Fingerprint-Based Synchronization for Multi-Channel Audio Streams
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio transmission systems face challenges in synchronizing multi-channel additional information with base channel data, leading to potential quality loss and requiring changes in infrastructure, especially in radio transmission systems, where ensuring time association between data streams is crucial for accurate multi-channel reconstruction.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a fingerprint generator to create fingerprint information from base channel data, which is then used to synchronize multi-channel additional information with the base channel data, ensuring correct time association by inserting fingerprint information into the data stream, allowing for separate transmission and synchronization of base channel and multi-channel data streams without altering existing infrastructure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If separate transmission of base channel data and multi-channel additional information is implemented, then data transmission efficiency is improved, but time synchronization between data streams becomes difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces fingerprint information as an intermediary element that mediates between separately transmitted base channel data and multi-channel additional information. The fingerprint generator creates unique identifiers from the base channel data, and the fingerprint extractor recovers these identifiers from the additional information to establish time association. This intermediary mechanism enables reliable synchronization without requiring infrastructure changes.
2Measurement precision
If infrastructure changes are made to ensure time association, then synchronization accuracy is improved, but device complexity and implementation cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service synchronization where the fingerprint information is generated from and embedded within the transmitted data streams themselves. The fingerprint generator processes base channel data to create fingerprints, and the fingerprint extractor uses these same fingerprints from the received data to perform synchronization. This self-contained approach achieves accurate synchronization without external infrastructure changes or additional complexity.
3Manufacturing precision
If existing infrastructure is modified to support multi-channel transmission, then multi-channel reconstruction quality is improved, but backward compatibility is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal solution where the fingerprint-based synchronization mechanism can be used across different transmission scenarios. The same fingerprint generation and extraction processes work for both existing stereo transmissions and new multi-channel transmissions. This allows the system to maintain backward compatibility with legacy infrastructure while enabling high-quality multi-channel reconstruction through the additional information carrier.
Data Source
AI summary
For time synchronization of a data stream with multi-channel additional data and a data stream with data on at least one base channel, a fingerprint information calculation is performed on the encoder side for the at least one base channel to insert the fingerprint information into a data stream in time connection to the multi-channel additional data. On the decoder side, fingerprint information are calculated from the at least one base channel and used together with the fingerprint information extracted from the data stream to calculate and compensate a time offset between the data stream with the multi-channel additional information and the data stream with the at least one base channel, for example by means of a correlation, to obtain a synchronized multi-channel representation.