WO2013182853A1

WO2013182853A1 - Audio system and audio system operating method

Info

Publication number: WO2013182853A1
Application number: PCT/GB2013/051498
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alastair Brown; Martin Dalgleish
Original assignee: Simple Audio Ltd
Priority date: 2012-06-06
Filing date: 2013-06-06
Publication date: 2013-12-12
Also published as: GB201209969D0; EP2859552A1

Abstract

A system and method for selecting music from one or more libraries of music. A request for a given track causes the library or libraries to be scanned for duplicate copies of the track. One of these is selected on the basis of a user-defined characteristic such as audio quality. In preferred forms, the system is a multi-user, multi-device system, and scanning is performed on both local libraries within the local network and on remote sources such as streaming and download sources.

Description

AUDIO SYSTEM AND AUDIO SYSTEM OPERATING METHOD Field of the Invention

This invention relates to audio systems having libraries of digital music, and to methods of operating such systems.

Background of the Invention

It is common to have an audio system in which music is stored in digital form in one or more libraries in a computer or similar device. The system will also comprise one or more audio amplifiers and one or more sets of loudspeakers. The Simple Audio™ system of the present applicants (http://simpleaudio.co.uk/) provides a multi-room system which can be operated from a number of computers, each of which may have its own library or libraries; however, the present invention is applicable to other types of system.

It is also conventional for each album and each track of digital music formats to have associated metadata defining, for example, artist, album, track, bit rate, and frequency. This is commonly done, for example, with ID3 tags, but iTunes® for example includes an XML file with more extensive information.

A library will frequently contain more than one copy of a given musical item. For example, a particular track may appear in an original album and also in a "greatest hits" compilation, but these are not necessarily present at the same quality in both cases: one may be recorded at a higher bit rate and frequency than the other. In addition, the various copies may differ in other characteristics such as file size or presence of associated artwork. In some existing systems, the control system recognises duplicate tracks and deletes one of them in order to reduce storage requirements. This, however, has disadvantages. One is that tracks are deleted without regard to quality, and the track deleted may be of higher quality than the retained track. Secondly, this process leaves gaps in albums. If an album is played which has a deleted track, the system will replace it with the retained track. However, if the album is copied or exported, the deleted track will be missing. Summary of the Invention

The present invention does not treat duplicate items as a waste of resource, but rather seeks to benefit from their presence.

According to a first aspect, the present invention provides an audio system comprising:

- at least one source of a library comprising a plurality of items of music in digital format;

- each item of music having associated therewith metadata including a title and data defining one or more characteristics of the item;

- decoding means operable to decode selected music items to provide an audio signal;

- an audio amplifier arranged to receive the audio signal to provide an output for one or more loudspeakers; and

- control means operable to select items to be played;

- and in which the control means is arranged to cause the source to scan the library to detect duplicates of selected items and, if one or more duplicates is present, to play the version of the item having a user-defined characteristic. The metadata typically includes data defining audio quality, and the user- defined characteristic is optionally audio quality.

The metadata may include one or more of file size and artwork, and the user-defined characteristic may be related to one or more of these.

The source of the library optionally is a memory device holding a library or libraries within the system. The source of the library may additionally comprise means for streaming audio data from a remote provider. The memory device is suitably part of a computer controlling the system.

In a one embodiment of the invention, the system comprises more than one computer connected in a network, each computer having its own library, and the libraries of all computers on the network can be scanned in response to a request for a given item. Optionally each user selects the library or libraries to be scanned.

Optionally also different users can select different user-defined

characteristics.

Each user may additionally select streaming sources or other online sources to be searched.

Optionally each search produces a display showing the versions of the selected item which are available together with their source and selected characteristic, and the user has the option of manually selecting one of them.

From another aspect, the present invention provides a method of operating an audio system; the audio system comprising at least one source of a library comprising a plurality of items of music in digital format, each item of music having associated therewith metadata including a title and data defining one or more characteristics of the item; the method comprising:

- in response to a request for an item of music, scanning the library to detect duplicates of selected items; and

- if one or more duplicates is present, playing the version of the item having a user-defined characteristic. The user-defined characteristic may be one or more of audio quality, file size, and associated artwork.

The step of scanning optionally comprises scanning a library held on a memory device within the system, typically scanning more than one library held on more than one memory device within the system.

The step of scanning may additionally comprise scanning a library available on a remote provider for streaming or downloading audio data. In a one embodiment of the invention the method is for use with a system which comprises more than one computer connected in a network, each computer having its own library; and the method comprises scanning the libraries of more than one computer on the network in response to a request for a given item.

Optionally each user selects the library or libraries to be scanned.

Optionally also, different users can select different user-defined

characteristics. Each user may additionally select streaming or download sources to be searched.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one form of audio system according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a similar diagram showing a more complex system;

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a method embodying the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a flow chart of a modified method; and

Fig. 5 illustrates a list produced in the method of Fig. 4. Detailed Description

Referring to Fig. 1 , an audio system comprises a computer 10, a decoder and audio amplifier 12, and a pair of loudspeakers 14. The computer 10 holds a library of music items in memory; the music can be in any suitable format such as MP3, AAC, WAV or AIFF having metadata defining title and recording quality (typically bit rate and frequency).

Music is typically selected by creating a playlist, or by selecting an album which has its own playlist. The computer 10 is programmed to identify the first item on the playlist and search the library to identify all stored items with the same title. If there is more than one of these, the item with the highest quality is selected for play. The process is repeated for each item on the playlist. This process is illustrated in Fig. 3.

Fig. 2 shows in schematic form a Simple Audio™ system in which multiple computers, in this example two computers 10, supply music to separate rooms 16. Digital data passes from the computers 10 via a wireless router 18, from which data is passed to chosen rooms via mains power wiring 20 and Ethernet-over-mains adaptors 22. Each room 16 is equipped with a room module 24 which incorporates a decoder and amplifier, and is connected to speakers 14. One of the computers 10 is designated as the system control.

The system of Fig. 2 operates in a similar manner to that of Fig. 1 . In this case, however, each computer 10 has the capability to access the library of all other computers which are connected to the system and operational at that time. Each user can select those libraries to be accessed or not accessed from a list. Therefore, the selected libraries contained in all such computers can be searched for the best quality version of the requested item.

Standard media players create libraries automatically and add to and expand them automatically as more music is added by the user. Some users create their own libraries which are in effect folder structures with an [artist][album][track] layout. iTunes® uses the same [artist][album][track] layout but in addition creates an XML file that details the contents of these folders, making indexing them much faster. In the present invention, where such an XML file is present, it is only necessary to read one XML file per library. If it is not present, every individual file in every folder is interrogated to read its specific metadata. This is slower but the overall result is the same. Each "duplicate" track may have different artwork. The original album may have one cover art and the compilation album may have another. If the item being played is an album with a compilation track dropped in, a user setting may be provided to allow display of the one cover art or various cover arts.

The library or libraries being searched need not be physically stored in a local memory. The system can be set up to search remote sources, for example music streaming services such as Deezer™

(http://www.deezer.com/) and We7™ (http://www.we7.com/), where the user has access to such services, or download sources such as iTunes. The system may also use remote internet based storage such as cloud music services or personal cloud storage.

The flow chart of Fig. 4 further illustrates a system in which both local libraries (that is, libraries local to the network of Fig. 2) and streaming services can be used. In this case, each item on the playlist causes the selected local libraries and available streaming services to be searched. Available versions of the track are displayed, for example as shown in Fig. 5. Each version includes a logo or word identifying its source, and selected characteristics such as bit rate and bit depth. The system will normally be arranged to default to choosing one track automatically on the basis of the characteristic preselected by the use, but the user also has the option to select an alternative from the list.

In a further modification, the user does not simply select a single characteristic as the criterion for choice of track, but rather a hierarchy of criteria. For example, the hierarchy could be (1 ) bit rate, (2) bit depth, and (3) artwork. In this case, if two tracks had the same bit rate evaluation would move on to bit depth, and if that were the same then to artwork.

It may also be desirable to give the user a measure of control over the selection. For example, recordings of classical works with musically distinct subdivisions (e.g. movements in a symphony, or scenes in an opera) usually identify such subdivisions as separate tracks. It would be undesirable, however, to have for example different movements of a given symphony from different recordings (even if metadata gives the same artist, many orchestras and conductors have plural recordings of common repertoire works). Similarly, popular music performers may issue studio and live recordings of a given work. This issue can be addressed by allowing the user to add distinguishing tags (for example, iTunes® format allows tags to be edited, and some music rippers such as ID3™ allow tags to be edited or tags can also be edited using specific tag editing software), or by providing an on-screen prompt allowing the automatic selection to be over-ridden.

The system may alternatively be arranged to select between duplicate items according to some characteristic other than audio quality. For example, the user may set the system to select the smallest file size among the duplicate items, or an item having artwork rather than one without, or to select the best audio quality and use artwork from one of the others if the best quality item has no associated artwork. Any other characteristic may be used as the basis of the selection provided it is available within the published metadata or user-defined characteristics.

The computer(s) on the system may be any conventional PC or laptop. Other devices may be used such as smartphones and tablets, as will be readily apparent to those in the art. Other forms of networking can be used, such as hard-wired or wireless

The present invention thus allows the best quality version available of a given track to be played while preserving the integrity of the library structure.

In some embodiment of the invention, using multi-user local networks are extremely user-specific: each user can access the combined resources of the network with a personalised choice of libraries and selection criteria.

Other modifications may be made to the foregoing embodiments within the scope of the invention.

Claims

An audio system comprising:

- control means operable to select items to be played;

- and in which the control means is arranged to cause the source to scan the library to detect duplicates of selected items and, if one or more duplicates is present, to play the version of the item having a user-defined characteristic.

The system of claim 1 , in which the metadata includes data defining audio quality, and the user-defined characteristic is audio quality.

The system of claim 1 , in which the metadata includes one or more of file size and artwork, and the user-defined characteristic is related to one or more of these.

The system of any preceding claim, in which the source of the library is a memory device holding a library or libraries within the system. The system of any preceding claim, in which the source of the library is or additionally comprises means for streaming or downloading audio data from a remote provider.

A system according to claim 4, in which the memory device is part of a computer controlling the system.

The system of claim 6 which comprises more than one computer connected in a network, each computer having its own library, and in which the libraries of all computers on the network can be scanned in response to a request for a given item.

The system of claim 7, in which each user selects the library or libraries to be scanned.

The system of claim 8, in which different users can select different user-defined characteristics.

The system of claim 7 or claim 8, in which each user may additionally select streaming or download sources to be searched.

The system of any of claims 7 to 10, in which each search produces a display showing the versions of the selected item which are available together with their source and selected characteristic, and the user has the option of manually selecting one of them.

12. A method of operating an audio system;

the audio system comprising at least one source of a library comprising a plurality of items of music in digital format, each item of music having associated therewith metadata including a title and data defining one or more characteristics of the item;

the method comprising:

- if one or more duplicates is present, playing the version of the item having a user-defined characteristic.

The method of claim 12, in which the user-defined characteristic is one or more of audio quality, file size, and associated artwork.

The method of claim 12 or claim 13, in which the step of scanning comprises scanning a library held on a memory device within the system.

The method of claim 14, which includes scanning more than one library held on more than one memory device within the system.

The method of claim 12 or claim 13, in which the step of scanning comprises scanning a library available on a remote provider for streaming or downloading audio data.

The method of claim 14 for use with a system which comprises more than one computer connected in a network, each computer having its own library; the method comprising scanning the libraries of more than one computer on the network in response to a request for a given item.

The method of claim 17, in which each user selects the library or libraries to be scanned.

19. The method of claim 18, in which different users can select different user-defined characteristics. 20. The method of claim 17 or claim 18, in which each user additionally selects streaming or download sources to be searched.

21 . The method of any of claims 17 to 20, in which each search

produces a display showing the versions of the selected item which are available together with their source and selected characteristic, and the user has the option of manually selecting one of them.