Abstract: For certain application cases, such as e.g., in a sports stadium, a microphone array having a particularly high directivity in the vertical direction and a high, yet in wide limits adjustable directivity in horizontal direction is provided. The microphone array has a plurality of microphones whose output signals are combined into at least one common output signal. The microphones are directional microphones with a preferred direction of high sensitivity and arranged substantially in one plane on a circle or segment of a circle, such that each microphone has a different direction of high directivity. For each of the microphones, the preferred direction of high sensitivity is substantially orthogonal to the circle or segment of the circle. A common output signal of the microphone array is obtained by beamforming. The microphone array has an adjustable preferred direction of high sensitivity, wherein the common output signal comprises the sound recorded from this adjustable direction.

Abstract: When compressing an HOA data frame representation, a gain control (15, 151) is applied for each channel signal before it is perceptually encoded (16). The gain values are transferred in a differential manner as side information. However, for starting decoding of such streamed compressed HOA data frame representation absolute gain values are required, which should be coded with a minimum number of bits. For determining such lowest integer number (?e) of bits the HOA data frame representation (C(k)) is rendered in spatial domain to virtual loudspeaker signals lying on a unit sphere, followed by normalisation of the HOA data frame representation (C(k)). Then the lowest integer number of bits is set to ?e=?log2(?log2(?{square root over (KMAX)}·0)?+1)?.

Abstract: Use of a laser-activatable component in a composition and/or use of a composition that includes the laser-activatable component, during laser transfer printing, characterized in that the laser-activatable component is activated by laser irradiation during use in such a way that the viscosity and/or the elasticity and/or the tack of the composition increase(s) due to an increase in temperature of the composition, wherein the laser-activatable component is a polymer made up of the groups comprising polyethylene glycol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylate, polyester, or copolymers of these polymers or blends.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for encoding an HOA signal representation (c(t)) of a sound field having an order of N and a number O=(N+1)2 of coefficient sequences to a mezzanine HOA signal representation (wMEZZ(t)). The present invention further relates to methods and apparatus for decoding a reconstructed HOA signal representation from the mezzanine HOA signal representation.

Abstract: In order for a microphone array to capture sound emanating from a moving object whose exact position is unknown at the time of arrival of the sound signal, a method for controlling the microphone array comprises steps of receiving position information that includes a position (pTR) and a velocity of the moving object from a tracking system, receiving a plurality of microphone signals that comprise sound of a sound event emanating from the moving object from a plurality of microphone capsules, calculating a directional characteristic from the plurality of microphone signals, wherein the directional characteristic is based on beamforming according to the position information and wherein an audio output signal is generated that includes the sound from a preferred direction of high sensitivity, and providing the audio output signal at an output.

Abstract: There are two representations for Higher Order Ambisonics denoted HOA: spatial domain and coefficient domain. The invention generates from a coefficient domain representation a mixed spatial/coefficient domain representation, wherein the number of said HOA signals can be variable. An aspect of the invention further relates to methods and apparatus decoding multiplexed and perceptually encoded HOA signals, including transforming a vector of PCM encoded spatial domain signals of the HOA representation to a corresponding vector of coefficient domain signals by multiplying the vector of PCM encoded spatial domain signals with a transform matrix and de-normalizing the vector of PCM encoded and normalized coefficient domain signals, wherein said de-normalizing comprises.

Abstract: Higher Order Ambisonics represents three-dimensional sound independent of a specific loudspeaker set-up. However, transmission of an HOA representation results in a very high bit rate. Therefore, compression with a fixed number of channels is used, in which directional and ambient signal components are processed differently. The ambient HOA component is represented by a minimum number of HOA coefficient sequences. The remaining channels contain either directional signals or additional coefficient sequences of the ambient HOA component, depending on what will result in optimum perceptual quality. This processing can change on a frame-by-frame basis.

Abstract: The present document relates to a method of layered encoding of a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field. The compressed sound representation comprises a basic compressed sound representation comprising a plurality of components, basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to a basic reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field, and enhancement side information including parameters for improving the basic reconstructed sound representation.

Abstract: A method for compressing a HOA signal being an input HOA representation with input time frames (C(k)) of HOA coefficient sequences comprises spatial HOA encoding of the input time frames and subsequent perceptual encoding and source encoding. Each input time frame is decomposed (802) into a frame of predominant sound signals (XPS(k?1)) and a frame of an ambient HOA component ({tilde over (C)}AMB(k?1)). The ambient HOA component ({tilde over (C)}AMB(k?1)) comprises, in a layered mode, first HOA coefficient sequences of the input HOA representation (cn(k?1)) in lower positions and second HOA coefficient sequences (cAMB,n(k?1)) in remaining higher positions. The second HOA coefficient sequences are part of an HOA representation of a residual between the input HOA representation and the HOA representation of the predominant sound signals.

Abstract: The present document relates to a method of layered encoding of a frame of a compressed higher-order Ambisonics, HOA, representation of a sound or sound field. The compressed HOA representation comprises a plurality of transport signals. The method comprises assigning the plurality of transport signals to a plurality of hierarchical layers, the plurality of layers including a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers, generating, for each layer, a respective HOA extension payload including side information for parametrically enhancing a reconstructed HOA representation obtainable from the transport signals assigned to the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer, assigning the generated HOA extension payloads to their respective layers, and signaling the generated HOA extension payloads in an output bitstream.

Abstract: Higher Order Ambisonics represents three-dimensional sound independent of a specific loudspeaker set-up. However, transmission of an HOA representation results in a very high bit rate. Therefore compression with a fixed number of channels is used, in which directional and ambient signal components are processed differently. For coding, portions of the original HOA representation are predicted from the directional signal components. This prediction provides side information which is required for a corresponding decoding. By using some additional specific purpose bits, a known side information coding processing is improved in that the required number of bits for coding that side information is reduced on average.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for decoding a compressed Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) representation of a sound or soundfield. The method may include receiving a bit stream containing the compressed HOA representation and decoding, based on a determination that there are multiple layers, the compressed HOA representation from the bitstream to obtain a sequence of decoded HOA representations. A first subset of the sequence of decoded HOA representations is determined based only on corresponding ambient HOA components. A second subset of the sequence of decoded HOA representations is determined based on corresponding ambient HOA components and corresponding predominant sound components.

Abstract: When compressing an HOA data frame representation, a gain control (15, 151) is applied for each channel signal before it is perceptually encoded (16). The gain values are transferred in a differential manner as side information. However, for starting decoding of such streamed compressed HOA data frame representation absolute gain values are required, which should be coded with a minimum number of bits. For determining such lowest integer number (?e) of bits the HOA data frame representation (C(k)) is rendered in spatial domain to virtual loudspeaker signals lying on a unit sphere, followed by normalisation of the HOA data frame representation (C(k)). Then the lowest integer number of bits is set to ?e=?log2(?log2(?{square root over (KMAX)}·O)?+1)?.

Abstract: The present document relates to a method of layered encoding of a compressed sound representation of a sound or sound field. The compressed sound representation comprises a basic compressed sound representation comprising a plurality of components, basic side information for decoding the basic compressed sound representation to a basic reconstructed sound representation of the sound or sound field, and enhancement side information including parameters for improving the basic reconstructed sound representation.

Abstract: There are two representations for Higher Order Ambisonics denoted HOA: spatial domain and coefficient domain. The invention generates from a coefficient domain representation a mixed spatial/coefficient domain representation, wherein the number of said HOA signals can be variable. An aspect of the invention further relates to methods and apparatus decoding multiplexed and perceptually encoded HOA signals, including transforming a vector of PCM encoded spatial domain signals of the HOA representation to a corresponding vector of coefficient domain signals by multiplying the vector of PCM encoded spatial domain signals with a transform matrix and de-normalizing the vector of PCM encoded and normalized coefficient domain signals, wherein said de-normalizing comprises.

Abstract: Higher Order Ambisonics represents three-dimensional sound independent of a specific loudspeaker set-up. However, transmission of an HOA representation results in a very high bit rate. Therefore, compression with a fixed number of channels is used, in which directional and ambient signal components are processed differently. The ambient HOA component is represented by a minimum number of HOA coefficient sequences. The remaining channels contain either directional signals or additional coefficient sequences of the ambient HOA component, depending on what will result in optimum perceptual quality. This processing can change on a frame-by-frame basis.

Abstract: The invention improves HOA sound field representation compression and decompression. A decoder decodes compressed dominant directional signals and compressed residual component signals so as to provide decompressed dominant directional signals and decompressed time domain signals representing a residual HOA component in a spatial domain. A re-correlator re-correlates the decompressed time domain signals to obtain a corresponding reduced-order residual HOA component. A processor determines a decompressed residual HOA component based on the corresponding reduced-order residual HOA component, and determines predicted directional signals based on at least a parameter. The processor is further configured to determine an HOA sound field representation based on the decompressed dominant directional signals, the predicted directional signals, and the decompressed residual HOA component.

Abstract: A method for compressing a HOA signal being an input HOA representation with input time frames (C(k)) of HOA coefficient sequences comprises spatial HOA encoding of the input time frames and subsequent perceptual encoding and source encoding. Each input time frame is decomposed (802) into a frame of predominant sound signals (XPS(k?1)) and a frame of an ambient HOA component ({tilde over (C)}AMB(k?1)). The ambient HOA component ({tilde over (C)}AMB(k?1)) comprises, in a layered mode, first HOA coefficient sequences of the input HOA representation (cn(k?1)) in lower positions and second HOA coefficient sequences (cAMB,n(k?1)) in remaining higher positions. The second HOA coefficient sequences are part of an HOA representation of a residual between the input HOA representation and the HOA representation of the predominant sound signals.

Abstract: The present document relates to a method of layered encoding of a frame of a compressed higher-order Ambisonics, HOA, representation of a sound or sound field. The compressed HOA representation comprises a plurality of transport signals. The method comprises assigning the plurality of transport signals to a plurality of hierarchical layers, the plurality of layers including a base layer and one or more hierarchical enhancement layers, generating, for each layer, a respective HOA extension payload including side information for parametrically enhancing a reconstructed HOA representation obtainable from the transport signals assigned to the respective layer and any layers lower than the respective layer, assigning the generated HOA extension payloads to their respective layers, and signaling the generated HOA extension payloads in an output bitstream.

Abstract: Higher Order Ambisonics represents three-dimensional sound independent of a specific loudspeaker set-up. However, transmission of an HOA representation results in a very high bit rate. Therefore compression with a fixed number of channels is used, in which directional and ambient signal components are processed differently. For coding, portions of the original HOA representation are predicted from the directional signal components. This prediction provides side information which is required for a corresponding decoding. By using some additional specific purpose bits, a known side information coding processing is improved in that the required number of bits for coding that side information is reduced on average.