Time-alignment measurement for hybrid HD radio™ technology

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11190334-B2
Application number	US-202016880070-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 21, 2020
Priority date	Apr 14, 2016
Publication date	Nov 30, 2021
Grant date	Nov 30, 2021

Abstract

A method for processing audio signals in a radio transmitter, includes: receiving an analog audio sample stream and a digital audio sample stream; determining offsets in time between the analog audio stream and the digital audio stream using a normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes of the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream; filtering the determined offsets in time to produce filtered offset values; determining an alignment slip adjustment value as a function of the filtered offset values; aligning the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream using the determined alignment slip adjustment value; and generating a hybrid radio signal for broadcast that includes time-aligned analog audio and digital audio.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for processing audio signals in a radio transmitter, the method comprising:
receiving an analog audio sample stream and a digital audio sample stream;
computing a normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes using a vector of bandpass samples of the analog audio sample stream and a vector of bandpass samples of the digital audio sample stream;
determining offsets in time between the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream using the normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes;
filtering the determined offsets in time to produce filtered offset values;
determining an alignment slip adjustment value as a function of the filtered offset values;
aligning the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream using the determined alignment slip adjustment value, wherein aligning the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream includes adjusting a relative offset between the analog and digital audio streams using limiting and hysteresis to reduce the magnitude and frequency of the adjusting; and
generating a hybrid radio signal for broadcast that includes time-aligned analog audio and digital audio.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein filtering the determined offset includes filtering the determined offsets using one or both of a median filter and an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
producing bifurcated and composite correlation peaks using the normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes of the vector of bandpass samples of the analog audio sample stream and the vector of bandpass samples of the digital audio sample stream; and
comparing the bifurcated and composite correlation peaks for correlation validation via temporal consistency.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
producing current and previous peaks using the normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes of the vector of bandpass samples of the analog audio sample stream and the vector of bandpass samples of the digital audio sample stream;
comparing the current and previous peaks for correlation validation via temporal consistency; and
using quadratic interpolation of peak indices to improve resolution of a computed peak lag.

5. The method of claim 1 , including
determining a slip value as a difference between a filtered offset value and an ideal offset value, wherein the slip value is used to determine the alignment slip adjustment value; and
monitoring a slip rate that represents a rate of change of determined slip values.

6. The method of claim 1 , including monitoring one or both of a variance of the determined offsets in time and a standard deviation of the determined offsets in time.

7. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein determining the offsets in time using a normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes includes computing cross-correlation coefficients of the audio envelopes of the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream; and
wherein the method further includes monitoring filtered values of the cross-correlation coefficients.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating phase-adjusted frequency-domain correlation coefficients; and
validating the offset in time using the phase-adjusted frequency-domain correlation coefficients.

9. A method for processing audio signals in a radio transmitter, the method comprising:
receiving an analog audio sample stream and a digital audio sample stream obtained from an analog audio stream and a digital audio stream;
determining offsets in time between the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream using a normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes of the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream prior to transmitting the analog audio stream and digital audio stream using a transmitting amplifier of the radio transmitter, wherein determining offsets in time further comprises:
using a coarse envelope cross-correlation computed over a first range of lag values to locate a vicinity of the time offset; and
subsequently using a fine envelope cross-correlation computed over a second range of lag values, where in the second range of lag values is narrower than the first range of lag values;
filtering the determined offsets in time to produce filtered offset values;
determining an alignment slip adjustment value as a function of the filtered offset values;
aligning the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream using the determined alignment slip adjustment; and
generating a hybrid radio signal for broadcast that includes time-aligned analog audio and digital audio.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein filtering the determined offset includes filtering the determined offsets using one or both of a median filter and an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein aligning the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream includes adjusting a relative offset between the analog and digital audio streams using limiting and hysteresis to reduce the magnitude and frequency of the adjusting.

12. The method of claim 9 ,
wherein determining offsets in time includes measuring the offsets in time after processing by a hybrid radio signal exciter;
wherein aligning the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream includes applying the slip adjustment to the audio before the audio is processed by a hybrid radio signal exciter for broadcast;
decoding a transmitted hybrid radio signal from a hybrid radio signal exciter using a properly time-aligned radio receiver;
retrieving samples of analog audio and samples of digital audio from the corresponding analog audio stream output and digital audio stream output of the properly time-aligned radio receiver; and
measuring the offsets in time using the retrieved samples of analog audio and retrieved samples of digital audio.

13. The method of claim 9 ,
wherein determining offsets in time includes measuring the offsets in time before processing by a hybrid radio signal exciter; and
wherein aligning the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream includes applying the slip adjustment to the audio before the audio is processed by a hybrid radio signal exciter for broadcast.

14. An apparatus for generating a hybrid radio signal for broadcast, the apparatus comprising:
a digital input port configured to receive a digital audio sample stream;
an analog input port configured to receive an analog audio sample stream;
processing circuitry configured to:
compute a normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes using a vector of bandpass samples of the analog audio sample stream and a vector of bandpass samples of the digital audio sample stream;
determine offsets in time between the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream using the normalized cross-correlation of audio envelopes;
filtering the determined offsets in time to produce filtered offset values;
determine an alignment slip adjustment value as a function of the filtered offset values;
align the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream using the determined alignment slip adjustment value;
adjust a relative offset between the analog audio sample stream and the digital audio sample stream using limiting and hysteresis; and
generate a hybrid radio signal for broadcast that includes time-aligned analog audio and digital audio.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to fil

Assignees

• Ibiquity Digital Corp

Inventors

• Kroeger Brian W
• Peyla Paul J

Classifications

• H04H20/30

  by a single channel · CPC title

• H04H60/12

  wherein another information is substituted for the portion of broadcast information · CPC title

• H04H2201/183

  FM digital or hybrid · CPC title

• H04H2201/18

  in band on channel [IBOC] · CPC title

• H04H60/00

  Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems · CPC title