received dual-channel signals; build-up means for building up one hybrid dual-channel signal for forwarding per conference station by means for summing a portion of the process dual-channel audio signals; and forwarding means for forwarding the respective hybrid dual-channel audio signal to each of the various conference stations of the conference system. A method of forwarding a spatialized audio scene and implemented by a conference bridge is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of forwarding a spatialized audio scene from a conference bridge in a conference system comprising a plurality of conference stations, each conference station corresponding to a site, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

receiving dual-channel audio signals coming from the conference stations;

determining, for each conference station of the conference system, at least one processing function as a function of characteristics of the site of each conference station;

applying respective processing functions to the received dual-channel audio signals from each conference station, the same processing function being applied to both signals of the dual-channel audio signal coming from a conference station;

constituting one hybrid dual-channel audio signal for forwarding per conference station by summing a portion of the processed dual-channel audio signals; and

forwarding the respective hybrid dual-channel audio signals to each of the conference stations of the conference system.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the dual-channel audio signals coming from the conference stations are acquired by means of binaural microphones.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the dual-channel audio signals from some of the conference stations are artificial dual-channel audio signals.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing function is a gain calculated as a function of acoustic characteristics of the room of the corresponding conference station.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing function is a filter characterizing the room tone of the room of the conference station.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing function is a non-linear function that takes account of variations occurring over time in the room of the corresponding conference station.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, in the form of a memory of a conference bridge and/or a memory medium for co-operating with a reader of the conference bridge, the medium storing a computer program including code instructions for implementing the steps of the method according to claim 1, when said program is executed by a processor of the conference bridge.

8. A conference bridge for a conference system having a plurality of conference stations, each conference station corresponding to a site, wherein the conference bridge comprises:

reception means for receiving dual-channel audio signals coming from each conference station;

determination means for determining, for each conference station of the conference system, at least one processing function as a function of characteristics of the site of each conference station;

application means for applying respective processing functions to the received dual-channel audio signals from each conference station, the same processing function being applied to both signals of the dual-channel audio signal coming from a conference station;

build-up means for building up one hybrid dual-channel audio signal for forwarding per conference station by means for summing a portion of the processed dual-channel audio signals; and

forwarding means for forwarding the respective hybrid dual-channel audio signal to each of the conference stations of the conference system.

9. The conference bridge according to claim 8, wherein the conference bridge is included in one of the conference stations of the conference system.