Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R29/00—Monitoring arrangements; Testing arrangements
  • H04R29/007—Monitoring arrangements; Testing arrangements for public address systems
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R1/00—Details of transducers, loudspeakers or microphones
  • H04R1/10—Earpieces; Attachments therefor ; Earphones; Monophonic headphones
  • H04R1/1016—Earpieces of the intra-aural type
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L65/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication
  • H04L65/60—Network streaming of media packets
  • H04L65/75—Media network packet handling
  • H04L65/765—Media network packet handling intermediate
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
  • H04L69/16—Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
  • H04L69/161—Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R3/00—Circuits for transducers, loudspeakers or microphones
  • H04R3/005—Circuits for transducers, loudspeakers or microphones for combining the signals of two or more microphones
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R2420/00—Details of connection covered by H04R, not provided for in its groups
  • H04R2420/01—Input selection or mixing for amplifiers or loudspeakers
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R2420/00—Details of connection covered by H04R, not provided for in its groups
  • H04R2420/07—Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R2499/00—Aspects covered by H04R or H04S not otherwise provided for in their subgroups
  • H04R2499/10—General applications
  • H04R2499/11—Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R3/00—Circuits for transducers, loudspeakers or microphones
  • H04R3/12—Circuits for transducers, loudspeakers or microphones for distributing signals to two or more loudspeakers

Definitions

• the present invention relates generally to monitoring audio signals to a group of artists when audio sources, i.e. the instruments used by the artists, generate those audio signals.
• the invention relates to monitoring the audio signals through an earphone or a headhone, for example, during music training or a live performance.
• the artists may use in ear monitoring (IEM), i.e. each artist wears an ear monitor.
• IEM ear monitoring
• An earphone and a headphone are examples of the ear monitor, and two earphones can be consided as one type of headphone.
• Lester and Boley have detected that latency is even greater problem in the IEM than in the PA-monitoring. They have further detected that different types of artists have a different tolerance for latency.
• Quadra operates in the license-free ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical) band between 902-928 MHz.
• a Quadra system may comprise, for example, one M4 transmitter and four M4 receivers. Then four artists may mix and monitor their performance in the same time.
• An M4 transmitter has four jacks for analog inputs and two jacks for digital inputs. In four-channel mode it provides four frequency channels.
• An M4 receiver has also the four- channel mode and thus an artist can listen to four channels through headphone coupled with a wire to the M4 receiver.
• a configurable mixer placed on the top of the M4 receiver allows the artist to mix audio signals according to the needs of the artist.
• the artist is a vocalist, he may use the MT receiver to select one or more (analog) audio signals and to mix, for example, an audio signal generated by his vocal microphone and an audio signal generated by a bass guitar.
• the inputs of M4 transmitter are analog inputs the latency in a Quadra system is less than 1 ms.
• the inputs of the M4 transmitter are AES/EBU digital signals where "AES” refers to "Audio Engineering Society” and "EBU” refers to "European Broadcasting Union". Then the latency is less than 1.8 ms, i.e. the latency is fair also with the digital inputs.
• IEEE 802.11 is a standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs).
• the newest versions of this standard, starting from 802.1 lg, are suitable for realtime audio data in many use cases.
• GB2424155 describes an in ear monitoring system that utilizes 802.1 lg.
• a typical in ear monitoring system included one transmitter- receiver pair per each performing artists and each transmitter-receiver pair used a certain transmission channel.
• a transmitter sent a particular mix of two or more audio signals to a receiver to be presented there.
• GB2424155 proposes digitising the audio signals in an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and then multiplexing them on to a common channel.
• ADC analog-to-digital converter
• each artist's receiver extracts from the common channel one audio signal or a particular mix of the audio signals and converts it in a digital- to-analog converter (DAC) for the presentation. Because of the multiplexing each receiver must receive the all audio signals transmitted. The multiplexing saves the transmission capacity, but may incease the latency in the IEM system. Mixing of audio signals is performed before the transmission. In more detail, a first audio signal and a second audio signal are mixed to a sum signal in a mixing desk. Thus, the mixing desk in GB2424155 is an analog mixer.
• EP 1774825 describes another in ear monitoring system in which the mixing of audio signals is performed before the transmission.
• the audio signals generated by instruments of artists are converted to digital so that this conversion results in at least a first audio data for a first audio signal and a second audio data for a second audio signal.
• the first audio data and the second audio data are mixed in a mixing console resulting in sum data.
• the sum data includes fewer bits. Therefore, the transmission capacity is saved when, instead of the first audio data and the second audio data, the sum data is transmitted to receivers.
• a WLAN with 802.1 lb standard can be used in the transmission.
• the receiver end i.e. in a handheld device
• the sum data is converted into analog signal and the analog signal is played for an artist in the IEM.
• EP 1774825 mentions that the artist may control the mixing either by talking to a person who is in responsibility of the mixing or by using a digital control wire.
• Latency between a generated audio signal and a played audio signal should be short.
• the latency includes data transmission latency and computation latency in the transmitter end and in the receiver end, thus the latency can also be termed "total latency".
• One advantage of the invention is that is enables low latency and relatively high quality of audio signals in the in ear monitoring system.
• the high quality of the audio signals is at least partly achieved by adding packet identifiers to packets to be transmitted.
• a packet identifier is, for example, an ascending number starting from 0 and ending to FFFFFF. Generally speaking, each packet identifier is unique and discloses a packet's order among the packets to be transmitted.
• an audio signal is first converted in an analog-to-digital converter into audio data and the audio data is mixed in a mixer with at least one other audio data to sum data. Then the sum data is transmitted according to a connectionless transmission protocol to a user equipment used by the first artist.
• the connectionless protocol reduces the latency in the data transmission, because resending of lost data is not requested (as in
• the sum data is transmitted on a channel that can be recerved for only the transmission of the sum data.
• the channel can be allocated to a user equipment of the first artist.
• inputs of the mixer are digital signals. Then the analog- to-digital conversion is performed in some other device than in the mixer. In the future some music instruments may generate digital signals, thus any conversion is not necessarily needed. In order to reduce the amount of bytes to be sent to the user equipment the monitor mixer may omit from the sum data values that exceeds certain thresholds.
• the user equipment may be a general-purpose user equipment, such as a smart phone, a mobile phone, or a personal digital assistant.
• the user equipment may function as a receiver of the sum data and, if required, a conventional earphone of the user equipment can be utilized as an ear monitor.
• the user equipment may also function as a remote controller of the mixer.
• an artist selects with the user quipment which audio signals the mixer mixes and then transmits, as the sum data, to the artist's user equipment.
• the audio data and sum data can be stored in the memory so that the artist can listen to the data later on, for example, when he practices the same piece of music at his home.
• a method of ear monitoring wherein an ear monitor is coupled with a user equipment, the method comprising the following to be performed in a mixer coupled with a multichannel transmitter:
• mixing according to a mixing command a first audio data and a second audio data resulting in sum data, wherein the first audio data is from a a first audio source and the second audio data is from a second audio source;
• the packeting comprises adding a packet identifier to the packet, the packet identifier disclosing a transmission order of the packet among packets to be transmitted to the user equipment.
• the sum data is transmitted at least twice to the user equipment, and packets carrying the same sum data have the same packet identifier.
• the method comprises
• the method comprises receiving the mixing command through a receiver coupled with the mixer.
• an apparatus comprises
• At least one memory including computer program code
• the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause apparatus to perform at least the following:
• the packeting of the sum data comprises adding a packet identifier to the packet, the packet identifier disclosing a transmission order of the packet among other packets to be transmitted to the user equipment.
• the sum data is transmitted at least twice to the user equipment, and packets carrying the same sum data have the same packet identifier.
• the apparatus is caused to perform:
• the apparatus is caused to perform:
• a user equipment comprises
• At least one memory including computer program code
• the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to perform at least the following:
• a packet through a channel of a multichannel transmitter, the packet carrying sum data, wherein a first audio data from a first audio source and a second audio data from a second audio source are mixed according to a mixing command resulting in the sum data,
• the receiving comprises reading a packet identifier from the packet, the packet identifier disclosing a transmission order of the packet among other packets to be transmitted to the user equipment.
• the user equipment is caused to perform:
• determining on the basis of the packet identifier at least one of the following piece of information: whether any packet is missing, or whether the packet carrying the sum data is received in a correct order.
• the user equipment is caused to perform:
• the sum data is received at least twice in the user equipment.
• the user equipment is caused to perform:
• the user equipment is caused to perform:
• the user equipment is caused to perform:
• FIGURE 1 shows an example of use of the invention
• FIGURE 2 shows a method for monitoring audio signals through an ear monitor
• FIGURE 3 shows a monitoring mixer or a correspondent apparatus
• FIGURE 4 shows a user equipment in accordance with the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTON OF THE INVENTION
• FIGURE 1 shows an example in which two artists, a vocalist and a guitarist, utilize the invention.
• the vocalist represents in this example a first user and the guitarist represents a second user.
• the first user uses an ear monitor 101 which is connected with a wire to a user equipment 102.
• the second user uses another ear monitor 103 connected with a wire to another a user equipment 104.
• the wires can be replaced with radio connections but it would probably increase the total latency.
• a first user has a microphone, i.e. the microphone is a first audio source 105.
• the guitarist has an electric guitar which is a second audio source 106.
• the first audio source 105 is connected with a cable 107 to a mixer 108.
• the cable 107 includes a XLR male connector and the mixer 108 includes a XLR female connector.
• the second audio source 106 is connected with a cable 109 to a mixer 108.
• the cable 109 includes a phone male connector and the mixer 108 includes a phone female connector.
• the phone male connector is, for example, a V4 in 2-conductor phone connector.
• the mixer 108 is a monitoring mixer.
• the mixer 108 is a multipurpose mixer which can be used for mixing music for audience and/or for mixing music for the artists.
• the mixer 108 includes a multichannel transmitter but the multichannel transmitter could also be a separate device.
• the mixer 108 it includes four antenna pairs for transmitting and receiving data.
• One antenna pair 110 of the mixer 108 is reserverd for transmitting sum data 111 to the first user user equipment 102.
• Another antenna pair 112 of the mixer 108 is reserverd for transmitting another sum data 113 to the second user equipment 103.
• the sum data 111 and the sum data 113 may have different contents because the users, i.e. the vocalist and the guitarist, may make their own mixings through their user equipments 102, 104.
• Each mixing includes a selection of one or more audio sources for sum data.
• FIGURE 2 shows a method for monitoring audio signals through an ear monitor 101, wherein the ear monitor is coupled with a user equipment 102.
• the method comprises the following to be performed in a mixer 108 coupled with a multichannel transmitter 104: mixing 201 according to a mixing command a first audio data and a second audio data resulting in sum data, wherein the first audio data is from a a first audio source 105 and the second audio data is from a second audio source 106; packeting 202 the sum data in accordance with a connectionless transmission protocol into at least one packet; and transmitting 203 the at least one packet through a channel of the multichannel transmitter to the user equipment 102.
• the mixer 108 prosesses the first audio data from a a first audio source 105 and the second audio data from a second audio source 106, the user equipment 102 just need to play the sum data processed by the mixer 108.
• the mixer 108 is assumed to have so high processing capacity that the (total) latency in the monitoring is low enough also for a vocalist (or a saxophonist).
• the mixing command specifies, for example, from which audio datas the sum data is mixed.
• Each user of the method may have own sum data, i.e. there may be various sum datas. Each different sum data is transmitted on a different channel of the multichannel transmitter.
• the sum datas are not multiplexed because the multiplexing would slow down the transmission speed.
• the high transmission speed provided by the method shortens the latency.
• the use of the connectionless transmission protocol, such as UDP (User Datagram Protocol) shortens the latency.
• another channel of the multichannel transmitter 104 is reserved for a transmission of other sum data.
• the other sum data is transmitted on this other channel of the multichannel transmitter 104, for example, to the second user equipment 104 used by the second user.
• the mixing 201 comprises omitting from the sum data 111, 113 a value that exceeds a threshold defining low tones.
• the mixing comprises omitting from the sum data values that exceeds a threshold defining high tones. Therefore, the sum datas 111, 113 may have different content even if they are processed from the same audio datas, such as the first audio data from a a first audio source 105 and the second audio data from a second audio source 106.
• the packeting 202 comprises adding a packet identifier to the at least one packet.
• the user equipment 102 is able to reorganize the packets, if some of the packets have received in a wrong order.
• the packeting 202 comprises: calculating a check sum for the sum data; and adding the check sum to the at least one packet.
• the user equipment 102 can check whether the sum data 111 receided with the packet is valid. If the sum data is not valid, the sum data included in the packet will be discarded.
• a default audio data is played instead of the discarded sum data. The default audio data is formed so that it is difficult to detect, i.e. it should not irritate the artist.
• a packet may be lost or its content may be corrupted.
• the (same) sum data is transmitted at least twice to the user equipment 102 to increase a probability that the sum data is successfully received at the user equipment 102.
• the same data 111 is sent at least twice, there is a need for a certain time limit and a timer which is set on when a packet is lost or its content is corrupted. If the timer exceeds the certain time limit the packet is deemed to be irrevocably lost.
• a large packet size inevitably increases the latency.
• the packeting 202 is performed using a packet size less than 256 kB because the small packet size is reasonable from a point of view of the latency.
• the method further comprises a step of receiving the mixing command through a user interface of the mixer 108.
• the method further comprises a step of receiving the mixing command through a receiver coupled with the mixer 108. Then the user interface can be omitted from the mixer 108.
• the receiver may be a part of the multichannel transmitter coupled with the mixer 108.
• the user equipment 102 can be used as a remote controller of the mixer 108.
• the user equipment 102 may be a smart phone equipped with a large touch screen through which the user may form the mixing command for the mixer 108.
• FIGURE 3 shows a monitoring mixer or a correspondent apparatus.
• This apparatus 301 (or 108) comprises at least one processor 302 and at least one memory 303 including computer program code 304.
• the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause apparatus to perform at least the following: packeting sum data 305 (or 111) in accordance with a connectionless transmission protocol into at least one packet, wherein a first audio data from a first audio source 105 and a second audio data from a second audio source 106 are mixed according to a mixing command resulting in the sum data; and transmitting the at least one packet through a channel of a multichannel transmitter coupled with the apparatus, wherein the channel can be reserved for a transmission of the sum data.
• the apparatus 301 (or 108) is adapted to perform at least some part of method of FIG. 2.
• the packeting of the sum data 305 comprises adding a packet identifier to the at least one packet.
• the packeting comprises calculating a check sum for the sum data and adding the check sum to the at least one packet.
• the sum data is transmitted at least twice on the first channel.
• the apparatus receives the mixing command through a receiver coupled with the apparatus.
• the apparatus 301 stores the sum data into the at least one memory. Then the user may listen later on the sum data in order practice his music skills.
• the apparatus 301 may include, for example, a USB port to restore the sum data into such a portable memory that can be connected to the USB port.
• FIGURE 4 shows a user equipment 401 (or 102) in accordance with the invention.
• the user equipment comprises at least one processor 402 and at least one memory 403 including computer program code 404.
• the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to perform at least the following: receiving in accordance with a connectionless transmission protocol at least one packet through a channel that can be reserved for a transmission of sum data 305 (or 111), wherein a first audio data from a first audio source 105 and a second audio data from a second audio source 106 are mixed according to a mixing command resulting in the sum data, and the sum data is packetized into the at least one packet.
• a packet may include a packet identifier.
• the user equipment 401 performs reading the packet identifier from the at least one packet; and determining on the basis of the packet identifier at least one of the following piece of information: whether any packet carrying the sum data is missing, or whether a packet carrying the sum data is received in a correct order.
• the packet may include a check sum.
• the user equipment 401 performs: reading a check sum from the at least one packet and determining on the basis of the check sum whether a packet carrying the sum data has correct content.
• the same sum data may be transmitted to user equipment multiple times to increase propability that the data is received at least once.
• the sum data is received at least twice in the user equipment 401.
• the user equipment 401 may include a certain time limit and a timer which is set on, if a packet is lost or its content is corrupted. If the timer exceeds the certain time limit and the packet is not correctly received, the packet is deemed to be irrevocably lost. Then one option is to discard sum data. Another option is to play the default audio data. The following two embodiments relate to these options. [0035] In one embodiment, the user equipment 401 is caused to perform: deciding whether to play content of a packet carrying the sum data in an ear monitor coupled with the user equipment. This decision is made, for example, when a packet is deemed to be obsolete, i.e. the packet is not received at all or it is received too late.
• the content of the packet is deemed to be obsolete, if there are a predetermined number of packets between the packet and the previously received packet. This can be detected on the basis of packet identifiers. For example, if the packet carries a packet identifier 1 and the previously received packet carries a packet indenfier 5, there are three packets (packet 2, packet 3, and packet 4) between the packet and the previously received packet. If the predetermined number is three, the condition is met and the packet is deemed to obsolete. In one embodiment, the user equipment is caused to perform: skipping the packet which is deemed to be obsolete.
• the user equipment 401 is caused to perform: playing alternative content in the ear monitor when deciding not to play the content of the packet. In one embodiment the user equipment plays alternative content in the ear monitor when the user equipment has made the decision not to play the content of the packet. In one
• the alternative content is obtained from a previously received packet.
• the basic options are: either to play the content of the previously received packet to the user or to play the default audio data to the user.
• the default audio data is selected so that it irritates the artists as less as possible.
• the user equipment 401 stores the sum data into the at least one memory. Then the user can listen again the sum data, for example, at his home.
• the user equipment 401 sends the mixing command. This feature enables that the user can use the user equipment as a remote controller of the mixer, thus he does not need to walk to the mixer to form the mixing command.
• the invention may be implemented in software, hardware, application logic or a combination of software, hardware and application logic.
• the hardware may be, for example, a mixer, a monitoring mixer, a laptor or another computer, a user equipment, a chip, or some other apparatus which includes or is coupled to at least memory and at least one processor.
• the application logic or software or is stored in the at least on memory, for example, in a RAM (random access memory) and/or in a hard disc. All or a portion of the exemplary embodiments can be implemented using one or more general purpose processors, micro-controllers, and the like, programmed according to the teachings of the exemplary embodiments of the invention.
• the exemplary embodiments of the invention can include software for controlling the components of the exemplary embodiments, for driving the components of the exemplary embodiments, and for enabling the components of the exemplary embodiments to interact with a user.
• software can include, but is not limited to, device drivers, firmware, operating systems, development tools, applications software, and the like. While the invention has been described in connection with a number of exemplary embodiments, and implementations, the invention is not so limited, but rather covers various modifications, and equivalent arrangements, which fall within the purview of prospective claims.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Otolaryngology (AREA)
• Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
• Communication Control (AREA)

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Citations (5)

• 2013
  • 2013-01-03 FI FI20135007A patent/FI126465B/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2014
  • 2014-01-03 WO PCT/FI2014/050004 patent/WO2014106690A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (5)

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