Multiple Description Audio Coding for Wireless Low-Frequency Sound Zones

We present a joint design of sound zone control filters and robust audio coding for wireless low frequency sound zones. The audio signal is filtered using sound zone control filters and encoded using a multiple-description coder. The control filters and the multiple-description coder are combined in a nested loop. The inner loop performs filtering for sound zone control and generates multiple descriptions using oversampling and closed-loop prediction. The outer loop performs noise shaping and guarantees a trade-off between robustness and quality of the descriptions. A closed-form expression for the optimal sound-zone control filters are provided, and a simulation study demonstrates that even at moderate packet loss rates, a significant gain is possible compared to not using multiple descriptions.