Abstract: Estimating a signal power in a compressed audio signal [A] is provided, the audio signal comprising blocks of quantized samples, a given block being provided with a set of scale factors. The estimating is performed by extracting the set of scale factors from the compressed audio signal, and estimating the signal power in the given block based on a combination of the scale factors. Advantageously, the extracting step and estimating step are performed on only a sub-set of the set of scale factors. The signal power estimation may be used in a silence detector (11) for use in a receiver (1).

Abstract: Silences are detected when a local signal power is below a given fixed or relative threshold value, the duration of the local signal power being below the given fixed or relative threshold value is within a first range and at least one of the parameters signal power fall/rise rate and local power deviation falls within a respective further range. The invention further relates to the use of such a silence detection in a receiver (1).