Systems and methods for implementing cross-fading, interstitials and other effects downstream

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11398240-B2
Application number	US-202016896745-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2020
Priority date	Nov 18, 2011
Publication date	Jul 26, 2022
Grant date	Jul 26, 2022

Abstract

Systems and methods are presented for cross-fading (or other multiple clip processing) of information streams on a user or client device, such as a telephone, tablet, computer or MP3 player, or any consumer device with audio playback. Multiple clip processing can be accomplished at a client end according to directions sent from a service provider that specify a combination of (i) the clips involved; (ii) the device on which the cross-fade or other processing is to occur and its parameters; and (iii) the service provider system. For example, a consumer device with only one decoder, can utilize that decoder (typically hardware) to decompress one or more elements that are involved in a cross-fade at faster than real time, thus pre-fetching the next element(s) to be played in the cross-fade at the end of the currently being played element. The next elements(s) can, for example, be stored in an input buffer, then decoded and stored in a decoded sample buffer, all prior to the required presentation time of the multiple element effect. At the requisite time, a client device component can access the respective samples of the decoded audio clips as it performs the cross-fade, mix or other effect. Such exemplary embodiments use a single decoder and thus do not require synchronized simultaneous decodes.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for adjusting audio playback comprising:
downloading a first audio clip, a second audio clip to be played following the first audio clip, and a clip transition to be played at a boundary between the first and second audio clips at a playout controller;
storing the first and second audio clips, and the clip transition at an input buffer;
decoding the first and second audio clips, and the clip transition at a decoder; and
adjusting a download timing and one or more characteristics of the clip transition based at least in part on a performance profile of the playout controller and/or the input buffer using a device performance software agent.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the download timing and one or more characteristics of the clip transition are adjusted further in part on a device profile.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the download timing and one or more characteristics of the clip transition are adjusted further in part on metadata associated with the first and/or second audio clips.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the decoder is configured to decode the audio clips at a faster than real time rate.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a new signal level, at a cross-fade component, from uncompressed signal levels of two source frames from the first and second audio clips, for a resulting frame of the clip transition based at least in part on a cross-fade mix, blend or other transition effect blend rate.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristics adjustable by the device performance software agent include a real-time management of the downloading and/or decoding of the audio clips based on system resource availability.

7. A method for adjusting audio playback comprising:
downloading a first audio clip, a second audio clip to be played following the first audio clip, and a clip transition to be played at a boundary between the first and second audio clips at a playout controller;
storing the first and second audio clips, and the clip transition at an input buffer;
decoding the first and second audio clips, and the clip transition at a first decoder and a second decoder; and
adjusting a download timing and one or more characteristics of the clip transition based at least in part on a performance profile of the playout controller and/or the input buffer using a device performance software agent.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the download timing and one or more characteristics of the clip transition are adjusted further in part on a device profile.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the download timing and one or more characteristics of the clip transition are adjusted further in part on metadata associated with the first and/or second audio clips.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the decoder is configured to decode the audio clips at a faster than real time rate.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
generating a new signal level, at a cross-fade component, from uncompressed signal levels of two source frames from the first and second audio clips, for a resulting frame of the clip transition based at least in part on a cross-fade mix, blend or other transition effect blend rate.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more characteristics adjustable by the device performance software agent include a real-time management of the downloading and/or decoding of the audio clips based on system resource availability.

Assignees

• Sirius Xm Radio Inc

Inventors

• Lowe Raymond
• Ward Christopher
• Christine Charles W

Classifications

• H04H60/04

  Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios · CPC title

• G11B27/038

  Cross-faders therefor · CPC title

• G10L19/167 Primary

  Audio streaming, i.e. formatting and decoding of an encoded audio signal representation into a data stream for transmission or storage purposes · CPC title

• G06F9/5044

  considering hardware capabilities · CPC title

• G10L19/008

  Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing · CPC title