New spatial audio coding methods based on time-frequency processing

The time-frequency resolution of human hearing has been taken into account for long time in perceptual audio codecs. Recently, the resolution of humans has also been exploited in time-frequency processing. This has already lead into new methods to represent parametrically multichannel audio files and B-format recordings in time-frequency domain. This leads to drastic decrease in bit rate, and in reproduction of B-format recordings, also to increased audio quality compared to traditional methods. This workshop covers the capabilities and incapabilities of human spatial hearing and the audio techniques that exploit these features. Typically the techniques are based on estimation of directional information for each auditory frequency channel, which information is then used in further processing