Audio communication system with bitrate indication

Abstract

An audio producing device includes a receiver for wirelessly receiving a digital audio signal from an audio source device. The audio source device may transmit the digital audio signal at a variable bitrate. A logic device determines whether the bitrate at which the audio signal is received is below a predetermined threshold. A first indicator provides an indication to a user of the system when the bitrate is below the threshold. An electro-acoustic transducer utilizes information in the digital audio signal to produce audio out loud.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to the field of wireless audio, and more particularly to audio producing devices. Background technique [0002] A Bluetooth device can stream audio data from a source device (SRC) to a sink device (SNK) over a wireless link using the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) defined by the Bluetooth standard. The definition of A2DP allows the use of a sub-band codec (SBC) compression scheme to encode audio information before transmitting it over a wireless link. The SBC can use one of several bitrates specified in the A2DP definition. The audio quality achievable with SBC varies from high quality, where audio artifacts are barely perceptible, to bitrates, where audio artifacts are noticeable. [0003] The SRC device (which may be a phone storing MP3 music files) chooses the bit rate at which to encode the audio stream sent across the wireless link. The SNK (which may be a hi-fi A2DP stereo speaker system) must decode t...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

SNK (which can be a hi-fi A2DP stereo speaker system) has to decode audio at the same bitrate chosen by SRC, even if the bitrate is too low to support hi-fi sound quality

If the bitrate is too low, the result is that the audio reproduction at SNK will contain multiple audio distortions and artifacts that were not present in the original audio source contained on SRC

[0004] Users of the system may not understand that the audio quality can be greatly affected by the A2DP process and the choices the SRC has to make when selecting the bitrate

Also, the user may not realize that the A2DP process may change the audio quality over time in response to certain environmental changes

For example, an SRC might initiate a transmission at a high bit rate, but then change to a lower bit rate in the presence of interference (e.g. from a microwave oven)

Users may not know why the audio sounds poorer, and therefore cannot ensure a continuous high-quality audio experience from SNK devices

Also, users may think that the poor audio quality is caused by the speaker system itself rather than by the low bitrate A2DP wireless connection

As a result, the brand reputation of the loudspeaker system may suffer

Images