Conference Audio Playback Spatial Rendering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current teleconferencing systems face challenges in recording and playback, where the audio experience during playback differs significantly from the original conference, due to latency issues and data rate constraints, leading to incomplete or delayed audio packets, and lack of spatial and temporal accuracy.
Innovation Solution
The system records individual uplink data packet streams, reorders and decodes them for playback, incorporating spatial information and conversational dynamics to recreate the original audio experience, allowing for more complete and accurate playback with improved spatial rendering of conference participants.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a single monophonic stream containing a mix of all parties is recorded, then the recording system is simple and easy to implement, but the playback experience lacks spatial accuracy and does not faithfully represent the original conference
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the mixed audio stream into individual uplink data packet streams for each conference participant. Each participant's audio is separated and recorded independently, allowing spatial positioning and individual volume control during playback. This segmentation enables faithful reproduction of the original conference spatial relationships while maintaining manageable system complexity through structured data organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds spatial dimensionality to the playback by assigning three-dimensional positions to each conference participant based on their original seating arrangement. This transforms the flat monophonic recording into a spatially-aware audio experience, allowing listeners to perceive the original conference geometry and participant locations without complicating the core recording mechanism.
2Speed
If audio packets are transmitted in real-time during the conference, then the system operates with low latency during the conference, but data rate constraints cause incomplete or delayed audio packets that degrade playback quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary organization and labeling of audio packets during the conference, assigning unique identifiers and spatial metadata to each uplink stream. This preliminary action ensures that even if packets arrive delayed or out of order during real-time transmission, they can be correctly reassembled and positioned during playback, maintaining both speed and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the teleconferencing bridge acknowledges received packets and tracks transmission status. This feedback loop allows the system to monitor data completeness and request retransmission of missing packets, ensuring reliable playback while maintaining efficient real-time operation through selective retransmission rather than waiting for complete buffer fills.
3Measurement precision
If individual uplink data packet streams are recorded and processed with spatial information, then the playback experience is more faithful and spatially accurate, but the system complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal processing framework that handles both simple and complex playback scenarios through the same infrastructure. The system can reproduce individual participant audio, spatial positions, or mixed configurations based on playback requirements, eliminating the need for separate processing pipelines for different playback modes and reducing overall system complexity despite enhanced capabilities.
4Loss of information
If the recording captures complete audio data from all participants, then the playback is more complete and accurate, but the data rate requirements and storage needs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality enhancement by allowing selective adjustment of audio parameters for individual participants during playback. Each participant's audio stream can be independently optimized for volume, spatial position, and frequency characteristics, ensuring that important local details are preserved without requiring uniform high-bitrate encoding for all participants, thus reducing overall data requirements while maintaining completeness.
Data Source
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AI summary
Various disclosed implementations involve processing and/or playback of a recording of a conference involving a plurality of conference participants. Some implementations disclosed herein involve receiving audio data corresponding to a recording of at least one conference involving a plurality of conference participants. The audio data may include conference participant speech data from multiple endpoints, recorded separately and/or conference participant speech data from a single endpoint corresponding to multiple conference participants and including spatial information for each conference participant of the multiple conference participants. A search of the audio data may be based on one or more search parameters. The search may be a concurrent search for multiple features of the audio data. Instances of conference participant speech may be rendered to at least two different virtual conference participant positions of a virtual acoustic space.