Wideband Coding of Speech and Audio Signals using Bandwidth Extension Techniques

Abstract. This paper presents a method for wideband (WB, acoustic bandwidth 50-7000 Hz) coding of speech and au-dio signals using techniques of bandwidth extension (BWE) with side information. On top of an already existing nar-rowband (NB, acoustic bandwidth 50-3400 Hz) speech or audio codec, additional information on the extension band (EB, acoustic bandwidth 3400-7000 Hz) is transmitted. Us-ing this side information and the NB signal, the receiver is able to perform an estimation of the EB and therewith of the WB signal. Experimental results show that the proposed wideband codec greatly improves the subjectively perceived speech quality compared to the NB signal by increasing the total bit rate only marginally.