Patent ID: 11863966
Assignee: SAGEMCOM BROADBAND SAS
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A connected speaker comprising:
a LAN interface;
a WPAN interface;
pairing means designed to pair the connected speaker with one or more external speakers each equipped with an external WPAN interface;
processing means designed to acquire an input audio signal from an audio source via the LAN interface, to produce at least one distributed audio signal from the input audio signal, to allocate each distributed audio signal to one of the external speakers paired with the connected speaker, and to transmit, to each external speaker, via the WPAN interface of the connected speaker and the external WPAN interface of said external speaker, the distributed audio signal that is allocated to said external speaker, such that the connected speaker and the external speakers form a multichannel audio playback system,
the connected speaker furthermore being designed to evaluate a transmission and playback latency resulting from the transmission of a distributed audio signal to an external speaker via the WPAN interface and from the playback of the distributed audio signal by the external speaker, the evaluation of the transmission and playback latency being used to ensure synchronized playback by the multichannel audio playback system, wherein
the transmission and playback latency is evaluated on the basis of an expected transmission and playback latency value specific to a codec used to transmit the distributed audio signal, or
the transmission and playback latency is evaluated using a calibration method involving a user, the calibration method comprising the steps of simultaneously having the connected speaker emit a first sound and the external speaker emit a second sound, and adjusting a time offset applied to an output of the connected speaker connected to the external speaker until the user hears the first sound and the second sound simultaneously, or
the transmission and playback latency is evaluated on the basis of a model of the external speaker, or
the connected speaker incorporating or being connected to a microphone, the connected speaker being designed to transmit a test audio signal (80) to the external speaker via the WPAN interface, to control the external speaker such that it emits an emitted test sound signal produced from the test audio signal, to acquire a received test sound signal via the microphone, and to estimate the transmission and playback latency based on the test audio signal and the received test sound signal.