EP1064824B1 - Post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit - Google Patents

Post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1064824B1
EP1064824B1 EP97913055A EP97913055A EP1064824B1 EP 1064824 B1 EP1064824 B1 EP 1064824B1 EP 97913055 A EP97913055 A EP 97913055A EP 97913055 A EP97913055 A EP 97913055A EP 1064824 B1 EP1064824 B1 EP 1064824B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
signal
decoding circuit
output
stereophonic
decoding
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP97913055A
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German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
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EP1064824A1 (en
Inventor
Martin Pineau
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W Waves (USA) Inc
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W Waves (USA) Inc
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Publication date
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Priority to PT97913055T priority Critical patent/PT1064824E/pt
Publication of EP1064824A1 publication Critical patent/EP1064824A1/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP1064824B1 publication Critical patent/EP1064824B1/en
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04S—STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS 
    • H04S3/00—Systems employing more than two channels, e.g. quadraphonic

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to stereophonic surround sound decoding circuits. More specifically, the present invention relates to a post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit to be installed between the outputs of a conventional stereophonic amplifier and conventional loudspeakers.
  • Stereophonic sound systems aim at reproducing two different sound channels, via loudspeakers, in such a way that the sounds reaching each ear of the listener give the impression to the listener that he is brought at the location of the sound recording.
  • the realism of this impression depends on many factors such as, for example, the relative position of the listener with respect to the loudspeakers and the quality of the recording.
  • Standard home theater surround sound systems are equipped with five loudspeakers each reproducing a different sound channel.
  • the surround sound decoding circuits used in surround sound systems may generally be divided into two major types, i.e., pre-amplification decoding circuits and post-amplification decoding circuits.
  • Surround sound systems using pre-amplification decoders receive a conventional low level two-channel stereophonic sound signal and expend it to a five-channel surround sound. Each of these five channels is amplified separately and then supplied to a predetermined loudspeaker.
  • the five channels are generally determined as follows:
  • a major drawback of the surround sound systems using pre-amplification decoders is that a five-channel amplifier is necessary to reproduce the surround sound since the power amplification is done after the decoding of the surround sound from the stereophonic sound. Users of this technology must therefore acquire a dedicated power amplifier, which increases the total cost of the system.
  • Post-amplification surround sound decoders usually solve the above-mentioned drawback of the pre-amplification decoders by providing an apparatus that may be installed between the left and right power amplified stereophonic signal outputs of a conventional stereophonic amplifier and the five loudspeakers mentioned hereinabove.
  • the stereophonic to surround sound decoding is therefore done after the power amplification which allows the use of a conventional stereophonic amplifier.
  • the return to the ground of the negative terminal of the central loudspeaker via an inductance will also increase the complexity of the load of the power amplifier wich will inevitably lead to an increase in sound distortion and an overall general decrease in the sound reproduction.
  • the combination, via resistors, of the right and left channels to generate the central channel will decrease the clarity of the sound reproduction of the main right and left channels since there are no provisions to prevent some "bleeding" of the right channel in the left channel and vice-versa.
  • GB 2,014,404 which describes a stereophonic speaker system for use in an automobile, where five speakers are connected to the two standard outputs of an amplifier. This system does not provide a surround sound decoding environment.
  • An object of the present invention is therefore to provide an improved post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding apparatus free of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art.
  • a post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit comprising:
  • a post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit comprising:
  • a central channel decoding circuit for a post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding apparatus comprising:
  • the decoding circuit 10 illustrated in figure 1 is shown connected to a stereophonic power amplifier 12.
  • the decoding circuit 10 includes a left input 14, a right input 16 and a ground connection 18 respectively connected to a left output 20, a right output 22 and a ground connection 24 of the stereophonic power amplifier 12.
  • the connections 20, 22 and 24 of the power amplifier 12 are usually connected to two conventional main left and main right loudspeakers.
  • the decoding circuit 10 also includes a two terminal main left loudspeaker output 26, 27 connected to a main left loudspeaker 28, a two terminal main right loudspeaker output 30, 31 connected to a main right loudspeaker 32, a two terminal secondary left loudspeaker output 34, 35 connected to a secondary left loudspeaker 36, a two terminal secondary right loudspeaker output 38, 39 connected to a secondary right loudspeaker 40 and a two terminal central loudspeaker output 42, 43 connected to a central loudspeaker 44.
  • the decoding circuit 10 includes a main channels volume control circuit 46, a secondary channels decoding circuit 48 and a central channel decoding circuit 50.
  • the main channels volume control circuit 46 interconnects the inputs 14, 16 and 18 and the main loudspeakers outputs 26, 27, 30 and 31; the secondary channels decoding circuit 48 interconnects the inputs 14 and 16 and the secondary loudspeakers outputs 34, 35, 38 and 39; and the central channel decoding circuit 50 interconnects the inputs 14, 16 and 18 and the central loudspeaker outputs 42 and 43.
  • the main channels volume control circuit 46 includes a variable resistor 52 connected to the left input 14 and to the output 26 to the main left loudspeaker and a variable resistor 54 connected to the right input 16 and to the output 30 to the main right loudspeaker.
  • a variable resistor 52 connected to the left input 14 and to the output 26 to the main left loudspeaker
  • a variable resistor 54 connected to the right input 16 and to the output 30 to the main right loudspeaker.
  • variable resistors 52 and 54 could be advantageously embodied together in a stereophonic L-pad (with no ground connection) and having an appropriate power rating. If this is the case, the user will be faced with only one volume control for the two main loudspeakers.
  • the variable resistors could also be embodied by a plurality of discrete high quality resistors (not shown) and switches (not shown) or by a high power levels variable resistance integrated circuit (not shown).
  • variable resistor is to be construed, herein and in the appended claims, as any electronic element or arrangement of resistive and/or other electronic elements allowing the modification of a resistance between two points of an electrical circuit.
  • the secondary channels decoding circuit 48 includes a first capacitor 56 connected to the left input 14 and to the output 34 to the secondary left loudspeaker, a second capacitor 58 connected to the right input 16 and to the output 38 to the secondary right loudspeaker and a variable resistor 60 connected to the ground output connection 35 to the secondary left loudspeaker and to the output ground connection 39 to the secondary right loudspeaker. It is to be noted that the ground output connections 35 and 39 are not connected to the input ground connection 18.
  • the connection of the variable resistor 60 between the output ground connections 35 and 39 causes the secondary loudspeakers to reproduce respective secondary channel signals that are obtained by a substraction of the signal supplied to the inputs 14 and 16. More specifically, the secondary left channel signal reproduced by the secondary left loudspeaker is the signal supplied to the left input 14 minus the signal supplied to the right input 16. Similarly, the secondary right channel signal reproduced by the secondary right loudspeaker is the signal supplied to the right input 16 minus the signal supplied to the right input 14. Since the secondary channels decoding circuit 48 is not connected to the ground, the secondary left and right channel signals are equal since the subtraction of the input 14 from the input 16 is equal to the subtraction of the input 16 from the input 14.
  • capacitors 56 and 58 are, in a sense, decoupling capacitors and since the secondary channels decoding circuit 48 is not connected to the ground, the interconnection of the ground connections 35 and 39 will have no ill effect on the signals supplied to the main channels volume control circuit 46 and to the central channel decoding circuit 50 since the capacitors 56 and 58 prevent the signal supplied to the input 14 to "bleed" in the signal supplied to the input 16 and vice-versa.
  • resistor 60 By varying the value of the resistor 60, one modifies the amplitude of the signal supplied to the secondary loudspeakers, thus varying the volume of the sound reproduced by the secondary loudspeakers, since the portion of the power amplified signal dissipated as heat in the resistors is modified.
  • the central channel decoding circuit 50 includes a first fixed value resistor 62 connected to the left input 14, a first capacitor 64 connected to the first resistor 62, a second fixed value resistor 66 connected to the right input 16, a second capacitor 68 connected to the second resistor 66 and a variable resistor 70 interconnecting both capacitors 64 and 68 to the output 42 to the central loudspeaker.
  • the ground connection 43 is connected to the ground input connection 18.
  • the signal supplied to the central loudspeaker output 42 is therefore the addition of the signal supplied to the left and right inputs 14 and 16 by the power amplifier 12.
  • capacitors 64 and 68 are, in a sense, decoupling capacitors, the interconnection of the output of these capacitors to cause the addition of the left and right inputs 14 and 16 will have no ill effect on the signals supplied to the main channels volume control circuit 46 and to the secondary channels decoding circuit 48.
  • resistor 70 modifies the amplitude of the signal supplied to the central loudspeaker, thus varying the volume of the sound reproduced by the central loudspeakers, since the portion of the power amplified signal dissipated as heat in the resistor is modified.
  • variable resistors 60 and 70 could be advantageously embodied in separate monophonic L-pads (with no ground connections) and having an appropriate power ratings.
  • the variable resistors 60 and 70 could also be embodied by a plurality of discrete high quality resistors (not shown) and switches (not shown) or by high power levels variable resistance integrated circuits (not shown).
  • variable resistor 70 provided downstream from the interconnection of the left and right inputs by a pair of variable resistors 170, 170' respectively provided between the fixed value resistors 62, 66 and the capacitors 64, 68, thus upstream from the interconnection of the left and right inputs.
  • the decoding circuit 150 improves the impedance and frequency stability as well as allowing more usable power to be supplied to the central loudspeaker.
  • variable resistors 170 and 170' could be advantageously embodied together in a stereophonic L-pad (with no ground connection) and having an appropriate power rating.
  • the variable resistors could also be embodied by a plurality of discrete high quality resistors (not shown) and switches (not shown) or by a high power levels variable resistance integrated circuit (not shown).
  • the impedance of the post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit 10 "seen" by the outputs 20, 22 and 24 of the power amplifier 12 is essentially similar to the impedance of the main loudspeakers since the decoding circuits 48 and 50 use decoupling capacitors and are therefore virtually “invisible” as far as impedance is concerned. Indeed, the impedances of the decoding circuits 48 and 50 are so much higher than the impedance of the main loudspeakers 28 and 32 that the connection of the circuits 48 and 50, generally in parallel, therewith will not modify significantly the impedance seen by the outputs 20, 22 and 24 of the power amplifier.
  • fuses 72, 74 and 76 are provided between the inputs 14, 16 and 18 and the circuits 46, 48 and 50 as protection. It is also to be noted that an on/off switch (not shown) could advantageously be provided to disconnect the circuits 48 and 50 from the inputs 14, 16 and 18 when the user wants to use only the main loudspeakers and does not want to hear a surround sound.
  • circuits 46, 48 and 50 have been described as separate circuits, these circuits may advantageously be embodied together onto a printed circuit board (not shown).
  • each circuit includes volume controls accessible to the user to modify the volume of each of the three groups of loudspeakers, i.e., the main loudspeakers, the secondary loudspeakers and the central loudspeaker. Indeed, it has been found that some users prefer to hear the surround channels (reproduced by the secondary loudspeakers) and the central channel (reproduced by the central loudspeaker) at a greater or lesser volume than is considered optimal.
  • the decoding circuit 10 may be connected to a number of different stereophonic power amplifiers and to a number of different loudspeakers, the separate volume controls help compensate for these differences.
  • a simpler and less expensive post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit could be done by removing the variable resistors 52, 54, 60 and 70 (or, alternatively 170, 170').
  • the fuses 72, 74 and 76 could be removed from the circuit since they are provided only for overload protection. It will be noted that such a simplified circuit (not shown) would be less versatile since the user would have no independent control on the three groups of loudspeakers.
  • the post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit 10 described hereinabove includes outputs to the main left and main right loudspeakers, it would be within the skills of one knowledgeable in the art to design a decoding apparatus (not shown) not including these outputs if the decoder was intended to be used with a power amplifier provided with two pairs of left-right outputs. Indeed, one pair of outputs could be directly connected to the main left and main right loudspeakers, while the other pair of outputs could be supplied to the decoding apparatus to yield the secondary left, secondary right and central outputs as described hereinabove.
  • the post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit 10 may advantageously be packaged in an enclosure provided with adequate connectors for the input and outputs of the circuit 10 to yield a post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding apparatus.
  • the actuators of the variable resistors 52, 54, 60 and 70 are advantageously positioned so as to be accessible to the user.
  • the decoding circuit 10 could be installed in a conventional power amplifier to yield a surround power amplifier without requiring five amplification channels.
  • output pairs 34, 35; 38, 39; and 42, 43 could be provided with adequate switching elements (not shown) allowing the polarity of these output pairs to be inverted. Indeed, selective inversion of these output pairs would allow the listener to tailor the surround sound reproduction.
  • the post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit of the present invention has many advantage over the stereophonic to surround sound of the prior art, such as:

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Stereophonic System (AREA)
  • Amplifiers (AREA)
EP97913055A 1997-11-14 1997-11-14 Post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit Expired - Lifetime EP1064824B1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PT97913055T PT1064824E (pt) 1997-11-14 1997-11-14 Circuito de descodificacao de som estereofonico para surround com pos-amplificacao

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/CA1997/000882 WO1999026455A1 (en) 1997-11-14 1997-11-14 Post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit

Publications (2)

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EP1064824A1 EP1064824A1 (en) 2001-01-03
EP1064824B1 true EP1064824B1 (en) 2002-05-29

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Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP97913055A Expired - Lifetime EP1064824B1 (en) 1997-11-14 1997-11-14 Post-amplification stereophonic to surround sound decoding circuit

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EP (1) EP1064824B1 (da)
JP (1) JP2001523937A (da)
AT (1) ATE218267T1 (da)
AU (1) AU748414B2 (da)
CA (1) CA2308576A1 (da)
DE (1) DE69712926T2 (da)
DK (1) DK1064824T3 (da)
ES (1) ES2176716T3 (da)
WO (1) WO1999026455A1 (da)

Families Citing this family (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7251337B2 (en) 2003-04-24 2007-07-31 Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation Volume control in movie theaters
US7551745B2 (en) 2003-04-24 2009-06-23 Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation Volume and compression control in movie theaters
DE102004043521A1 (de) 2004-09-08 2006-03-23 Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. Vorrichtung und Verfahren zum Erzeugen eines Multikanalsignals oder eines Parameterdatensatzes
SE0402649D0 (sv) 2004-11-02 2004-11-02 Coding Tech Ab Advanced methods of creating orthogonal signals
CN104936090B (zh) * 2015-05-04 2018-12-14 联想(北京)有限公司 一种音频数据的处理方法和音频处理器

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4132859A (en) * 1977-12-02 1979-01-02 Egils Ranga Sound reproducing apparatus
JPS54107702A (en) * 1978-02-10 1979-08-23 Nissan Motor Automotive stereophonic speakers
US4382157A (en) * 1978-07-17 1983-05-03 Kenneth P. Wert, Sr. Multiple speaker type sound producing system
US5265166A (en) * 1991-10-30 1993-11-23 Panor Corp. Multi-channel sound simulation system

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
ES2176716T3 (es) 2002-12-01
EP1064824A1 (en) 2001-01-03
AU748414B2 (en) 2002-06-06
JP2001523937A (ja) 2001-11-27
DE69712926T2 (de) 2002-11-28
ATE218267T1 (de) 2002-06-15
AU5045398A (en) 1999-06-07
DE69712926D1 (de) 2002-07-04
WO1999026455A1 (en) 1999-05-27
CA2308576A1 (en) 1999-05-27
DK1064824T3 (da) 2002-09-16

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