Parametric binaural audio coding

A spatial audio scene consists of discrete audio sources and ambience. The 3D audio image is observed due to the directional sounds, but even more important is the reverberation and so called room effect caused by the properties of the space, the sources and listener location. It is obvious that a human being is able to capture the 3D image using the signal from left and right ear. Hence, two audio channels are sufficient to represent the spatial audio image for the listener. An efficient transmission and representation of a spatial audio image using two channels requires a specific coding and rendering algorithm for the audio content. In this paper we present novel mechanisms to efficiently parameterize, quantize and represent the spatial audio signal.