A Backward Compatible Multichannel Audio Compression Method

This paper proposes a backward-compatible multichannel audio codec based on downmix and upmix operation. The codec represents a multichannel audio input signal with downmixed mono signal and spatial parametric data. The encoding method consists of three parts: spatial temporal analysis of audio signal, compressing multi-channel audio into mono audio and encoding mono signals. The proposed codec combines high audio quality and low parameter coding rate and the method is simpler and more effective than the conventional methods. With this method, its possible to transmit or store multi-channel audio signals as mono audio signals.