Network Audio Collaboration Latency Error Concealment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solutions for real-time online musical collaboration over networks suffer from high latency, leading to unsatisfactory performance due to audible dropouts caused by delayed or missing data packets, which current technologies fail to adequately address.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that maintain a reference data item for musical performances, detect missing data packets, and replace them using the reference data to generate real-time collaboration data, ensuring synchronized and continuous audio output by utilizing earlier-recorded performances for error concealment and clock synchronization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If real-time audio data is transmitted over network for remote musical collaboration, then musicians can play together from different locations, but latency and missing data packets cause audible dropouts and degraded performance quality
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by recording and storing reference audio data before the actual performance. When data packets are lost during transmission, the system can retrieve and substitute the missing segments from the pre-recorded reference data, ensuring continuous audio playback without audible dropouts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copies of the audio data in multiple forms: real-time transmitted data packets and pre-recorded reference data. When transmission fails or packets are lost, the system copies the missing segments from the reference data to replace them, maintaining audio continuity.
2Reliability
If safety buffer is increased to minimize data packet loss, then fewer audible dropouts occur, but latency increases making real-time collaboration unsatisfactory
Solution Approach 1:
By pre-recording and storing reference audio data before performance, the system eliminates the need for large safety buffers. The reference data is immediately available for substitution, allowing the system to use minimal buffering while maintaining audio continuity and achieving low latency real-time collaboration.
3Loss of time
If minimal safety buffer is used to achieve low latency, then real-time interaction quality improves, but missing data packets cause audible dropouts
Solution Approach 1:
The system maintains copies of audio data in the form of pre-recorded reference segments. When data packets are lost during low-latency transmission, the system copies the missing audio segments from the reference data to replace them, ensuring audio continuity without requiring large safety buffers.
Solution Approach 2:
The reference data acts as an intermediary resource that mediates between the transmitted real-time data and the audio output. When transmission fails, the reference data provides the missing information, bridging the gap and preventing audible dropouts.
4Reliability
If reference data is used to replace missing packets, then audio continuity is maintained, but system complexity increases due to error detection and correction mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by automatically detecting missing data packets and retrieving replacement segments from the pre-recorded reference data without requiring manual intervention or complex external correction systems. The error concealment is handled autonomously by comparing expected data with received data and substituting from reference when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
Providing real-time interaction between a first player and a second player to collaborate for a musical performance over a network, includes maintaining a reference data item generated using a musical instrument performed by a user; receiving first user input data generated using a first musical instrument, the received first user input data associated with the first musical instrument and the musical performance; receiving second user input data generated using a second musical instrument, the received second user input data associated with the second musical instrument and the musical performance; detecting a missing data packet within the received second user input data when generating real-time collaboration data for the musical performance; replacing the missing data packet using the reference data item to correct the second user input data; and generating real-time collaboration data for the musical performance based on the corrected second user input data.