Wireless Live Audio Streaming for Sub-100-Millisecond Venue Latency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio systems in venues like concerts suffer from sub-optimal sound quality due to venue size, shape, weather conditions, and incongruities between visual and auditory experiences, with existing supplemental audio solutions failing to provide high-quality, real-time audio to all attendees.
Innovation Solution
Streaming uncompressed live audio signals via wireless networks to mobile devices using low-latency protocols, enabling simultaneous high-quality audio delivery to thousands of listeners with minimal latency (less than 100 milliseconds) and optimizing audio mix based on location and ambient conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional PA systems are used to broadcast audio in venues, then audio can be delivered to all attendees, but sound quality degrades due to venue size, shape, and weather conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the audio delivery by providing individual audio streams to each attendee's mobile device through wireless networks, rather than using a single centralized PA system. This allows each user to receive high-quality audio directly, eliminating the sound quality degradation that occurs with traditional broadcast systems in large or environmentally challenging venues.
2Manufacturing precision
If supplemental audio signals are transmitted via Wi-Fi to counteract PA system deficiencies, then audio quality improves for individual listeners, but latency increases and echo effects occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-synchronizing the audio stream timing at the source before transmission. The server timestamps each audio packet and the mobile device uses these timestamps to play back audio at the correct moment, ensuring that the supplemental audio signal arrives synchronously with the live performance without latency or echo effects.
3Quantity of substance
If high-density attendee traffic is supported in venues, then more listeners can access the audio streaming system, but network performance and audio quality deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses universal wireless network infrastructure (Wi-Fi) that can handle multiple concurrent connections. The server architecture is designed to simultaneously process and stream audio to numerous mobile devices, maintaining network performance and audio quality even when supporting high-density attendee traffic through efficient resource management and scalable architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of delivering audio to one or more client computing devices includes receiving, by an audio server computing device, a live audio signal starting at a first time; processing, by the audio server computing device, the live audio signal, thereby creating a data representation of the live audio signal; transmitting, by the audio server computing device, via a wireless network in electronic communication with the audio server computing device, the data representation of the live audio signal to the one or more client computing devices; interpreting, by the one or more client computing devices, the data representation of the live audio signal, thereby producing an interpreted audio signal; and providing, by the one or more client computing devices, the interpreted audio signal to a user listening device starting at a second time. A latency between the first time and the second time is less than 100 milliseconds.